It only took 10 minutes or so to get my Wireless on my laptop (HP dv6325us Turion64x2) up and running in 11.1 after a few false starts. The key, of course, is having the right driver and “.inf” files (Thanks Andrewd!!). I just installed ndiswrapper and the kernel module (ndiswrapper-kmp-default) via YaST and also the three utilities for setting it up (kndiswrapper, ndisgtk, and ndisinstaller). On 10.3, ndisinstaller worked flawlessly but threw an error for 11.1. It turns out kndiswrapper worked fine.
Of course, then I had a heck of a time trying to actually connect even though knetworkmanager sees many local networks. I’d previously been using WPA but couldn’t seem to connect. I finally settled for WEP 128bit, and turning off the network broadcast (how stealth of me!), so it should be quite secure.
install ndiswrapper and ndiswrapper-kmp-default
put your driver and .inf files in an easy to find location
start kndiswrapper and install the driver - it should say “installed OK”
open network configuration (I did this via YaST/Network Devices/Network Settings) and click on “edit” with your wifi connection highlited
enter the driver as “ndiswrapper” - I know it’s a drop-down list and ndiswrapper is likely not there, but you can actually type it into the drop-down box! The default driver (ssd?) that was there didn’t succeed in activating my wireless hardware
reboot - you should see the light come on indicating that SuSE has activated your wireless about 8 seconds into the boot.
YaST says BCM4311 - but all I really know is that the little red light didn’t change to blue indicating the Wifi was physically powered on until I installed ndiswrapper and the windwos driver - then remembered to change the name of the driver in YaST. I wonder if HP modded the hardware somehow beyond what BCM actually is.
PattiMichelle wrote:
> YaST says BCM4311 - but all I really know is that the little red light
> didn’t change to blue indicating the Wifi was physically powered on
> until I installed ndiswrapper and the windwos driver - then remembered
> to change the name of the driver in YaST. I wonder if HP modded the
> hardware somehow beyond what BCM actually is.
No if it says it is a BCM4311, then that is what it is. It is likely
that you didn’t get the LED turned on because you had not installed
the firmware.
I think this could be done even easier, as my old ASUS laptop I recently installed openSUSE on has a similar network chip (can’t remember the exact model). But the installation on that one was so darn easy it left me suprised.
Open a shell window*]run
sudo install-bcm43xx-firmware
There is no step 3… done already! (picked it up from the wiki)
This does require the b43-fwcutter package to be installed, but I think it is by default if you have a compatible chipset. If not, it can be done trough either YaST software management or (as root) zypper install b43-fwcutter
Your laptop isn’t listed as 11.1 compatible on the HCL/Laptops/HP - openSUSE yet btw. If you’d be so kind to this (or ask me to do it for you if you’re unable to figure out how to do it). [edit]
Out of curiosity… would the avatar happen to be Eclaire from Kiddy grade?