Broadcom network adapter HP Laptop

[mike acker]

last night I experimented with installing MINT/LMDE 201403 32 bit on a HP laptop for an old friend who wants to "get his feet wet"

I used the the "MINTSTICK" program to load the ISO onto a thumb-drive

I had to fuss with the lap-top to get into the BIOS so I could adjust the boot sequence --
the HP kicks out a message to press the ESC key right after POST -- the usual F4 or F8 didn't work
once I got the right option set is 1st in the boot sequence -- I think it was USB drive that did the trick....

anyway once I hit on the right selection the Mintstick loaded I we had the "live" sample system up, -- beautiful

HOWEVER: I could not get it to connect to his in-house wireless net

on his Win7 system the net shows as using a "Broadcom" wireless adapter and 802.11g protocol. WPA-2 with AES encryption on the net.
netname 2WIRE783

I expected protocol 802.11n { ? } . the wireless router was installed by his service provider.

unfortunately I had neglected to bring my cheat sheet of Linux commands I should have used to check the actual hardware config --

Code: Select all

inxi -Fx

I did not want to install the MINT/LMDE system unless I was pretty sure it was going to work
any help on this adapter -- or protocol -- will be appreciated

[mike acker]

UPDATE
I found this information on the Linux Questions board

If you have broadcom wireless and are relying on that to work during install, you're out of luck
however as I don't know of any distributions which redistribute their firmware.

Q: In using the "MintStick" live : if I connect using RJ45 during the install will Mint/LMDE be OK with the Broadcom network chipset ?

HP Laptop
Intel 32 bit

[Monsta]

If you have the wired network interface available on that laptop then of course you can install the needed drivers from the repositories.

[mike acker]

If you have the wired network interface available on that laptop then of course you can install the needed drivers from the repositories.

this is getting interesting!

i wonder if the installer will do this --
it's an older, 32-bit lap-top -- HP, w/ Intel chip

i'm going to try using a wireless dongle as the machine is for evaluations -- my friend wants to "get his feet wet"
read: become a Linux user

[Monsta]

No, the installer can't do this. You need to install the system, reboot, plug in the cable and install the drivers from the repos.

[mike acker]

No, the installer can't do this. You need to install the system, reboot, plug in the cable and install the drivers from the repos.

thanks!!!!!

I found the instructions here

exerpt:

This tutorial is applicable to LinuxMint Debian Edition for it doesn't come with the Hardware Driver option (System->Administration->Hardware Drivers) found in Ubuntu and LinuxMint. Installing LMDE will not automatically install the driver for you so you have to manually do it from the Terminal.

based on this I think if I get the MINT 17 LTS distro I should be OK. this would be our "Quiana" version, and in 32 bit for this person. I also have a USB Wi-Fi chip on the way ; should be here Monday.

my concern in this is: Greg has a working HP Netbook w/ Win7. He is OK with switching to Mint -- but we don't want to brick the thing doing it. so my thinking is: if the LIVE stick works I'll feel good about processing the install option. we'll reformat his HD to Linux standard rather than trying to partition it.

[Monsta]

Mint 17 would be even better in this case because it comes with mintDrivers, and that utility will allow you to install broadcom drivers straight from the stick (after you install the system and boot it).

[mike acker]

i see this is an nvidia related problem. do i get to help Linus flip them off?

Mint 17 would be even better in this case because it comes with mintDrivers, and that utility will allow you to install broadcom drivers straight from the stick (after you install the system and boot it).

thanks!! i have the download running now. we should be able to install it Tues.

[mike acker]

Mint 17 would be even better in this case because it comes with mintDrivers, and that utility will allow you to install broadcom drivers straight from the stick (after you install the system and boot it).

this computer was quite a problem. Intel/Atom CPU and only 1 GB ram. after the partition he has 56G hard drive space to play with.
my friend asked that MINT be installed in addition to the Win7 system and this option worked just fine

however the MINT installer didn't make a network connection.
fortunately I had brought along "Plan B" : Edimax EW-7811Un and this seemed to get us up and running. whoever installed his WiFi used 802.11g; i suspect they are using an obsolete wireless router because his wife had to put a similar USB WiFi adapter in her brand new Win8.1 laptop.

the inxi -Fx command showed both network adapters but the only information we could get showed the name of the WiFi router it was connected to --

is there an inquiry that will let me see which adapter is actually being used ?

[Monsta]

is there an inquiry that will let me see which adapter is actually being used ?

Well, /sbin/ifconfig should show you all currently active network interfaces (be it wired or wireless).

[mike acker]

working on learning -- and greatly appreciating the help!!
this is from my system-- which has RJ45 built into the Mobo & and ASUS wireless card:

Code: Select all

$ /sbin/ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 30:85:a9:ae:e8:1d  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

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:260 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:260 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:23427 (22.8 KiB)  TX bytes:23427 (22.8 KiB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 10:bf:48:fb:aa:5b  
          inet addr:192.168.1.117  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::12bf:48ff:fefb:aa5b/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:3589 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2974 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:2361781 (2.2 MiB)  TX bytes:1003961 (980.4 KiB)

I take it "wlan0" means wirless lan, first card found. The rx bytes and tx bytes clearly show this is the active card

the inxi -Fx output is as follows:

Code: Select all

Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
           driver: r8169 ver: 2.3LK-NAPI port: e800 bus-ID: 04:00.0
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: 30:85:a9:ae:e8:1d
           Card-2: Realtek RTL8188CE 802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter driver: rtl8192ce port: d800 bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: 10:bf:48:fb:aa:5b

by matching the mac address I can relate the two outputs. when i get back to Greg's
I'll see what I get out of the old HP Notebook.

once again: thanks 10^6 for the help!!