this broadcom chipset is a real pain but i lack $ for a new wifi card and desperately need the thing to work... So far i tried Suse 10.1 and Kubuntu 6.1 (edgy).

i got it working with LinuxAnt's software under Suse, but thats not free software and only has a 30 day trial. ndiswrapper did me no good in suse either. I would have actually kept suse if not for some missing liblm files that i couldnt locate for download anywhere and where needed to install alot of much needed programs. (was running Gnome on Suse btw)

I am using Kubuntu now, and it comes with the bcm43xx drivers pre configured.... unfortuanately it was able to see my wifi card but i couldnt connect to a network encrypted or not or even see the in a scan. I followed some advise and used fwcutter, then i was able to see networks but still couldnt connect. Next i tried ndiswrapper... that worked but once again, i couldnt connect to a network, just see them. Then i tried LinuxAnt's software again... it does nothing for me under Kubuntu that fwcutter and ndiswrapper didnt already do for me.

So, does anyone else use a broadcom chipset and know what distro will be able to use it right from the start? I really need my wifi running for school and home. WPA is not required, but WEP needs to work. Im not too atatched to any kind of Linux yet, but i do think i like the file management under Gnome better than KDE and i like the layout and features other than the file manager better under KDE than Gnome.... but i can play with them options later if i need to.

I have that chipset in my desktop. The bcm43xx driver is worthless, even with the optional download of firmware for cards. Ndiswrapper works perfectly in suse and gentoo (sabayon edition). Both of which come with knetworkmanager which logs the card onto a network flawlessly.

what version of suse and what version of ndiswrapper? cause i couldnt get it to work under Suse 10.1 with the latest stable build of ndiswrapper.

*knows nothing of Gentoo so far*

I've got it working in both Slackware 10.2 and Ubuntu 6.06.

I found it was easier to get working in Slackware than Ubuntu, but I had to download the Ndiswrapper from linuxpackages.net, otherwise it wanted me to upgrade a number of other packages before I could compile a source version of Ndiswrapper.

It wasn't difficult getting it working in Ubuntu, it just seemed a bit more messy because it was my first time installing Ubuntu so was probably just my own lack of experience.

The drivers and/or programs for using a wireless card aren't (most often, at least) tied to a specific distribution, so it's not up to which distribution to choose if you want to make the card work. Having said that, I have to admit that sometimes some distributions do make life easier if they have the thing preconfigured and working already, but it doesn't mean you should dump some distributions because they don't have it working out-of-the-box.

If you're using Linux for something else than wireless only, pick the distribution judging other interests than the wireless. If you know that somebody made it work, say, with ndiswrapper and some network tool, just install those to your distribution of choice and it will work; installing the tools is a different story, but on main distributions it shouldn't pose no problems, and if you go on compiling the sources, you have tools for that in every distribution.

Sad you need to use ndiswrapper, hopefully the manufacturers learn something some day.

I've got a Compaq 2195US laptop and it has the bcm43xx chipset as a built in wlan. I couldn't get very stable results from SUSE 10.1, I think the kernel upgrade in openSUSE 10.2 will work much better. It is slated for release in December 2006. I am currently running Mandriva 2007 free, and the wlan is working flawlessly. I used fwcutter to install firmare to /lib/firmware, and the installation GUI took it from there. I also have ndiswrapper installed, both work fine. The new 3d desktop is pretty cool as well.

Suse 10.1
Using the packaged version of ndiswapper. Never upgrade something that isnt broken :-D

Ive started to get that impresion, got it operating once , but couldnt connect to my wireless network. MAy try again with slack 11.

Which version of the card is that with? Is it a paticualry old card because new newer ones still have patchy drivers. Does anyone know of the driver working with bcm4318 driver?

There are plenty of examples of getting that driver to work at the PCLinuxOS site, both under ndiswrapper, and using the linux drivers, the problem with the linux drivers being around getting WEP to work.

Hi there,

Using Ubuntu i386 with kernel 2.6.17 I was able to get the card working very easily, by following the instructions here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=185174

Give it a try, but either way, you'll have a horrible time attempting to support packet injection, if you'd like to do that...

My System: zv5000
Chipset: BCM4306
Dist: Ubuntu 6.10 2.6.17-10-generic

Good luck!

After playing around with Mandriva 2007 for a few days with various configurations (i did about 10 re-installs just to try new settings with a fresh start), i discovered that my bcm4318 works flawlessly with WEP on my home network using both ndiswrapper (configured through OS configuration menues) and the fwcutter that is set up also through the main OS configuration menues.

My only concern now is if this thing will work at school on the ITT student network... I guess I'll find out wednesday when i return for class. I'll let you all know if it works since i know alot of ITT students from across the country are having issues getting onto thier WiFi networks at school with a Linux Laptop.

IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mandriva Free 2007 works on the ITT campus networks!!!!! It had no problems whatsoever...