[clue-tech] broadcom wireless help anyone?

[Jeff Falgout]

On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 8:35 PM, David L. Anselmi <anselmi at anselmi.us> wrote:
> Collins Richey wrote:
>>
>> I just revived an older laptop (hp ze4600) with builtin broadcom (ie
>> crap) wireless. Even after numerous defrags, it was impossible to
>> resize the xp ntfs, so I just loaded linux - first sidux then current
>> ubuntu. Both use the latest debian approach b43-fwcutter and b43legacy
>> kernel module for the BCM4306 ver 02 card. Also tried ndiswrapper, but
>> no joy there either.
>
> I've done this and it just worked.  b43-fwcutter handles all the firmware
> steps at install.
>
>> After massive googling, I'm pretty sure this wireless chip is just
>> plain unusable on linux.
>
> Since http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43 says it's supported I
> think you're wrong.  But the card may be broken or you might be getting
> tripped up by the Ubuntu network manager puzzle.
>
> I assume you're using a kernel that supports b43.  This page has some
> troubleshooting: http://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx
>
> Why do you think b43legacy doesn't work?

I've been down the bcm43xx road a ton - $work get's Dell laptops with
the Broadcom wireless nic.

I've had Ubuntu working with it - I ditched the network manager
applets and went command line.

iwconfig
iwlist

are your friends here along with /var/log/messages

#iwlist wlan0 scanning

is very helpful to me.

Also make sure the module is loaded - lsmod | grep bcm

I've fought openSuSE 10.3, 11.0 with it and finally 11.1 works well

Jeff