Airport Extreme Install on Powerbook G4 12"

English Network/Internet
1

Hi all, new Suse user here. Tried Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian and netBSD before deciding on OpenSuse.

Anyway, I didn’t really need to start a new thread for this because it is not a question, but I want to put all the information here so perhaps if a person searches the forums, they will get the answer right away…or at least faster than I managed.

My computer is a PowerBook G4 running openSUSE 11.0. I have the 12" version but the driver should be the same for the 15". The problem I had was not being able to see any wireless networks after installation. You can see the device in Network Manager, enter in all the appropriate information, but it won’t connect. At first I thought it was simply an issue of entering the SSID/password incorrectly, but that was not the case.

The driver for this computer is a Broadcom device and by doing a simple search you will find your answer here:

openSUSE 11 and bcm43xx-fwcutter/ndiswrapper? - openSUSE Forums

Basically, you need to download the firmware and install it:

b43 - Linux Wireless

If you don’t like reading and want to know the quick and dirty command, it is:

sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware

this should download and install the necessary firmware. Upon restart, I was able to browse the wireless networks and connect. That’s it!

2

To add some more valuable information, you should post the output of


/sbin/lspci -nn |grep -i net

which will show the PCI-ID of your wireless card.

Newer Macbooks also have broadcom cards not compatible with the b43-driver, so this information is crucial here.

P.S. The method with the installer script only works with a working internet connection on the machine running linux, if that is not possible, one can download the b43-firmware package from packman

http://packman.links2linux.de/package/b43-firmware

from another machine, transfer it on the linux machine and install it “offline” there.

3

Thanks for the other information. the output of the command was:

0001:10:12.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4320] (rev 02)
4

Could you please also post the output of

lsmod |grep b43

?

This “baby”

0001:10:12.0 Network controller [0280]:
Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g 
Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4320] (rev 02)

seems to be a little older, I’m just curious which driver is being used (b43 or b43legacy).

5

Let me run this one by you…

I am also a MAC user “2 MacBooks” (Was turned on to Linux 6 years ago by the guys at the Apple Store Genius Bar). I use an Airport Extreme for all my laptops (MAC’s and Linux) and it works great. How can I get the linux laptops to use the printers connected to the Airport Extreme, WIRELESSLY!! Please don’t laugh at me, I know it can be done!

Thanks,

Rr

6

Please tell me how I can get my Linux Laptop to use the same printers via the same Airport Extreme my MAC’s already use. I can use the Airport to get the internet, but how do I get to the printers with my Linux Laptops?

Thanks,

Rr