[ndiswrapper BCM4312] cannot connect to any router with any encryption

[Alberto Pérez Murado]

Hi all,

I have a problem with WPA2 wireless networks: these networks are NOT detected and NOT found with Network-Manager and Wicd.
No problems for WPA networks or WEP networks.

It happens in Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) 64 bits. My wireless card is BCM4312. Same problem even after installing driver through ndiswrapper.

Could anybody help on it?

Thanks and regards.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
CRDA: Error: command ['iw', 'reg', 'get'] failed with exit code 1: nl80211 not found.
Date: Wed Nov 4 15:06:12 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/nm-applet
IfupdownConfig:
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027.1)
InterestingModules: ndiswrapper
IpRoute:
 192.168.10.0/24 dev wlan0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.10.223 metric 2
 169.254.0.0/16 dev wlan0 scope link metric 1000
 default via 192.168.10.1 dev wlan0 proto static
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
Package: network-manager-gnome 0.8~a~git.20091014t134532.4033e62-0ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=es_ES.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
RfKill:

SourcePackage: network-manager-applet
Tags: driver-ndiswrapper
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic x86_64

[Andrey Barrientos M. (cpoliticas2005)]

I have the same problem as Alberto, but I'm using a 32 bit Kubuntu Karmic 9.10 with the 2.6.31-14-generic kernel. The lspci command shows I'm using an Atheros 2413 wireless modem and I'm using the ath5k module.

The problem is I'm using a WPA2 Personal-encrypted connection with the broadcasting Essid disabled (hidden essid) and it isn't detecting the connection (no connection at all). I tried to discover the network with "sudo iwlist scan", but had no success, but it discovers neighbor connections and even shows my belkin54g router, but can't connect to the wpa2 connection. Prior to Jaunty distro the laptop connected without any problem but after Jaunty it didn't work at all. I updated to Karmic recently and after several attempts and follow some guides, it still shows the above commented problem.

I would like to give you more data about this but unfortunately I don't know which one more could it be necessary to solve this. If you are so kind to tell me what can I do to give you the required information in order to diagnose the problem, I will post it gladly.

Thank you very much in advance to any help given in this subject and for your very nice work with the Ubuntu distros.

My best regards.

[Alberto Pérez Murado (partisan0)]

Hi Andrey!

I read something about your problem: since I read in other bugs it seems it happens with SHORT WPA2 keys. If you enlarge your key maybe you will be able to detect the WPA2.

Try to unhide your ESSID, if your computer doesn't detect the WPA2 wifi then your problem is the same than mine, if not then your problem is the one I described before.

I hope this helps.

[Alberto Pérez Murado (partisan0)]

Ok, my problem wasn't the WPA2 encryption. I thought that because I have 2 routers and the WPA2 wifi wasn't detected and the WPA wifi was detected.
I tried to change from WPA2 to WPA but problem perssisted. After that I tried to change the channel (I had it configured to channel 13) and... bingo! Channels 12, 13 and 14 aren't detected by any wifi client in Ubuntu Karmic Koala (9.10) x64 for BCM4312 wifi card.

Solution: developping a new driver for this card or using a lower channel (from 1 to 11).

[Alberto Pérez Murado (partisan0)]

Finally, not solved!!! :P

I am unable to connect via wifi now. I receive this message: "connection failed: it was not possible to connect to wireless router". Since I was unable to connect to WEP, WPA and WPA2 networks (I have 2 routers, one with WPA2 encryption and the other one with 2 wifis: one WPA and the other one is open) I tried with an open network and it connected.
The problem now is that I can't connect to any other wifi network since I received the message I wrote before. If I try to connect to another wifi connection I see in Wicd that it is still trying to connect to the last successful connection and it doesn't attempt to connect to the specified wifi network!!!!!

OS: Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) x64
Network clients: Wicd and network-manager
Wireless card: BCM4312 (Broadcom)

Any idea? Thanks!

[Pheros (pheros3)]

I'm having a somewhat similar problem. Karmic cannot connect to a wireless router with WPA2 security (wireless card is an Intel 5100AGN). I'm using the same password on the router for the WPA2 that I used under Hardy without issue. When I changed the router over to WPA (still the same password) it connects without a problem.

I'm also running Karmic 9.10 (2.6.31-14, x64).

[Panagiotis Ligopsychakis (panligo)]

I also have a similar problem. I cannot connect to any wireless network protected or not!! Network manger asks the wep key, i type it, tries to connect and in a few seconds asks for the key again! It also asks for the key even I have disabled the key security from my router! (free wireless)
The connection with Ethernet works fine thought....
Any ideas? Is there something that i should post here for more info?

[VestniK (vestnik)]

I have the same issue as Panagiotis Ligopsychakis

I'm unable to connect to WPA2, WEP, and not encripted WiFi with network-manager. I am able to connect to my router after I switching off encription only using iwconfig manually.

I've tried to connect to WPA2/PSK encripted network both using network manager and running wpa_supplicant with manually written wpa_suplicant.conf. In both cases I was able to obtain IP via DHCP and open one URL in browser. After it connection was lost. NetworkManager shows that everything OK. but pinging any server including router shows "Destination network is unreachable" error message.

Here is wpa_supplicant log attached to my comment.

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

Hi Alberto, thanks for reporting this and taking the time to make Ubuntu better.

There's a lot of information and corrections in this report. Could you please clarify exactly what the problem is now? You can connect to only unsecured wireless? No matter what the router? You can see the networks listed?

Also, you can only use your card through ndiswrapper I assume?

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

This is not an applet bug, invalidating upstream task.

[Alberto Pérez Murado (partisan0)]

"This is not an applet bug" ---> Ok, if you know this is NOT an applet bug you know what the problem is. Could you please tell it to me? Thanks :)

[Alberto Pérez Murado (partisan0)]

After some updates I was able to detect all the networks but it doesn't connect to all of them (even MY wifis). Same problem at university.
I am not sure why is it but maybe the problem is not with the Network Manager because I had that problem with Wicd too.

I tried with new clean installations and problem perssisted. After updates (since I told before) I was able to connect to some networks. :(

[Tony Espy (awe)]

@ Alberto

The main problem is that you have a Broadcom Wi-Fi card which is poorly supported under Linux.

Using ndiswrapper is a hack which allows you to use a Windows driver on Linux. As such, it's not really supported.

Your best bet is to try the Broadcom STA driver which can be enabled via the Hardware Drivers tool ( System : Administration : Hardware Drivers ). If you're still having problems, there's not much more that can be done as the STA driver is a hybrid closed-source driver.

Hopefully in the future, the B43 driver ( an open-source driver for Broadcom ) will continue to improve and result in a reliable replacement for the STA driver.

[Alberto Pérez Murado (partisan0)]

Ok tony, thanks for the information!!!! I am using that driver (Broadcom STA driver) because with the Windows driver I was unable to connect to any network. The problems I am having currently are with Broadcom STA driver but I have less problems than using other drivers (even Windows driver).

Thanks again for your information!! It was really helpful.

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

Hi Alberto, I meant before that it's in the underlying network-manager and on the applet (which just controls n-m). So this bug report is actually for the proprietary driver and not ndiswrapper? If so, I'm afraid I'll have to close this bug report since proprietary drivers cannot be improved by Ubuntu.

[Alberto Pérez Murado (partisan0)]

Yes David, no problem for that!!! The problem was only that I didn't know where was the problem but I know it after Tony explanation :).

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

Alright, thanks for the info. Closing since it's a proprietary driver issue.

There's some contact info for Broadcom on <http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php> if you're interested, fyi.