Wireless driver install problems

English Network/Internet
#1

I am using a Dell XPS m1530 dual booting
Windows Vista 32 bit
openSUSE 11.0 (Gnome)

The command /sbin/lspci tells me my wireless network card is
0b:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4310 USB Controller (rev 01).

I have heard of two options but do not want to continue until I know the correct path.

  1. use this command to get firmware and move forward /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware

  2. use ndiswrapper which I have no idea how to use.

Please point me in the right direction, and if you need more information let me know. I am completely new to Linux, but I am connected VIA ethernet right now so I am not in a huge rush. Thanks in advance for any help.

#2

try the first & if it doesn’t work,try the second. ndiswrapper how-to’s can be found everywhere,some of the most popular are Ndiswrapper - openSUSE Howto’s A Frustrated User’s Guide to Linux

Andy

#3

You must use Ndiswrapper for the BCM4310. The BCM43xx stuff appears not to work for the 4310 (reference here)
Remember to install two Ndiswrapper RPMs

#4

I installed two ndiwrapper rpm’s the normal, and the one -default because that is what my keyword was. I installed my driver via the windows .inf file. I’m still having issues actually getting the card to work. In YaST/network settings it shows my wireless card and ethernet card, but next to “Wireless Network Card” it says “No hwinfo” and next to the ethernet card it shows the mac address.

ndiswrapper -l gives me this

bcmwl6 : driver installed
device (14E4:4315) present

and /sbin/ifconfig shows this
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:21:9B:DF:41:3E
inet addr:192.168.1.106 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::221:9bff:fedf:413e/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:34862 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:25172 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:45843088 (43.7 Mb) TX bytes:2263038 (2.1 Mb)
Interrupt:16

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:6 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:6 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:340 (340.0 b) TX bytes:340 (340.0 b)

Does anyone have any idea what is wrong? Thanks

Jason

#5

Did you use the Vista .inf or XP .inf with ndiswrapper ? If Vista, change to the XP, as the Vista one doesn’t work too good with ndiswrapper

Andy

#6

Wow you are an amazing troubleshooter. Thank you so much. My wireless works flawlessly now.

#7

Excellent, Glad you got it sorted,Now,Enjoy :slight_smile:

Andy

#8

Wow. I have the exact same card and the exact same problem. I am glad swerdna referred me over here. I was just wondering if you had the link to the xp driver that you ended up using?

check my thread…
New to Linux - can’t get my wireless to work - Page 4 - openSUSE Forums

jealous that you solved it in one page, im on my 4th :smiley:

#9

Do I need to use XP 32 derivers or XP 64 will work? I am running OpenSUSE 64. Tnx.

#10

igtrnt wrote:
> Do I need to use XP 32 derivers or XP 64 will work? I am running
> OpenSUSE 64. Tnx.

With a 64-bit OS, you need 64-bit drivers.