upgrade from 11.3 to 11.4 -- good idea?

[jgosney]

OK, following the second sticky at the top of the wireless forum (could someone move this thread to the wireless forum, maybe???), here is what I have found…

When I run /sbin/lspci, I see my wireless in the last line:
0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless Lan Controller (rev 01)

When I run /sbin/lspci -n, I find:
0c:00.0 0280: 14e4:432b (rev 01)

I then do dmesg | grep broadcom -i and get:
usb 5-1: Manufacturer: Broadcom Corp
b43-phy0: Broadcom 4322 WLAN found (core revision 16)
Broadcom 43xx driver loaded Features: PMLS, Firmware ID: FW13 ]

According to the next step, I should be able to run /usr/sbin/iwconfig and see the wireless card but I don’t have it listed. What I do have is:
lo no wireless extensions
eth0 no wireless extensions.

there is no wlan0 listed as in the example in the sticky thread.

So what should now be my next step?

[deano_ferrari]

For now, you can use the wl driver

If you have a wired ethernet connection

zypper in broadcom-wl

IIRC, this will drag in one of the associated kernel packages as well (eg broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop-x.xx…)

You will need to blacklist some other drivers (bcm43xx and b43) in /etc/modprobe.d/50-blacklist.conf. Mine for reference

blacklist bcm43xx
blacklist b43
blacklist ndiswrapper

Here’s a guide for you:

http://opensuse-guide.org/wlan.php

[colao]

@jgosney

I’m currently running opensuse 11.3 with Gnome and I downloaded the 11.4 iso yesterday and was considering doing an over-the-top upgrade. But I’ve been browsing through the forums and it looks like a lot of people have been having issues with 11.4.

So what is the general consensus on 11.4 so far? Is it recommended to stay with 11.3? If I do try to upgrade, what types of “gotcha’s” am I likely to experience.

And since 11.4 comes with LibraOffice but 11.3 has OpenOffice, will it automatically remove the old and install the new or should I manuualy uninstall OO first?

I recommend 11.3.

[jgosney]

@deano_ferrari

For now, you can use the wl driver

If you have a wired ethernet connection

zypper in broadcom-wl

IIRC, this will drag in one of the associated kernel packages as well (eg broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop-x.xx…)

You will need to blacklist some other drivers (bcm43xx and b43) in /etc/modprobe.d/50-blacklist.conf. Mine for reference

blacklist bcm43xx
blacklist b43
blacklist ndiswrapper

Well, that seems to have fixed it. I ran the zypper command and it installed several packages including at least one kernel package. I then added the blacklist entries and rebooted. Wireless started up first try.

I’m going to save this thread as a text file so that each time I upgrade in the future, I’ll have these notes to go back to.

thanks for all the help and suggestions!

[ken_yap]

Great, enjoy openSUSE and Linux and let us know how you are going now and then. :good:

[riderplus]

I’m also thinking about upgrading my openSuse 11.3

Did you do live upgrade or DVD boot & upgrade?

[robin_listas]

On 2011-04-21 03:36, jgosney wrote:
> OK, following the second sticky at the top of the wireless forum (could
> someone move this thread to the wireless forum, maybe???),

Move is not possible as the thread started with a different subject than
wifi. You should start a new thread there with an appropriate subject.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

[jgosney]

@ken_yap

Great, enjoy openSUSE and Linux and let us know how you are going now and then. :good:

Well, I already love Linux. I’ve been on SuSE since version 9. I’m just not as adept at some of the more technical commandline functions as I’d like to be. I’ve been thinking about joining the local Linux Users Group but keep putting it off.

[jgosney]

@riderplus

I’m also thinking about upgrading my openSuse 11.3

Did you do live upgrade or DVD boot & upgrade?

I downloaded the 11.4 ISO, burned the DVD, and then did a boot/upgrade from it. Other than the problem I had with the wireless mentioned earlier in this thread, the only complaint I had about the upgrade is that it installs Firefox 4.0 BETA by default and this version still has quite a few bugs in it. I could remove it and put 3.x back on but I’m going to be patient and wait for future patches to fix the issues.

[robin_listas]

On 2011-04-25 18:06, jgosney wrote:

> I downloaded the 11.4 ISO, burned the DVD, and then did a boot/upgrade
> from it. Other than the problem I had with the wireless mentioned
> earlier in this thread, the only complaint I had about the upgrade is
> that it installs Firefox 4.0 BETA by default and this version still has
> quite a few bugs in it. I could remove it and put 3.x back on but I’m
> going to be patient and wait for future patches to fix the issues.

There is a mozilla repo somewhere. I think that you can install 3.x from
there, and probably a newer 4.x.

What I don’t know is if it is possible to have both.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

[riderplus]

Thank you for replying!

I’ve also installed openSUSE 11.4 and it’s working much more better than 11.3 - it’s more fast and doesn’t freeze. I’ve used, like you, a DVD. I think it’s safer.

I was pretty amazed that I didn’t have any issues at all with my wireless card, as it happened in 11.3. But, as you said, Firefox 4.0 BETA has a few bugs. I’m using SeaMonkey, and I recommend it to you.

[mikislate]

The biggest setback of upgrades is that my boot up time lengthens (close to 2 min. from grub screen to desktop after 11.4 upgrade - not counting my typing to log in) with each upgrade. I used to turn the coffee on first in the morning.

[riderplus]

@mikislate

I used to turn the coffee on first in the morning.

I noticed a delay too. Weird.