Dell Latitude D620 wifi dead

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bobc
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Dell Latitude D620 wifi dead

Post#1 by bobc » 12 Jan 2015, 17:34

I installed to a flashdrive which now appears as sdb1.

But I can't get wifi to work. The computer has a Broadcom 4311 rev 01 chip that usually works with the b43 driver in linux. I have tried 3 times now to blacklist the wl but it doesn't have any effect and it loads it anyway.

i put a file in /mnt/sdb1/rootcopy/etc/modprobe.d/ called wl.conf, and all that's in it is

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blacklist wl
It does look like the blacklist file is there this time, but I found a file called syslog that shows it failing as follows:

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wl driver 6.30.223.248 (r487574) failed with code 21
, but it still shows up in lsmod, so it still appears to be loading.

I had a similar error with slackopup and fixed it by installing a "pet" file and blacklisting wl. The thread is here: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 510#820510

Also, when I try to reboot, it hangs, and I don't know if the changes I make are really being saved or not when I finally give up and cut the power.

Any suggestions to get wifi working and to get it to shutdon or reboot normally would be appreciated...

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Re: Dell Latitude D620 wifi dead

Post#2 by beny » 12 Jan 2015, 17:46

in console lspci tell you if the wifi chip is loaded,and shure that you do not have to put the wifi on with a button ps: you have to use the save changes option in boot if you want to modify something

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Re: Dell Latitude D620 wifi dead

Post#3 by bobc » 12 Jan 2015, 18:07

It shows up in lspci the same as under slackopup as a BCM4311 802.11a/b/g [14e4:4312] (rev 01)

If Irun an

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lsmod | grep 802
the result is:

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cfg80211     1222308   1  wl
rfkill                 8196  3  cfg80211,bluetooth
There is no wifi button that I know of, but I'll look.

PS: there is a switch, but its in the on position
Last edited by bobc on 12 Jan 2015, 18:36, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Dell Latitude D620 wifi dead

Post#4 by beny » 12 Jan 2015, 18:10

lspci show you the hardware in your dell the lsmod show you the kernel modules loaded.
if you have usm package manager try to downloads the wicd software wicd not requires a configuration file so may be useful for you

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Re: Dell Latitude D620 wifi dead

Post#5 by bobc » 12 Jan 2015, 18:55

Thanks for the replies.

I temporarily hard wired the pc to the router

I found the USM and ran all updates, and then tried to search for wicd, but it didn't show it. It did come up with 11 programs to install, so I downloaded and istalled them but still doesn't show wicd.

Is there a command line program that will "just work" to download and install wicd?

thanks :)

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Re: Dell Latitude D620 wifi dead

Post#6 by beny » 12 Jan 2015, 18:59

hi you have to search at http://slackware.cs.utah.edu/pub/slackw ... xtra/wicd/ if you have the 32 bit porteus of course when you have downloaded you can do the porteus package xzm and put in in modules so at boot time you have a ready to use wifi sorry but usm have the wicd package: but seem to old

bobc
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Re: Dell Latitude D620 wifi dead

Post#7 by bobc » 12 Jan 2015, 19:38

Ok, thanks, I think I've got that done. I copied the xzm to /mnt/sdb1/porteus/modules. Hopefully that's where it belongss.

I still don't think thats going to fix it though, because usually I have to get b43 to load, and I don't think that can load if wl is loading, and I haven't been able to remove wl. It says its in use.

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Re: Dell Latitude D620 wifi dead

Post#8 by bobc » 12 Jan 2015, 19:45

Ok, I tried to shutdown again. And after it hung, I waited a bit, powered off, then powered back on and rebooted.

Then I went to kde sysyem settings, network, and it looks much like the wicd-gtk screen, but wireless is greyed out.

Still getting wl in lsmod. Still no b43

Any ideas?

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Re: Dell Latitude D620 wifi dead

Post#9 by fanthom » 12 Jan 2015, 20:04

please try this cheatcode:

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modprobe.blacklist=wl
Please add [Solved] to your thread title if the solution was found.

bobc
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Re: Dell Latitude D620 wifi dead

Post#10 by bobc » 12 Jan 2015, 22:44

That sounds like something that will work. Let me give it a try!

Do you think it will find a b43 driver? If not where would I put the file(s) so it can find it?

Thanks :)

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Re: Dell Latitude D620 wifi dead

Post#11 by bobc » 12 Jan 2015, 23:57

Ok, I got it working, but its not right. I found that if I copy the b43 subdirectory from /mnt/sdb1/porteus/rootcopy/lib/firmware to /lib/firmware after it boots, and then do a

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modprobe b43
That after that, I can go in and configure and connect to the wireless. I don't understand why it didn't work by putting it in /mnt/sdb1/porteus/rootcopy/lib/firmware, but I'm guessing that just putting it there wasn't enough, and that I also needed to do something to get it to load, also?

Can you please tell me how to get it to load without needing to remember how to do it each time? LOL, at worst case I can come back here and look it up if I forget :)

Thanks for helping out. I could tell that last one was going to work...

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Re: Dell Latitude D620 wifi dead

Post#12 by fanthom » 13 Jan 2015, 08:26

Rootcopy should work. If it does not then please create module containing you b43 firmware and the blacklist file.

I guess you have added 'rootcopy=' cheatcode or have another porteus installation somewhere which are confusing init script.
Please add [Solved] to your thread title if the solution was found.

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Re: Dell Latitude D620 wifi dead

Post#13 by bobc » 13 Jan 2015, 14:00

fanthom wrote:Rootcopy should work. If it does not then please create module containing you b43 firmware and the blacklist file.

I guess you have added 'rootcopy=' cheatcode or have another porteus installation somewhere which are confusing init script.
Nope, never heard of it before, and this is my first time trying porteus. But anyway, from that I have something to go on to figure it out.

Thanks a lot for the replies. I'll come back and mark it solved when I get it working...

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Re: Dell Latitude D620 wifi dead

Post#14 by brokenman » 13 Jan 2015, 23:48

Can you please tell me how to get it to load without needing to remember how to do it each time?
Can you supply the output of:

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find /mnt/sdb1/porteus/rootcopy/lib/firmware && cat /var/log/porteus-livedbg
Rootcopy is the last layer to be copied to the live file system during boot so (as fanthom said) it should work. To have it work automatically you can try this:

Open the file /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom_blacklist.conf and change the line that says
blacklist b43
to
blacklist wl

This file is blacklisting your b43 kernel module which may be why it doesn't work after booting.

Now copy this file to your rootcopy folder.

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cp -a --parents /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom_blacklist.conf /mnt/sdb1/porteus/rootcopy
If you still need to modprobe the b43 after booting then add the line (modprobe b43) to your rc.local file and copy it also into rootcopy.

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echo "modprobe b43" >> /etc/rc.d/rc.local
cp -a --parents /etc/rc.d/rc.local /mnt/sdb1/porteus/rootcopy
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Re: Dell Latitude D620 wifi dead

Post#15 by bobc » 14 Jan 2015, 05:58

Too tired to fight it tonight. Its been a couple days worth already. I think the last suggestion there from brokenman is going to "get it", though.

The wifi switch is on. Two reasons I'm sure. 1 is that I found it yesterday and made sure it was on. 2 is that the wifi works under other boot partitions.

Thanks for all the help... I'll have at it again when I'm fresh tomorrow...

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