WiFi - is there anyway to get it working?

[bearhntr]

Before I get slammed, I know it is not really recommended. -- I would like to understand why I cannot see it.

Not super LINUX savvy, but know enough to fumble through and Google is my friend "sometimes" - lol

In the SHELL for Proxmox 8.13 I can see this in 'dmesg' -- but I cannot seem to get a WLAN or WIFI interface.

[ 14.944807] b43-phy0: Broadcom 43228 WLAN found (core revision 30)
[ 14.945227] b43-phy0: Found PHY: Analog 9, Type 4 (N), Revision 16
[ 14.945237] b43-phy0: Found Radio: Manuf 0x17F, ID 0x2057, Revision 9, Version 1
[ 14.945716] Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PNL ]
[ 14.957913] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
[ 14.996234] b43 bcma0:1 wlp2s0b1: renamed from wlan0

I also tried to get more infromation with this command:

root@pve02:~# journalctl | grep -i "wireless\|wifi"
Jan 07 12:36:34 pve02 kernel: b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware for this driver version. Please carefully read all instructions on this website.

Any ideas how I can get it working?

 

[Dunuin]

See: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/WLAN

In short:
Wifi APs usually will drop packets that are not coming from the MAC that authentificated with the AP. So all packets from the VMs and LXCs will be dropped as the virtual NICs got their own MACs.
So the workaround is to turn the PVE host into a router doing NAT so all outgoing packets are coming from the same MAC of the PVE host.

 

[bearhntr]

See: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/WLAN

In short:
Wifi APs usually will drop packets that are not coming from the MAC that authentificated with the AP. So all packets from the VMs and LXCs will be dropped as the virtual NICs got their own MACs.
So the workaround is to turn the PVE host into a router doing NAT so all outgoing packets are coming from the same MAC of the PVE host.

I appreciate the link -- I had already looked at that. The issue was that the BMC43228 card was not even recognized by Proxmox (even though it said it knew what it was). I tried everything. I finally gave up and replaced the Broadcom card with an older INTEL WiFi card (that only does 5G up to 300mbps. When I swapped it out and rebooted - the card was seen.

I even attempted with the BCM card to install Deb 12.4.0 and it was throwing up a message that it needed firmware. I downloaded the B43 package and extracted it a FAT formatted 1GB USB, and it even though it was in the \firmware folder in the root of the drive, it would not use the files.

Looks like for now I have to use the INTEL card.

Thanks for the assist.

 

[bearhntr]

Well - getting further....the INTEL card is detected, but still cannot seem to 'bring it UP'.

 

[bearhntr]

UPDATE:

Got it working - gotta do some testing now.

I use the URL provided above [ https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi/HowToUse ]

and this section: Using ifupdown and wpasupplicant
I had to insall these 3 from the SHELL:
wpasupplicant -- apt-get install wpasupplicant
iw -- apt-get install iw
wireless-tools -- apt-get install wirelesstools

Once I configured the /etc/network/interfaces with my Interface, ESSID and PASSWORD -- it connected to WiFi and got an IP address.



Now to do some playing and see if I can get it all to start up automagically

 

[Dunuin]

And don't forget to test VM/LXC internet connectivity as you can't add a wifi interface to a bridge (or better you can but the AP will ignore the bridged virtual NICs).

 

[bearhntr]

Well DAMN!!! Apparently I cannot use the WiFi to access the PVE Console. That was my ultimate goal.

 

[bearhntr]

Well - I am hoping that I can use the WiFi card in a VM (PCI Passthru) -- does not look like I can use it for accessing the dashboard.