Dell Wireless 1397 WLAN Mini-Card for Dell Inspiron 1545: How to Drive It!

[poma]

On 18.06.2014 19:11, Temlakos wrote:
> On 06/18/2014 12:05 PM, poma wrote:
>> On 18.06.2014 17:13, Temlakos wrote:
>>> Everyone:
>>>
>>> I have a three-year-old Dell Inspiron 1545. It came with the Dell
>>> Wireless 1397 WLAN Mini-Card.
>>>
>>> The current output of lspci -k |grep -iA5 wire gives "Dell Wireless 1397
>>> WLAN Mini-Card" as a subsystem. The relevant kernel module is "ssb."
>>
>> $ lspci -k |grep -iA5
>> Usage: grep [OPTION]... PATTERN [FILE]...
>> Try 'grep --help' for more information.
>>
>>>
>>> Currently this card will not connect. Nor can I force it to connect by
>>> directly editing the network interface. I've tried several times, but I
>>> can't get to a MAC address for it.
>>>
>>> What driver(s) or other kernel module(s) should I install, and where can
>>> I get them?
>>>
>>> Broadcom has a 32-bit and a 64-bit tarball for what they say is a driver
>>> for this card. Should I install that on my system?
>>>
>>> Please advise. It seems a shame to operate any laptop without wireless
>>> connectivity.
>>>
>>> Temlakos
>>>
>>
>> The complete output of this command:
>> $ lspci -knn | grep -A100 Wireless
>>
>>
>> poma
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> The output, after a couple of module installations, now reads:
>
> Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1397 WLAN Mini-Card [1028:000c]
> Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
> Kernel modules: ssb, wl
>
> Still no wireless connection available on that laptop.
>
> Temlakos
>

Whence is "wl"?

OK, to get to Vendor&Device ID, hit this command:
$ lspci -knn | grep -A10 BCM4312

Output could look like this:
<bus>:<dev>.<func> Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY [14e4:4315] (rev 01)
     Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1397 WLAN Mini-Card [1028:000c]
     Kernel driver in use: wl
     Kernel modules: wl, ssb

"ssb" is a specific bus module, i.e. "Sonics Silicon Backplane driver"
Your "BCM4312" is attached to it.

BTW do you have the firmware installed?


poma