"No activity or connectivity with Broadcom BCM4318 card"

budfan38 · 02-27-2011, 09:07 AM

Hello,

I'm new to the forums and Linux. I'm running CentOS on a Compaq V5305. The card is recognized by the system,but will not activate. Any help with a fix for this is appreciated.

Thanks.

Hangdog42 · 02-27-2011, 11:36 AM

Welcome to LQ!

And welcome to the wild, wooly world of Broadcom wireless. The basic problem is that the Linux kernel has an open-source driver (called b43) but no Linux distro can supply the firmware needed for the card to actually function (Broadcom licensing prohibits it). The upshot is that the card looks like it should function, but doesn't actually. So, you need to install firmware before it will actually work. If you check out these instructions, I suspect that something similar to the Fedora instructions should work on CentOS>

budfan38 · 02-28-2011, 07:55 PM

Thanks for the info.May be a few days before I can try it. Will let you know if it works.

Joe

dwains · 03-01-2011, 10:44 AM

I had to solve a very similar problem just recently with Lubuntu 10.10 on an old HP Omnibook 900 with an SMC2835W PCI Card. To make this card work you have to get the correct firmware as well, as the driver (which is in the kernel) has to load the firmware into the card when it gets loaded.

This website has great instructions for the Prism54 style drivers - it sounds like the Broadcom situation is similar.

http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/p54

Good Luck!