After putting packman in my respitory … i followed your guide …
Nafets@linux-xcdu:~> uname -a
Linux linux-xcdu.site 2.6.37.6-0.5-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT 2011-04-25 21:48:33 +0200 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
The desktop edition right ??
linux-xcdu:/home/Nafets # zypper install broadcom-wl
Loading repository data…
Reading installed packages…
‘broadcom-wl’ is already installed.
No update candidate for ‘broadcom-wl-5.100.82.38-7.pm.9.4.i586’. The highest available version is already installed.
Resolving package dependencies…
Nothing to do.
linux-xcdu:/home/Nafets # zypper in broadcom-wl broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop
Loading repository data…
Reading installed packages…
‘broadcom-wl’ is already installed.
No update candidate for ‘broadcom-wl-5.100.82.38-7.pm.9.4.i586’. The highest available version is already installed.
‘broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop’ is already installed.
No update candidate for ‘broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop-5.100.82.38_k2.6.37.6_0.5-7.pm.9.4.i586’. The highest available version is already installed.
Resolving package dependencies…
Nothing to do.
All already installed right ?
Before using this my wireless writing is gray , now it’s not but … you can’t activate it …
Usually by using fn + f2 my wireless key will work , but no effect this time all other button is operating …
Let me start by saying that the solution below applies to Lenovo laptops that have hw switch with dual function - enable WLAN & BT. Please also make sure you follow all the required steps in order to have the proper wlan card driver installed.
I had the same wireless problem with bcm4313 and I spent days trying to fix it with no luck. Until last night.
This fix is for Lenovo laptops that have the hardware switch with dual function - enable/disable both wireless and bluetooth.
Before trying to make the linux driver work, you need turn the switch on and the you MUST boot into windows (I know how it sound but it’s not a joke and I’m not advertising for the MS guys) and use the FN + F5 combination to open the software control and make sure that BOTH wireless and bluetooth are “On”. If at least one of them is OFF, the it will never work in linux. The downside is for those that cannot dual-boot because they only use Linux and don’t have a Win OS installed.
You can easily check that in the linux terminal using “rfkill list all”. If the ideapad hw-swith is in the list and hard block is on then you have the problem I mentioned above. It will not matter if you have the correct driver installed or not. Just using “rfkill unblock all” will unblock only the soft block, not the hard version.
For me it was a nightmare until I discovered this setting.
Long story short:
make sure the hw switch is on
boot into windows and use FN + F5 to enable WLAN & BT
boot your linux OS, install the driver (if it’s not already there) and use “rfkill list all”; if your driver is correctly installed everything should be OK
make sure you defined a wireless connection in Network Manager
Now it should work.
I hope this will also help others like me that spent hours and days trying to understand why to correct driver is working but wireless network cannot be enabled.
Regarding the need to boot Windows it does not sound crazy at all. I’ve seen the same thing happening on HP Compaq 6910p. My wild guess is that it might be BIOS related so an update might help to avoid Windows boot.
I’m also wild guessing that tweaking some BIOS settings might help but it did not on the HP Compaq 6910p I had to deal with.
Well, I’m 90% sure you are right. I made the same assumption. The only issue here (besides the inconvenience of enabling through Windows) is that in the Lenovo BIOS there is no control over this. I assume the setting is saved only by software operations