Wireless BT Home hub & Linux

Does anyone have any experience with this? Briefly, I switched to BT Broadband as they were offering a great deal PLUS a free Home hub router. This is fantastic (wirelessly) using Vista - I have dual boot - likewise wired using Ubuntu. But I cannot get it working wirelessly using Ubuntu.

Sadly the BT helpline (in Bangalore, or wherever) merely shrugs and says "we do not support Linux". Meantime I have gone back to my trusty Netgear router, but would like to use the Home hub if possible.

Any tips?

 

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Is it failing to find the network, or connect to it?

 

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Thanks for the reply. Yes, the OS "sees" the connection, but refuses to connect without giving a reason

 

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I'm making a guess from a quick look at BT Total Broadband site...
It looks like the device uses 802.11n as its protocol. Linux so far does not support n. If you can change the device to broadcast in 802.11g you shouldn't have a problem.

 

To my knowledge, BT Homehub's will be able to handle b/g and the new n.

The hub itself shouldn't be the problem, as technically anything that can connect via the right frequency, using the right channel and cryptkey should be able to connect as long as it's using the right cryptology This is usually WPA/PSK or WPA2/PSK and usually TKIP. (That's tunnelled protocol and encryption type)

What information you haven't given is likely the more important information. The Ubuntu version and any information on the Wifi card you are using. (If you haven't put the wifi card in yourself, then the make and computer model is likely the best way to find it out, otherwise you might be left with either having to take a peak inside the cover or using a diagnostics tool inside your Vista install to work out what it says your card is)

With that information we can check to see if online someone has had the same problem with that card and Ubuntu and if they have written a step by step solution.

Failing that, it's mentioned somewhere within the Ubuntu discussions that older version sometimes needed the wifi cards to be configured manually. So you might well have to write in the SSID, Pick the right encryption type, place in a MAC address, and point at the Gateway or DNS server being the Homehub to get it to work.

 

Aaargh, I knew it! I am once again guilty of asking a question whose answer I don't understand.

OK. I am working on a Toshiba series P300 laptop. I have no idea how to find what wi-fi card I am using, or even what sort of name it might have.

Second it seems that HomeHub 2 uses 8011.n/g protocol, though I don't really know what that means.

Third my OS is Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

Fourth I repeat. Wireless connection works brilliantly using Vista, as does wired using Ubuntu, so I doubt there is a hardware problem. Although Ubuntu sees the wireless connection (actually several in my range) it stubbornly refuses to connect.

Ah well, thanks for trying you two

 

In the case of Ubuntu we'd likely require you to output two things (The driver required is iwlagn for the intel 4965AGN wifi.):

Open a terminal and type:

Copy the output to here.

Once you've done that, type in to terminal:

Between those two outputs it should be possible to see what is and isn't loaded.

It's suggested in the Ubuntu documentation [link] that this particular device should be installed right off the bat. This basically leaves it to a WPA or WEP configuration error.

Basically under unbuntu your laptop isn't talking to your router, it's either tongue-tied (the protocol isn't correct or not keyphrased correctly) or it's lost it's voice altogether (Your wifi isn't turning on.) We shall attempt to remedy it.

 

Fukkit man, are you sure? it's a monster and all gibberish to me. Here goes.....

Code:

