bcm43xx wireless card working OK on G4 Mac Mini - EXCEPT for WPA - why?

Hi,

I'm using Debian testing (lenny) and I've just made a complete re-install after upgrading the RAM and hard-drive in my G4 Mac Mini (ie the old PPC-architecture version).

I did a net-install of stable (etch) using the built-in ethernet port and "dist-upgrade"-ed to lenny (for some reason the net install CD I originally tried wouldn't run the partitioner correctly, so I couldn't get started).

Anyway, things look promising. After realising that the "Airport" wireless card uses the bcm43xx driver, I installed the bcm43xx-fwcutter package, Debian's dpkg did the setting up for me and now the wireless card works.

Using a non-secured wireless network set up on my ADSL router/access point, just for testing, my Mac Mini can connect superbly to the internet. However, that's not much use, as I need some security, and as WEP is clearly rubbish, I want to use WPA. So I reverted to making my access point require WPA. Now when I use the GNOME network manager applet-thingy, I can enter all the information I need (ESSID and WPA password), but no connection is made. The applet keeps trying for a minute or two and eventually gives up and tells me I'm disconnected.

In addition, when I run the GNOME network settings program, the wireless interface shows up in the list, and I can see a list of ESSIDs to connect to when I change the properties of the wireless interface. However, when I try to choose the security scheme required, I only have the options of WEP (hex) and WEP (ascii). There is no mention of WPA. I know it should (and can) be there because I still have a knackered old laptop running Ubuntu which lets me do this.

What's going on here? Any ideas gratefully received.

I have installed wpasupplicant , wireless-tools, and obviously bcm43xx-fwcutter has done the job because the wireless card works, just without WPA. I can successfully use Mac OS X on the same hardware to connect to the same WPA-protected network. So I reckon hardware problems are not the cause. And I have used two laptops on the same network that can both connect to the WPA network.

Yeah, that problem is the primary reason we delayed converting our laptop fleet to Ubuntu. It is possible to get it working but its a craps roll getting it working well in my experience. The few times I got it working, I could web pages but was experiencing massive packet loss and the Cisco access points we use would start denying access. This could be an issue with the access points themselves but I've yet to resolve the issue. It was better but still not perfect on my wireless LAN at home though.

This seems to me to be one of the greatest barriers to Ubuntu entering the workplace as there are a TON of Dell laptops that require that particular wireless driver and use WPA. The sooner they get this resolved, the quicker they'll be adopted at the business level. Still not fixed in Gutsy.

I thought that bcm43xx been deprecated, in favor of b43 and b43legacy . http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43

You might try the newer drivers.

Hmm, well it appears to be working, although I'm not sure exactly why.

I tried again to connect using the network-manager-gnome, except this time I chose to specify the encryption method (TKIP) instead of going with "automatic". And it worked.

However, still no option for WPA in the GNOME network settings dialog.

Just hope I can use ifup/down from the command line to connect and disconnect too. I don't like relying on GUI programs exclusively - I always like to know what I'd do if my X-server messes up or if I need to remote login...

PS Debian (PPC at least) definitely uses the bcm43xx by default still. I remember reading the errors in dmesg from bcm34xx complaining that it didn't have the firmware (solved by installing bcm43xx-fwcutter).