<SOLVED> How do I load the drivers for BCM43227?

[QuotidianMe2]

If this would be better posted on "LMDE" or "Installation," please move it. But I feel stupid asking it, so I thought here would be right.

I've just gotten back from purchasing an Acer Aspire with an i5 core and 6GB Ram. Yay for me. I tested a Linux Mint Maya Cinnamon Live CD and it seemed to run perfectly. The LMDE disc I brought with me didn't. This is probably owing to my having 32bit discs (all my old machines are 32bit).

I see on the "known problems" this is all to be expected and I should "simply install the 686-PAE kernel and reboot your computer". This is where I'm stupid. Architecture and what not is quite beyond my ken.

1. How simple is this "simply" done.
2. Can I use a 64 bit live DVD to see how things work?
3. Should I use the 64bit live DVD to install from, or does it even matter if I'm going to "simply install the 686-PAE kernel?".

I'd like really to Install LMDE as a dual boot on this machine (until the warranty runs out on the machine --- It's got gobs of disk space.)

I'm going to download LM Maya xfce too, once I find out whether I need the 32 or 64 bit.

Thanks y'all!

[xenopeek]

I'm moving it here 32 bit will work fine on 64 bit processors, but perhaps one of the other devices in the computer is causing problems with LMDE (it might likely be the graphics card if you have a discrete graphics card in addition to the IGP in the i5). Boot from Linux Mint Maya and run the following command from the terminal. Share the output here to get some advice from LMDE users as to what may be the problem. (You can copy text from the terminal through its Edit menu, first Select All, then Copy. Then right-click the text area in your response here and select Paste from the context menu.)

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inxi -Fx

Also, please describe what problem you faced when booting from LMDE?

Whether you want a 64 bit or 32 bit installation can turn into a opinionated discussion... Though it is for the Ubuntu, this article can give you some insight into what kind of applications benefit from a speed increase by using 64 bit instead of 32 bit: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=a ... 3264&num=1. You can expect 64 bit to use up to around 30% more memory per process than 32 bit, so that is a downside of 64 bit. With a 32 bit installation, even with PAE, each process is limited to a 4 GiB address space. That is a downside of 32 bit, though I think it unlikely you would need to consider that with only 6 GiB of RAM.

[QuotidianMe2]

Vincent,

Thanks for the prompt response! I got back from buying the computer, posted there, went to dinner and a movie with my wife, and just got back. I haven't had time to unpack and fire up the new computer --- that's tomorrow night's project, after work.

I'm sorry that I was vague on the problem I experienced using LMDE. The LMDE live dvd seemed to have hung up and never finished loading when I tried it on the store demonstration model of the computer I've purchased. Maybe I didn't wait long enoug, but I've used a good number of distros on a dozen or so boxes, and this seemed like an overly long load time. I didn't time it, but it put me in mind of trying some more powerful live dvds on some of my oldest, under-powerful boxes.

And regarding the graphics card, yeah, it's an nVidia Gforce GT520M with 1G memory. I'm wanting to play around with multi-media and videos, and so I stepped up to something with a little more oomph. For the speed reason, after what you've said, I'm keen to see what 64bit will do. Like you said, 6G ram seems pretty roomy:)

Tonight I'm gonna go ahead and download the LMDE 64bit and the Maya xfce 64 as well download the 64bit ldme and try it out on a live DVD too. It may be a day or two before I can report back, but report back I will. I really like the LMDE, love mint, and bought this box specifically to install Linux on.

Thanks for the article link, I'll look at it (I liked the FSF freeware article you linked me previously). I look forward to writing here soon.

[widget]

Glad to hear you are going with the 64bit version. The 32bit would work. 64bit should work better with the setup you have.

[QuotidianMe2]

The LMDE live dvds all worked on the new machine that I brought home just fine. So, that's a relief. Everything seems to work well.

None of these recognize that there is even a wireless card in the computer, it seems, as none is ever listed.

Here's the output from

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 inxi -Fx

on this Acer Aspire 5750-6653:

mint@mint ~ $ inxi -Fx
System: Host mint Kernel 3.2.0-2-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit) Distro Linux Mint Xfce Edition
CPU: Dual core Intel Core i5-2430M (-HT-MCP-) cache 3072 KB flags (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips 9578.9
Clock Speeds: (1) 800.00 MHz (2) 800.00 MHz (3) 800.00 MHz (4) 800.00 MHz
Graphics: Card-1 Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller Card-2 nVidia Device 0df7 X.Org 1.11.4 Res: 1366x768@60.0hz
GLX Renderer Mesa DRI Intel Sandybridge Mobile GLX Version 2.1 Mesa 7.11.2 Direct Rendering Yes
Audio: Card Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller driver snd_hda_intel BusID: 00:1b.0
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Version 1.0.24
Network: Card-1 Broadcom NetLink BCM57785 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe driver tg3 v: 3.121 BusID: 02:00.0
Card-2 Broadcom BCM43227 802.11b/g/n BusID: 03:00.0
Disks: HDD Total Size: 640.1GB (-) 1: /dev/sda WDC_WD6400BPVT 640.1GB 0C
Partition: ID:/ size: 2.9G used: 441M (16%) fs: rootfs
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 45.0C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes 139 Uptime 34 min Memory 516.6/5840.0MB Runlevel 2 Client Shell inxi 1.4.23
mint@mint ~ $

(I realize that "code" might be more traditional to use in the above instance, but the light blue of this forum, on the light background, simply makes "code" about impossible for my aging eyes to read, so I've put it in as a "quote" instead. I can better see what we might refer to later )
(It was weird to set up the Win7 OS. It was big and gross and slick and slow. I'll keep it until the warranty runs out on this machine, but once I have some insight on what I'll need to get the wireless going, I'll install LMDE on its own partition, set up my data partition, and --- whoa, will swap really be 12G? HA! Crazy big)

In advance, and always, thanks!

[xenopeek]

Your wireless is the Broadcom BCM43227 chip. I've moved the topic here to get help on how to get that working (I'm not sure of the steps needed, but others will).

BTW, inxi is saying you are running LMDE Xfce and not LMDE LXDE.

[zerozero]

for the bcm83227 follow this >> http://wiki.debian.org/wl/#Broadcom_BCM ... s_.28wl.29 (the steps regarding wheezy; point 1 is already taken care in lmde, skip it )

[QuotidianMe2]

BTW, inxi is saying you are running LMDE Xfce and not LMDE LXDE.

Thanks Vincent, both for the thread move and for pointing out to me my mis-typing LMDE. Yeah, I got sort of mixed up while typing L-M-D-E. I often have to re-type that acronym, I don't know why it's so hard for me to get straight. I've fixed it in my preceding post.

[QuotidianMe2]

Thank you! Vincent and zerozero, et al. LMDE XFCE is now installed (without a hitch, mind you) and the Debian site directions worked flawlessly. I followed them, restarted my computer and voila! My wireless network was detected!

And listen, I know that the likes of Vincent and zerozero and others here spend a lot of time volunteering, helping regular folks like me to get our mistakes, our machines, and our Mint all straightened out. I know it can be pretty thankless sometimes too. I want to acknowledge the immense contribution made. Thank you again.

Please mark this as SOLVED!

Peace.

[xenopeek]

Please mark this as SOLVED!

You can do that yourself Scroll up to your first post for this topic, click the edit button in the top right of the post, and add <SOLVED> to the subject.