ben@linux-laptop:~$ sudo lsmod
[sudo] password for ben: 
Module                  Size  Used by
snd_hda_codec_conexant    22641  1 
snd_hda_intel          22037  1 
snd_hda_codec          74201  2 snd_hda_codec_conexant,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep               5412  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm_oss            35308  0 
snd_mixer_oss          13746  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                70694  3 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_dummy           1338  0 
fbcon                  35102  71 
tileblit                2031  1 fbcon
font                    7557  1 fbcon
bitblit                 4707  1 fbcon
softcursor              1189  1 bitblit
arc4                    1153  2 
vga16fb                11385  0 
vgastate                8961  1 vga16fb
snd_seq_oss            26722  0 
snd_seq_midi            4557  0 
snd_rawmidi            19056  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event      6003  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                47263  6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
ath9k                 306138  0 
snd_timer              19098  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device          5700  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
mac80211              205402  1 ath9k
sdhci_pci               5470  0 
i915                  287490  3 
sdhci                  15462  1 sdhci_pci
binfmt_misc             6587  1 
ppdev                   5259  0 
drm_kms_helper         29329  1 i915
snd                    54180  14 snd_hda_codec_conexant,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
ath                     7611  1 ath9k
soundcore               6620  1 snd
snd_page_alloc          7076  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
cfg80211              126528  3 ath9k,mac80211,ath
uvcvideo               57310  0 
drm                   162345  4 i915,drm_kms_helper
videodev               34361  1 uvcvideo
v4l1_compat            13251  2 uvcvideo,videodev
i2c_algo_bit            5028  1 i915
intel_agp              24375  2 i915
agpgart                31724  2 drm,intel_agp
joydev                  8740  0 
led_class               2864  2 ath9k,sdhci
psmouse                63245  0 
serio_raw               3978  0 
lp                      7028  0 
parport                32635  2 ppdev,lp
video                  17375  1 i915
output                  1871  1 video
usbhid                 36110  0 
hid                    67096  1 usbhid
ohci1394               26950  0 
ieee1394               81181  1 ohci1394
ahci                   32200  3 
sky2                   40807  0 
ben@linux-laptop:~$ 

Once you've done that, type in to terminal:

Again, are you sure? Here....

Code:

ben@linux-laptop:~$ sudo ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:23:8b:ab:5d:b9  
          inet addr:192.168.1.65  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::223:8bff:feab:5db9/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:12897 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:12786 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:11208562 (11.2 MB)  TX bytes:2370744 (2.3 MB)
          Interrupt:17 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:480 (480.0 B)  TX bytes:480 (480.0 B)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:24:2c:43:ea:46  
          inet addr:10.152.196.83  Bcast:10.152.196.87  Mask:255.255.255.248
          inet6 addr: fe80::224:2cff:fe43:ea46/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:126 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:568 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:19382 (19.3 KB)  TX bytes:134264 (134.2 KB)

ben@linux-laptop:~$ 

I cannot say how grateful I am for your trouble. I am a complete baby at this sort of stuff!

PS I trust that none of the above can be used to compromise my computer?

 

Nothing currently compromises your computer, but there is one last command you can do to aid in diagnosing (although I can't see the drivers loaded for the device, so that's a big clue)

try:

It should output an ESSID entry and the MAC but you should be able to reconfigure them if you are extremely security conscious. (In honesty if you don't hide your HomeHub ID it won't be anything your neighbours don't know anyway)

In the meantime I'm trying to piece together a solution for you.

 

Try this, in the terminal. What it attempts todo is first unload then load the Intel Wireless LAN module into the kernel. It might fail unloading considering it's not their to begin with, but keep an eye for failures when loading.:

If all is well then try the iwconfig command.

 

No, all is not well with the modprobe commands: I get FATAL.

Plus the iwconfig relpy seems to have the wrong ESSID. Shit!

So as my time on this planet is limited, as is yours, I seem to have these alternatives:

If I want to use Linux at home, stay wired. I am cool with that. If I insist in going wireless, use Vista. I am lukewarm with that.

Unless you want to spend the rest of your life sorting this out for me, which I strongly doubt, those will have to be my options.

Incidentally, BT Broadband, which I believe is available worldwide, has a very nice feature: Subscribers can opt-in (for free) to making a small slice of their band-width available to "roamers" provided only they have a BT account and password. It's called "BT FON" but only available to Vista gurks

I think this is a fantastic piece bit of forward thinking on BT's part in trying to build a worldwide connected community. Hurrah for them, in spite of the fact they are in business for the bucks at the end of the day.

And no, I am not and have never been a BT employee