Laptop wont recognize wireless Broadcom card

tjd>6591 · 02-04-2010, 11:29 AM

My laptop is Dell Inspiron 1150
wireless card is Broadcom BCM4306KFB
O/S is Linux Mint 8 Helena

I checked out my Hardware Drivers:
Broadcom B43 wireless driver is listed
says the driver is activated and currently in use
at top it says no proprietary drivers are in use??? I'm confused
Will fwcutter extract firmware files? How do I get it? and how do I install it? Thanks

Packrat1947 · 02-04-2010, 11:50 AM

Go to ebay and enter this search:
dell 3945

These intel cards are about 10 bucks US, and every linux will see them. Some may even come with the Intel driver - but you can always go to the Intel site for them. There are two form factors, so you will have to know which one to buy - or buy both.

I did this on my Dell XPS M1210 when I first bought it, and every linux live distro sees the card - no problem. I even picked up a couple of spares.

Just why Dell does not "get it" is beyond me.

Packrat1947

redbook · 02-09-2010, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tjd>6591

My laptop is Dell Inspiron 1150
wireless card is Broadcom BCM4306KFB
O/S is Linux Mint 8 Helena

I checked out my Hardware Drivers:
Broadcom B43 wireless driver is listed
says the driver is activated and currently in use
at top it says no proprietary drivers are in use??? I'm confused
Will fwcutter extract firmware files? How do I get it? and how do I install it? Thanks

Try installing broadcom-wl

PTrenholme · 02-09-2010, 03:30 PM

If you have the Windows driver disk, just run b43-fwcutter on the <blah>.sys or <blah>.inf file. Or download the appropriate .o file from the Internet and use it.

If you have the b43 FOSS driver installed, you should also have the b43-fwcutter installed. And there are no "propitiatory" drivers installed because b43 is not propitiatory. That's why you need the b43-fwcutter to extract the copyrighted microcode from files you legally own.

reed9 · 02-09-2010, 07:49 PM

Well, this is a few days old, but if the poster is still looking, just do

Code:

sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter

(Assuming you can get a wired connection.)

business_kid · 02-10-2010, 03:27 AM

Also be aware that if your box saw proprietary drivers at any time, b43 will be in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and will never load until you take it out of there.

slackwaredanny · 03-04-2010, 07:51 PM

bcmwl is on the cd thats what you need.

tjd>6591 · 03-04-2010, 11:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slackwaredanny

bcmwl is on the cd thats what you need.

what cd are you talking about?

business_kid · 03-06-2010, 03:18 AM

Did you see this thread?
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...m-4312-752389/