# Another "my wifi doesn't work" thread.

## Locosway

I've spent the better part of two days working on trying to get my wifi working. It works in every other distro I've used, so it must be something I'm doing completely wrong. Any help would be very much appreciated as I would like to stay on Gentoo and not go back to buggy Ubuntu, or AURch.

Dell M5010 standard POS.

```

moniker ~ # lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS880 Host Bridge

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Dell Device 9602

00:04.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780/RS880 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 0)

00:05.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780/RS880 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 1)

00:11.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 40)

00:12.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller

00:12.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller

00:13.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller

00:13.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller

00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 41)

00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)

00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 LPC host controller (rev 40)

00:14.4 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge (rev 40)

00:16.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller

00:16.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller

00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor HyperTransport Configuration

00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Address Map

00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor DRAM Controller

00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Miscellaneous Control

00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Link Control

01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RS880M [Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series]

01:05.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RS880 HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 4200 Series]

[b]04:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)[/b]

05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 02)

moniker ~ # lsmod

Module                  Size  Used by

ipv6                  228833  28 

cfg80211              140884  0 

rfkill                 13300  1 cfg80211

radeon                634160  1 

ttm                    46060  1 radeon

drm_kms_helper         21576  1 radeon

video                  10959  0 

ac                      3081  0 

joydev                  8695  0 

r8169                  40558  0 

i2c_piix4               7736  0 

battery                10723  0 

button                  4247  0 

moniker ~ # uname -a

Linux moniker 3.2.12-gentoo #9 SMP PREEMPT Wed May 30 10:43:55 PDT 2012 x86_64 AMD Phenom(tm) II N850 Triple-Core Processor AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

moniker ~ # iwconfig

lo        no wireless extensions.

tunl0     no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

```

I've tried the b43 driver and the wl driver. I've had them both loaded (at different times) and iwconfig still said there was no wireless extensions on my devices. I'm using NetworkManager in Gnome2 for my network config and it doesn't pickup my wireless either. I understand right now I have no wifi modules loaded, but as you can see I've compiled 9 times trying various modules.

----------

## Ant P.

Try the brcmsmac driver.

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## Locosway

 *Ant P. wrote:*   

> Try the brcmsmac driver.

 

Would you happen to know where this is built from, as I can't seem to find it...

```

  INSTALL drivers/net/wireless/b43/b43.ko

  INSTALL drivers/net/wireless/b43legacy/b43legacy.ko

  INSTALL drivers/net/wireless/brcm80211/brcmfmac/brcmfmac.ko

  INSTALL drivers/net/wireless/brcm80211/brcmutil/brcmutil.ko

```

----------

## Gusar

Activate bcma support in the kernel config, then brcmsmac will appear in the Wireless LAN section. You also need firmware, so install the linux-firmware package.

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## Locosway

 *Gusar wrote:*   

> Activate bcma support in the kernel config, then brcmsmac will appear in the Wireless LAN section. You also need firmware, so install the linux-firmware package.

 

Going through the source it looks like it's supposed to be at: drivers/staging/brcm80211/

But it's not there when I do a menuconfig. I know in 3.3+ it's supposed to be moved from staging, but I'm running 3.2, so I'm a bit confused.

----------

## Gusar

Oh, you're on 3.2 (side note: why does Gentoo use such old kernels? 3.4 is out ffs). Well, then you need to disable bcma for brcmsmac to appear.

----------

## Locosway

 *Gusar wrote:*   

> Oh, you're on 3.2 (side note: why does Gentoo use such old kernels? 3.4 is out ffs). Well, then you need to disable bcma for brcmsmac to appear.

 

And that's exactly what it was...

```

moniker ~ # lsmod

Module                  Size  Used by

radeon                634160  1 

ttm                    46060  1 radeon

drm_kms_helper         21576  1 radeon

arc4                    1274  2 

brcmsmac              475661  0 

mac80211              158069  1 brcmsmac

brcmutil                2985  1 brcmsmac

cfg80211              140884  2 brcmsmac,mac80211

video                  10959  0 

dell_laptop             8228  0 

joydev                  8695  0 

r8169                  40558  0 

rfkill                 13300  2 cfg80211,dell_laptop

crc8                    1050  1 brcmsmac

button                  4247  0 

i2c_piix4               7736  0 

ac                      3081  0 

battery                10723  0 

cordic                   937  1 brcmsmac

moniker ~ # iwconfig

lo        no wireless extensions.

tunl0     no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"Ryman"  

          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: 1C:C6:3C:21:1E:00   

          Bit Rate=1 Mb/s   Tx-Power=19 dBm   

          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off

          Encryption key:off

          Power Management:off

          Link Quality=70/70  Signal level=-31 dBm  

          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0

          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:8   Missed beacon:0

eth0      no wireless extensions.

```

Thanks for the help everyone!

----------

