Ok, I've read on various places, that I will not be able to use the wireless stuff on my wrt54gl with the 2.6 kernel. However I believe I've also read somewhere, that by now I can get it working when I install some special packages. Unfortunately I cannot find that page again. My Webif (x-wrt) asked me to install a package (NAS or so?) to have WPA2-PSK work. I did that. I configured my wireless network, but I cannot connect to it. Though I activated ESSID broadcast I cannot find my network, even if I'm right beside the box. The WLAN LED on the router isn't flashing either.

Is there "native" wireless supprt in 8.09 with 2.6 kernel? Is there support for it at all? Have I done something wrong?

Edit: Of course I have a wRt54gl, sorry.

(Last edited by dev0 on 4 Mar 2009, 18:22)

I do believe that the nas package is for the brcm with a 2.4 kernel. What you're looking for is wpa_supplicant and hostapd.

You need at least kmod-b43 and hostapd-mini (they should be included in the 2.6 image now, but I'm not sure). But you should not use 8.09 for that, if you want your wireless to be usable, use a snapshot or build it for yourself from trunk.

Don't use X-Wrt. Flash Kamikaze 8.09 from downloads.openwrt.org with the LuCI WebUI.

Then install kmod-b43 and hostapd packages if you are using brcm47xx (= 2.6 Kernel).

And brain0 is right. Maybe b43 is more stable if you build current trunk by yourself.

(Last edited by Yanira on 4 Mar 2009, 21:14)

Thank you for your replies.

As suggested I got the "clean" OpenWRT without X-WRT and flashed it onto the router. hostapd-mini and kmod-b43 where preinstalled with the image.
Still, with ESSID broadcast to on, I cannot find the network from my laptop.
I wanted to try to install the none-mini hostapd, but apparently there's not enough space left for opkg to install hostapd (and it's dependecies, eg openssl).

I did not try to build the source myself yet, however, I found out, that when I run wifi on my shell I get following output:

When I run ifconfig it doesnt show me a wl0 device.
/etc/config/wireless includes following:

Anyone any suggestions on why there's no wl0 device? Would building the source myself help me? Would hostapd (non-mini) help me? Will eventually switching back to 2.4 kernel help me?

Remove hostapd-mini and try with hostapd package. And after you have installed hostapd run: rm -rf /etc/config/wireless; wifi detect > /etc/config/wireless

(Last edited by Yanira on 5 Mar 2009, 14:36)

The wifi device is called wlan0, not wl0 for the b43 driver.

jow: I just figured that out aswell, when iwconfig showed me a wlan0 interface instead of the expected wl0.

I removed the wrong /etc/config/wireless file and ran wifi detect. My WLAN runs smoothly now. Thanks alot for your help and advice everybody!

I thought so too, but it didn't run smoothly for long! The b43 driver based on 2.6.25 in 8.09 is quite old and has problems with stability. The 2.6.28 version works much better.

I just bought a WGT54GL(EU) v1.1, and would like to install openwrt on it. ;-)
1) Should I choose Kamikaze 8.09 ?
2) On page http://wiki.openwrt.org/OpenWrtDocs/Har … ys/WRT54GL , in Installation paragraph, it says that I should install version 2.4 kernel before I attempt to install a 2.6, in order to be able to set nvram parameters.  But I' am not sure which one is the file for the version 2.4 kernel. In folder http://downloads.openwrt.org/kamikaze/8.09/brcm-2.4/ , I can see a file openwrt-brcm-2.4-squashfs.trx, is that the one I should upgrade to, first?
I need your help as I am not new in linux (I am a gentoo user),  but I am new to embedded and openwrt.
Thanks. ;-)

aggman: actually, all the files in brcm-2.4 are the same image, except the .bin files have an additional header to make the gui of the device recognize it as a valid firmware upgrade. So, if you're upgrading from the original linksys firmware, you should use "openwrt-wrt54g-squashfs.bin" under brcm-2.4. Also, you might wanna stick with 2.4 for now, or upgrade to a recent snapshot, because the broadcom driver in the 2.6 version of 8.09 is unstable.

Yes, I' m upgrading from the original linksys firmware, so, you're saying I should download http://downloads.openwrt.org/kamikaze/8 … uashfs.bin ?
Is that the version 2.4 kernel, the instructions talk about?
I suppose my wireless chipset is Broadcom BCM43xx as the instructions page says, and according to the note there, and as you suggested, I' ll stick with 2.4 for now, until the broadcom driver in 2.6 version of 8.09 becomes stable.
(btw, the 2.6 one which one/where is it? ...just curious).
Thanks deaday ;-)

That's right, that is the one you need. The 2.6 images are here: brcm47xx

Gentoo rocks BTW ;-)

OK, I' ll try it maybe tomorrow if I have time.
About the 2.6 images, how do you know they are in brcm47xx?
I' m wondering, because the WRT54GL's chipset is supposed to be BCM43xx, not BCM47xx, right?

Yea, gentoo rocks ! ;-)

The WRT54GL chipset is actually BCM5352, which is code compatible with the older BCM47xx (WRT54G v3.x and older). That's why there's no need for a separate target. BCM43xx is the wireless chip itself. Anyway, trust me, bcm47xx works on WRT54GL

OK !. That's info I could not have found too quickly on my own !
Thanks again. :-)

It is just an enquiry on 2.6 kernel usage and Broadcom 43XX chipset to crack WEP and WPA encryption of wifi networks.

You know the aircrack team issued a new version aircrack-ng 1.0 rc3 a few weeks ago. I have an intention to run the aircrack-ng application on my wrt54gl to crack some WEP and WPA encription based wifi networks. To reach my goal I need to accomplish packet-injection of the wifi traffic. To accomlish packet-injection to the network traffic I have to use additionally the b43 driver.

My exact idea regarding to the software architecture is that the WRT54GL will sniff the wifi traffic, run the aircrack-ng server application plus send the packets to a laptop which will run the aircrack-ng client application. The crack will be done on the laptop.

The chipset what the wifi router contains is Broadcom BCM5352, which is exactly the Broadcom 4318 with 802.11 PHY.

The aircrack-ng application needs at leat 2.6.26 linux kernel. The last issued and stable kernel what OpenWrt is suggest is  2.4. What would you say if I ask you on the 2.6 kernel based openwrt firmware publication? Please suggest me a solution. Every piece of information is well appreciated. Thank you for your effort.