# wireless issue with dhcp (SOLVED)

## shredluc

alright here is all the info - im working on a dell inspiron 8200, with a dell1450 a/b/g minipci card in it.  I'm using the dell drivers from their site and ndiswrapper 0.11.

Here is some hardware info:

```

 root # lspci

.

.

.

0000:02:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4309 802.11a/b/g (rev 03)

.

root # ndiswrapper -l

Installed ndis drivers:

bcmwl5a driver present, hardware present

root # lsmod

Module                  Size  Used by

ndiswrapper           102416  0 

 root # iwconfig

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"linksys"                <-----seems to be using g

          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: 00:0C:41:D8:2C:6A    <---grabs the ap MAC so has to be recieving.

          Bit Rate:54 Mb/s   Tx-Power:-2147483648 dBm   

          RTS thr:2347 B   Fragment thr:2346 B   

          Encryption key:off

          Power Management:off

          Link Quality:100/100  Signal level:-95 dBm  Noise level:-256 dBm

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

          Tx excessive retries:2  Invalid misc:640   Missed beacon:0

 

root # iwlist wlan0 scan

wlan0     Scan completed :

          Cell 01 - Address: 00:0C:41:D8:2C:6A

                    ESSID:"linksys"

                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11b                         <----looks like the AP is using b

                    Mode:Managed

                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)

                    Quality:0/100  Signal level:-93 dBm  Noise level:-256 dBm

                    Encryption key:off

                    Bit Rate:1 Mb/s

                    Bit Rate:2 Mb/s

                    Bit Rate:5.5 Mb/s

                    Bit Rate:11 Mb/s

                    Bit Rate:18 Mb/s

                    Bit Rate:24 Mb/s

                    Bit Rate:36 Mb/s

                    Bit Rate:54 Mb/s

                    Bit Rate:6 Mb/s

                    Bit Rate:9 Mb/s

                    Bit Rate:12 Mb/s

                    Bit Rate:48 Mb/s

                    Extra:bcn_int=100

                    Extra:atim=0

root # iwpriv 

lo        no private ioctls.

eth0      no private ioctls.

wlan0     Available private ioctl :

          setwpa           (8BE1) : set   1 int   & get   0      

          setkey           (8BE2) : set   1 int   & get   0      

          associate        (8BE3) : set   1 int   & get   0      

          disassociate     (8BE4) : set   1 int   & get   0      

          drop_unencrypted (8BE5) : set   1 int   & get   0      

          countermeaures   (8BE6) : set   1 int   & get   0      

          deauthenticate   (8BE7) : set   1 int   & get   0      

          auth_alg         (8BE8) : set   1 int   & get   0      

          ndis_reset       (8BF0) : set   0       & get   0      

          power_profile    (8BF1) : set   1 int   & get   0   

root # ifconfig 

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:08:74:04:C4:F6  

          inet addr:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx  Bcast:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx  Mask:255.255.255.0

          UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:2990 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:1 frame:0

          TX packets:501 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 

          RX bytes:850308 (830.3 Kb)  TX bytes:52855 (51.6 Kb)

          Interrupt:11 Base address:0xec80 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  

          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0

          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1

          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 

          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:11:F5:0E:AE:15  

          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1

          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 

          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

          Interrupt:11 Memory:f8ffc000-f8ffdfff 

root# dhcpcd wlan0  <------ this is where it breaks down. (it just times out to the prompt)

 root # tail /var/log/messages 

.

.Nov 16 11:51:39 Bxxxxx ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:02:03.0[A] -> GSI 11 (level, low) ->IRQ 11

Nov 16 11:51:39 Bxxxxx ndiswrapper: using irq 11

Nov 16 11:51:40 Bxxxxx wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:11:f5:0e:ae:15 using driver bcmwl5a

Nov 16 11:51:40 Bxxxxx wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP, WPA with TKIP, AES/CCMP

Nov 16 11:51:40 Bxxxxx ndiswrapper: driver bcmwl5a (Broadcom,04/09/2004, 3.40.69.0) added

Nov 16 12:01:19 Bxxxxx dhcpcd[7491]: timed out waiting for a valid DHCP server response

```

It seems to me that the card is configured correctly, i can scan for AP's and get their MAC's, but cannot get an IP using DHCP.  Tried configuring one manually, but no dice there either.  It seems that the card is looking for a type g netowrk, while the AP is broadcasting b.  I'm not sure how to make it switch over.  Any other suggestions as to where the problem could lie would be very helpful.  Thanks all and keep up the good work.

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## xanderhsia

I have an ipw2200 (Centrino wireless) rather than the Dell, but other than that, my symptoms are exactly the same. I can see nearby APs, scan them, etc, but get a timeout in my system logs from dhcpcd. I did get it to connect once by resetting my wireless router. But if I restart net.eth1 (wireless) after that initial connect, it just goes back to timing out on the dhcp request. So, the main question I have is, is it my wireless router (D-Link 614+) causing the problem, or the configuration of wireless networking on my laptop?  Anybody else see this?

I am using the updated baselayout with Uberlord's new wireless networking scripts.  I actually did not bother to change any of the defaults in them because they setup everything fine out of the box/emerge.

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## TheCoop

is the dhcp server configured correctly? configured keys, mac addrs etc on the ap? whats the output of dhcpcd -d wlan0?

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## shredluc

xanderhsia:

It turns out the D-Link router is crap.  Changed the router, and got it up on the first try.  The d-Link never worked.

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## xanderhsia

shredluc:

Thanks for the feedback. I did get it to finally hookup, but only intermittently. Looks like I'm headed out to get a new wireless router then. Any word on netlink vs. linksys vs. netgear?

TheCoop:

Yeah, I got everything configured right, even with wep.  It'll connect once every so often, otherwise dhcpcd will just timeout

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## blais

hi

i'm having the SAME problem, can scan the networks fine but dhcpcd timeout.

i tried so many things at this point, i'm helpless... don't know what to do.

i think the network scripts that come with gentoo do too much filtering.  i SHOULD be able to see it list all the networks that I see when i do iwlist eth1 scan. 

i'm really helpless.. going to lots of cafes i can scan available networks but i can't connect anywhere.  i'm even having problems connecting to my wrt54gs 3 meters from me.  it works, "sometimes", but sometimes it just won't get a dhcp address.  i checked the router configuration.  i really don't know what to do.

i tried the linuxant driverloader.  same problem.

ndiswrapper freezes my box dead (a thiknpad T42)

anyone got ideas where i could look next?

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## 0perations

i have ew-7106pc too

same problem

i managed to get it to work in the old days when i used debian

i really look forward to the posted solution

can someone try this ?

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## iainvt

dhcpcd -d wlan0 gives me a mac address then times out?? I have a brand new netgear wireless router, even linspire picked it all up first time, (my wife uses it)

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