[SOLVED] Belkin F5D7001 Wireless Desktop Card

[sarah_b]

I have spent A LOT time on searching the forums and google searches, looking at and trying info provided in my search for "Belkin". I wish I would have looked better before I purchased this. There were post after post that had problems with this wireless card. I tried some that did not work for me, one I tried and appeared like it did work, but I never got connected with it, so here I am.

I installed ndiswrapper, then:

root@ubuntu:~/driver# ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
Installing bcmwl5
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2

root@ubuntu:~/driver# cd
root@ubuntu:~# ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
bcmwl5 driver present, hardware present

That was the only good news, it looked perfect, rebooted and nothing was detected at all. Below I am posting some commands I used. Can anyone see something that needs to be done to get me connected ? I think I got it correct up to the part of installing the driver, but I don't know how to set it up after that. I really lack experience with wireless and am not real knowledgeable about it. If someone needs more info, please let me know.
[COLOR=Blue]~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
root@ubuntu:~$ modprobe ndiswrapper
(no error, no nothing)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
root@ubuntu:~# dmesg
[4294725.825000] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
root@ubuntu:~# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

sit0 no wireless extensions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
root@ubuntu:~# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:11:11E:02:CD
inet6 addr: fe80::211:11ff:fede:2cd/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST 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)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
root@ubuntu:~# cat /etc/resolv.conf
; generated by NetworkManager, do not edit!
; Use a local caching nameserver controlled by NetworkManager
nameserver 127.0.0.1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
root@ubuntu:~# iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0 Interface doesn't support scanning.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
root@ubuntu:~# ifup wlan0
/etc/network/interfaces:19: duplicate interface
ifup: couldn't read interfaces file "/etc/network/interfaces"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
root@ubuntu:~$ sudo route -n
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth1
0.0.0.0 192.168.1.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/ect/network/interfaces:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# This is a list of hotpluggable network interfaces.
# They will be activated automatically by the hotplug subsystem.
mapping hotplug
script grep
map wlan0

# The primary network interface
iface wlan0 inet dhcp

iface wlan0 inet dhcp

auto wlan0
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am using unbuntu 5.10 but recieved no replies at the ubuntu forums.

thanks, sarah

[dkeav]

EDIT:!! YOU DONT NEED THIS ANYMORE, USE A KERNEL PAST 2.6.16 or if older patch it and you will have native kernel support for the bcm43xx chipset, you will only need the load the firmware

http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/?go=home

[sarah_b]

where did you get your inf file ?

I have tried several locations downloading the inf, also tried the one on the Windows driver CD that was boxed with it. Seen posts that a few people had some success with the one on the CD, others downloaded it from Dell, and many more that had some sucess downloading it from other locations. bcmwl5a.inf was the first one I tried, it showed driver present but not hardware present, I'll try that again though with your link you posted.

[sarah_b]

Whe I run the command "dhcpcd" it tells me there is no such command. Why would this be ?

My files should have a folder "/etc/rc.d" but it does not. Is this ok ?

[dkeav]

well your distro might be using dhclient instead of dhcpcd, or the binary is not in your PATH prehaps /sbin/dhcpcd or /sbin/dhclient, ubuntu is based on debian, so i would imagine it uses the /etc/network/interfaces config file

just for the threads sakes, did that inf file work for your card?

[sarah_b]

no, the bcmwl5a.inf did not make any differance !

[dkeav]

are we sure this card works with any OS let alone linux? if you can find the proper drives for windows, then that would be the proper drives for ndiswrapper

[sarah_b]

are we sure this card works with any OS let alone linux? if you can find the proper drives for windows, then that would be the proper drives for ndiswrapper

Hi dkeav

yes, on this computer I have a dual boot with WinXP and the Belkin wireless works with that. I did try the driver I used in XP, infact after trying yours I put that windows driver from the CD back again. I actually did see some people in my searches where it worked with the WinXP driver and it worked for some that downloaded one from other places.

But all that posting I had seen, this must not be a good Linux wireless, I am about ready to throw it in the trash and purchase either a Linksys or US Robotics, I know they both work in Linux.

[dkeav]

well no they may not, brand is a misnomer as far as support goes

each linksys card and even revisions within a card may use different chipsets, including possibly a belkin chipset, since they really only support windows OS

you should look into cards that have known supported wireless chipsets in linux and preferbly from native drivers provided by the kernel or as kernel modules, rather than through ndiswrapper or similar

examples would be prism* based cards, and atheros based cards

[sarah_b]

examples would be prism* based cards, and atheros based cards

Ok, thanks for the tip, I will remember that.......

[sarah_b]

you should look into cards that have known supported wireless chipsets in linux and preferbly from native drivers provided by the kernel or as kernel modules, rather than through ndiswrapper or similar examples would be prism* based cards, and atheros based cards

When I go to Best Buy, how can I tell if it is a supported wireless chipsets, what do I look for ? I am sure I can not count on the clerks there to know anything about it.......lol

[dkeav]

unfortunatly most manufacturers like to keep this a big secret so they wont say on the box what chipset a card may have, which is a real problem when revisions within a model have different chipsets, like the linksys wpc11v3 vs v4, which was all prism chipsets until v4 then they went to realtek to make more money, knowing full well it was a terrible and unsupported chipset

your best bet is to google around for a specific card or brand you want, and see what chipset they use, and go from there

orinoco tend to be prism based though the newer ones are not

many netgear and dlink cards are prism54 and atheros, the card i favor is a netgear WAG511, its yellow label with a blue bezel, it is atheros based and works quite well in all spectrums using the madwifi drivers from madwifi.sf.net

other than that you will have to do research on your own, possibly go to best buy and scope what they have, write em down and look them up, then decide which one would be best for you

dont forget to use your online resources, often you can get better items without the extortion of best buy, ie give newegg.com a shot

quick froogle for wag511
database of known adapters

[redoscar3]

I recently purchased an Acer notebook containing a Broadcom based wireless card. To get mine to work under Linux (Mepis) it was necessary to use the bcmwl5.inf AND bcmwl5.sys files from the WinXP drivers provided by Acer. I had to make sure both of those files were in the directory where I issued the ndiswrapper -i command. Also for me, the bcmwl5a.inf file was of no use.

It was also necessary for me to pass the parameter acpi=noirq in grub to get the thing to work properly.

My Acer has worked fine in wep mode, but I haven't tried wpa_supplicant for more security because I don't have a wireless access point requiring wpa on my network.

You might give these tips a try.

Red

[herbie]

I've had no trouble with Dlink or XiCom wireless stuff but i use RedHat/Ferdora/Mandriva on most desktops. I know the Broadcom is lame in Windows compared to the Atheros in my Toshiba laptop. Using Ubuntu defualt install, all I have to do is click activate ath0.

Found the Belkin stuff awful. We do lots of LD wireless to home, most users want a home wireless repeater. Encountered 2 Belkins, the USB key couldn't see the AP from two rooms away. The other sprayed interference across several channels and interfered with the feed antenna outside.

[dkeav]

just keep in mind that distro doesnt matter as far as hardware support goes, a distro might ship or allow you to install a precompiled binary for your kernel, but any distro can install that module, as long as you can compile a kernel you can get wireless working no matter the distrobution