WIreless not working with Dell Laptop

English Network/Internet
#1

Hello,

I’ve just installed opensuse 13.1. Now I am facing difficulty in getting the wifi working.
My wireless card is Broadcom BCM43142.

linux-nww1:~ # lspci | grep -i broad
06:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM43142 802.11b/g/n (rev 01)

linux-nww1:~ # uname -a
Linux linux-nww1.site 3.11.6-4-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Oct 30 18:04:56 UTC 2013 (e6d4a27) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

linux-nww1:~ # iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

p5p1 no wireless extensions.

linux-nww1:~ # ifconfig
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:65536 Metric:1
RX packets:264 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:264 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:33073 (32.2 Kb) TX bytes:33073 (32.2 Kb)

p5p1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr E0:DB:55:9B:FC:EC
inet addr:192.168.0.11 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::e2db:55ff:fe9b:fcec/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:30362 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:26815 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:39001314 (37.1 Mb) TX bytes:2597607 (2.4 Mb)

linux-nww1:~ #

I am looking for help. Please someone help me.

#2

This device is not supported out of the box AFAICT.
You need to install the proprietary broadcom-wl driver, available on Packman.

Are you able to connect to the Internet via the wired connection?
Then just add the Packman repo in YaST->Software Repositories->Add->Community Repositories (you need it anyway for all the multimedia stuff :wink: ) and install the packages “broadcom-wl” and “broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop” in YaST->Software Management.

If not, download them somehow and install them manually, either with “sudo rpm -i” or by just opening them in the filemanager.
http://packman.links2linux.de/download/broadcom-wl/1801591/broadcom-wl-6.30.223.141-2.8.x86_64.rpm
http://packman.links2linux.de/download/broadcom-wl/1801588/broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop-6.30.223.141_k3.11.10_7-2.8.x86_64.rpm

PS: You might want to switch to “User controlled using NetworkManager” in YaST->Network Devices->Network Settings->Global Options, and connect using your desktop’s networkmanager applet. This makes things easier especially for wireless connections.

#3

i have the identical hardware, and no network connection. the only drivers i can find on the packman website need the 3.11.10-11-desktop kernel. i have the 3.11.6-4-desktop kernel with my 13.1 install.
do i need to re-build the kernel? thanks, pete

#4

Hi
Download the broadcom-wl src rpm and rebuild that locally as your user.

You will need to install the following packages; kernel-source kernel-syms linux-kernel-headers make gcc patch from the install medium, then as your user;


rpmbuild --rebuild broadcom-wl-6.30.223.141-2.9.src.rpm

Then install the resulting broadcom-wl and broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop rpms (or whichever kernel flavour your using from the output from the command uname -a), then reboot.

After every kernel update, you will need to rebuild and re-install the src rpm. It will keep working until you rebuild and install as the kernel installs the older drivers into a ‘weak’ update location to keep things working until you rebuild.

#5

On 06/03/2014 03:56 PM, peterp wrote:
>
> i have the identical hardware, and no network connection. the only
> drivers i can find on the packman website need the 3.11.10-11-desktop
> kernel. i have the 3.11.6-4-desktop kernel with my 13.1 install.
> do i need to re-build the kernel? thanks, pete

The wl driver is not part of the kernel. Doing a rebuild will do nothing.

#6

Alternatively to malcolmlewis process, you could download the updated kernel from http://download.opensuse.org/update/13.1/x86_64/kernel-desktop-3.11.10-11.1.x86_64.rpm and install it, then install the matching broadcom packages from packman. No building from source required.
Howard