Wireless

[Herbert Taylor]

I have another question.  I have been trying to use the wireless on my 
Dell laptop but with no success.  I can use the wireless on Windows 
without any problems.  I am using the Kwifimanager.  I also used Linksys 
WUSB54G in Florida last year on windows but unable to pick it up on 
Linux. I also can pick up all kinds of networks on Windows with the 
Broadcom card in the Dell but no luck on the Linux side.  Any sugestions?

Herb Taylor

[Mark Haney]

Herbert Taylor wrote:
> I have another question.  I have been trying to use the wireless on my
> Dell laptop but with no success.  I can use the wireless on Windows
> without any problems.  I am using the Kwifimanager.  I also used Linksys
> WUSB54G in Florida last year on windows but unable to pick it up on
> Linux. I also can pick up all kinds of networks on Windows with the
> Broadcom card in the Dell but no luck on the Linux side.  Any sugestions?
>
> Herb Taylor

Be really careful about asking about Broadcom cards on this list.  Some
people get their panties in a wad over it.  I have a Broadcom card in my
laptop and I've had no trouble using open networks with ndiswrapper and
some WPA networks (like my office one) with it.  Mostly ndiswrapper
works fine.

However, some people will bitch and moan about ndiswrapper in general.
Their are broadcom drivers in the kernel that people have had varying
success with.  I've been too busy to try my card with those drivers, but
I will give it a go this weekend.  My problem is that I'm running
64-bit.  The 32-bit modules seem to work pretty well.

FWIW.

[John W. Linville]

On Fri, Jul 20, 2007 at 08:46:17AM -0400, Mark Haney wrote:
> However, some people will bitch and moan about ndiswrapper in general.

If your are comfortable running code in your kernel that wasn't
written to run there, then knock yourself out.  Really, I'm happy
that you got something to work.

But please don't encourage people to use ndiswrapper until they
have tried the in-kernel drivers and actually had problems.  That is
counter productive.  If nothing else, it reinforces the notion that
using Linux requires a bunch of fiddling/compiling/whatever not only
to get started but everytime you update the kernel -- that just isn't
true if you use the in-kernel drivers.
> Their are broadcom drivers in the kernel that people have had varying
> success with.  I've been too busy to try my card with those drivers, but
> I will give it a go this weekend.  My problem is that I'm running
> 64-bit.  The 32-bit modules seem to work pretty well.

_Please_ stop saying this.  Whatever problems might exist with the
in-kernel bcm43xx and bcm43xx-mac80211 drivers, they are not related
to bit-width.  FWIW, much of the development of those drivers is done
on 64-bit powerpc systems.

John

P.S.  OK, could there be some individual problem with bit-width
somewhere in their?  I suppose.  Is there some general "doesn't work
on 64-bit" issue?  No.

[Karl Larsen]

Herbert Taylor wrote:
> I have another question.  I have been trying to use the wireless on my 
> Dell laptop but with no success.  I can use the wireless on Windows 
> without any problems.  I am using the Kwifimanager.  I also used 
> Linksys WUSB54G in Florida last year on windows but unable to pick it 
> up on Linux. I also can pick up all kinds of networks on Windows with 
> the Broadcom card in the Dell but no luck on the Linux side.  Any 
> sugestions?
>
> Herb Taylor

Herb. I will send you a paper that will help you get Linux working 
or tell you why it doesn't.

Karl

[John W. Linville]

On Fri, Jul 20, 2007 at 08:40:32AM -0400, Herbert Taylor wrote:
> I have another question.  I have been trying to use the wireless on my 
> Dell laptop but with no success.  I can use the wireless on Windows 
> without any problems.  I am using the Kwifimanager.  I also used Linksys 
> WUSB54G in Florida last year on windows but unable to pick it up on 
> Linux. I also can pick up all kinds of networks on Windows with the 
> Broadcom card in the Dell but no luck on the Linux side.  Any sugestions?

Please see this thread:

http://www.redhat.com/archives/rhl-list/2007-July/msg02069.html

Do try to use the 4.x firmware with the bcm43xx-mac80211 driver
first.  If that fails, then try running the updated version of the
bcm43xx-old-config (included at the bottom of the link above).

John

[Sam Varshavchik]

Herbert Taylor writes:
> I have another question.  I have been trying to use the wireless on my 
> Dell laptop but with no success.  I can use the wireless on Windows 
> without any problems.  I am using the Kwifimanager.  I also used Linksys 
> WUSB54G in Florida last year on windows but unable to pick it up on 
> Linux. I also can pick up all kinds of networks on Windows with the 
> Broadcom card in the Dell but no luck on the Linux side.  Any sugestions?

Broadcom wireless hardware has poor-to-nonexistent Linux support due to 
Broadcom's refusal to work with the Linux community.

If it doesn't work for you, you're boned.

[Steven J. Brown (NY)]

Sam Varshavchik wrote:
> Herbert Taylor writes:
> > I have another question.  I have been trying to use the wireless on 
> > my Dell laptop but with no success.  I can use the wireless on 
> > Windows without any problems.  I am using the Kwifimanager.  I also 
> > used Linksys WUSB54G in Florida last year on windows but unable to 
> > pick it up on Linux. I also can pick up all kinds of networks on 
> > Windows with the Broadcom card in the Dell but no luck on the Linux 
> > side.  Any sugestions?
>
> Broadcom wireless hardware has poor-to-nonexistent Linux support due 
> to Broadcom's refusal to work with the Linux community.
>
> If it doesn't work for you, you're boned.

This may no longer be true:

http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/driver-sla.php?driver=4401-Linu...

[Steven J. Brown (NY)]

im
Enter message text here...

Steven J. Brown (NY) wrote:
> Sam Varshavchik wrote:
> > Herbert Taylor writes:
> > > I have another question.  I have been trying to use the wireless on 
> > > my Dell laptop but with no success.  I can use the wireless on 
> > > Windows without any problems.  I am using the Kwifimanager.  I also 
> > > used Linksys WUSB54G in Florida last year on windows but unable to 
> > > pick it up on Linux. I also can pick up all kinds of networks on 
> > > Windows with the Broadcom card in the Dell but no luck on the Linux 
> > > side.  Any sugestions?
> >
> > Broadcom wireless hardware has poor-to-nonexistent Linux support due 
> > to Broadcom's refusal to work with the Linux community.
> >
> > If it doesn't work for you, you're boned.
>
> This may no longer be true:
>
> http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/driver-sla.php?driver=4401-Linu...

Not sure if that's a wireless card, though.

[John W. Linville]

On Tue, Jul 24, 2007 at 11:48:16AM -0400, Steven J. Brown (NY) wrote:
> Steven J. Brown (NY) wrote:
> > Sam Varshavchik wrote:
> > > Broadcom wireless hardware has poor-to-nonexistent Linux support due 
> > > to Broadcom's refusal to work with the Linux community.
> > >
> > > If it doesn't work for you, you're boned.
> >
> > This may no longer be true:
> >
> > http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/driver-sla.php?driver=4401-Linu...
>
> Not sure if that's a wireless card, though.

I'm sure it is not...