Broadcom WLAN

Reuel · Post by **Reuel** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 9:18 pm

I have a Presario V2555 with a Broadcom WLAN based on the 4318 chip. I can't get it to work at all. The LED under the button that turns it on and off doesn't come on at all. I press the button, and nothing. Any ideas?

Boo · Post by **Boo** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:19 am

did it work before mint?
does it work even if the light is not on?

Reuel · Post by **Reuel** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:33 am

It works perfectly in MS Crap, um, Win. It worked a few months back when I tried Linspire. It is detected by Mint. Mint knows more about it than MSWin. MSWin knows it's a Broadcom. Mint knows it's a 4318, AirForce One, etc. It seems to work as far as being detected, but it will not become part of the network. If I could trick it into turning the darn thing on, I'm sure it would work fine.

Boo · Post by **Boo** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:07 am

so in the network settings GUI does it appear?
If it does go to its properties and enable it, and disable any other NICs.
have you updated the kernel to 2.6.17-11? (this one is buggy)
if you have try using the original one 2.6.17.10.

Reuel · Post by **Reuel** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:23 am

It does appear. I tried disabling everything else and just enabling it. It goes through the "Activating network interface" popup, and seems to work. But, it never becomes available. When I go to Network Tools, it never becomes a choice in Network device.

So, where do I get the 2.6.17.10 kernal, and how do I install it? I'm new at this.

I'm downloading KDE right now. I'll make it a third choice on my multiple boot screen...

Thanks!

Edit:

Just realized it will let me boot in 2.6.17.10. Still have the same problem. Can't get the LED to come on, so it acts like the WLAN won't come on.

Boo · Post by **Boo** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:38 am

to see what kernel and other os, cpu info type in a terminal window:
uname -a
in there will be the current running kernel. 2.6....
If you have upgraded the kernel the origional one should still be installed.
so at boot when the grub screen comes up choose the 2.6.17-10 kernel to boot off ( at the count down hit an arrow key, then down arrow to the 2.6.17-10 kernel line and hit enter)
then check if your networking is going.

Reuel · Post by **Reuel** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:44 am

I should be posting new posts instead of editing. I just tried 2.6.17.10. No changes. I still can't get it to come on. I continue to poke around. I even tried using the Windows Wireless Drivers. They all saw the WLAN interface, but still couldn't turn it on.

Reuel · Post by **Reuel** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 11:54 am

Can someone tell me what shell commands will turn on or off my wireless card? I don't want to give up on this. Last night, I grabbed a Linspire Live CD, to verify there wasn't a hardware issue. Wireless worked on it. Help!

Edit:

Nevermind! I finally got off my a** and looked around this web site and found that someone already addressed my exact problem. Sorry I posted before I searched! I should have gone to networking first anyway.

alain · Post by **alain** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 3:07 pm

The reason your wlan card does not work "out of the box" is that the card has no firmware.
With the win driver the firmware gets loaded during initialisation to the card.
Just google on "bcm43xx firmware ubuntu" to find a tutorial on how to extract the firmware and get your card working without ndiswrapper.

P.S.
It is possible that the Wlan light does not go on even though that wlan works.

Reuel · Post by **Reuel** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 3:09 pm

I got it to work once. The next time I turned on my computer, it wouldn't work again. I tried the NDISWrapper first. I then tried the method that doesn't use NDISWrapper. Neither would work. It shows routers, but always says "connection failed."