Hi,

I am trying to configure wireless access for my del laptop, N4010.
On searching for network devices it does not detect a wireless or ethernet card on its own. There is an option to add a wireless card.
To add a wireless card it asks for following parameters:
adapter : it is a drop down menu
(There is no broadcom or dw1501 inthis dropdown)
Device : it is a drop down menu
(If this is the first device i'm tryin to add, would it be eth0. or does the selection depend on some other parameter like PCI slot)
IRQ : (i have checked it to be 7 on windows, so suppose same sould have to be used on linux)
MEM : (would starting address of memory be fine or a range has to be specified)
Clue less on remaining parameters.
IO :
IO1 :
IO2 :
DMA0 :
DMA1 :

how would "lspci" be of help.

Frequently the lspci output will show what chipset is being used in the wireless card, and that is pretty much determines what driver should be used. Since some chipsets, particularly those from Broadcom, require the user to install additional software or firmware, knowing the chipset really sets the direction. Since the installation didn't detect the wireless card to begin with, we do need to understand what hardware is there so we can point you in an appropriate direction.

By the way, are you using RHEL 4 on this laptop or something else? The reason I'm asking is that wireless support in Linux has made a lot of strides since RHEL 4, and you might be better off with a different, and more modern, distro.

I'm using RHEL5 on this laptop.

(I am also using windows 7 on the same system and it detects wireless card to be using memory area of 16Kb from f0300000, so pasting only the output for wireless card)

lspci -nvvv had the following output for wireless card.
04:00.0 0280: 14e4:4727 (rev 01)
Subsystem: 1028:0010
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 7
Region 0: Memory at F0300000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0+,D1-,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold+)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- Dsel=0 DScale=2 PME-
Capabilities: [58]Vendor Specific Information
Capabilities: [48] Message Signalled Interrupts: 64bit+ Queue-0/0 Enabled-
Address: 0000000000000000 Data: 0000
Capabilities: [d0] Express /endpoint IRQ 0
Device: Supported: MaxPayload 128 bytes, PhantFunc 0, ExtTag+
Device: Latency L0s <4us, L1 unlimited
Device: AtnBtn- AtnInd- PwrInd-
Device: Errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-
Device: Alxd0rd- ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop-
Device: MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 128 bytes
Link: Supported Speed 2.5Gbp/s, Width x1, ASPM L0s L1, Port 0
Link: Latency L0s <4us, L1 <64us
Link: ASPM L0s L1 Enabled RCB 64 bytes CommClk+ ExtSynch-
Link: Speed 2.5Gb/s, Width x1
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [13c] Virtual Channel
Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number f1-70-9d-ff-ff-a1-00-00
Capabilities: [16c] Power Budgeting


The manufacturer is Broadcom

Could you please post the output of just plain lspci? The chipset isn't listed if you use the -nvvv flags, and that is the information that is needed. There are at least 3 different drivers for Broadcom chipsets (four if you count ndiswrapper) and the specific driver needed depends on the chipset.

output of lscpi:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 12)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor PCI Express x16 Root Port (rev 12)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset HECI Controller (rev 06)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 06)
00:1b.0 Audio device: IntelCOrporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 06)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: IntelCOrporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 06)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: IntelCOrporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev 06)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: IntelCOrporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 6 (rev 06)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 06)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 06)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 5 Series Chipset LPC Interface Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corportion 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset SMBus Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Thermal Subsystem (rev 06)
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Manhattan [Mobility Radeon HD 5000 Series]
02:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc Manhattan HDMI Audio [Mobility Radeon HD 5000 Series]
04:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation Unknown device 4727 (rev 01)
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Athreos Communications AR8152 v1.1 Fast Ethernet (rev c1)
ff:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture Generic Non-core Register (rev 02)
ff:00.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture System Address Decoder (rev 02)
ff:02.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Link 0 (rev 02)
ff:02.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Physical 0 (rev 02)
ff:02.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 02)
ff:02.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 02)

Cripes. That figures. Is Windows any more informative about this card? I suspect that RHEL is relying on an old kernel that doesn't handle wireless very well. Is there some reason why you're using it rather than something more desktop oriented? And have you contacted Red Hat for support since that is what you pay for?

The only other alternative is to play hit and miss with the drivers available. If you look in lsmod and see that b43 is loading, you could try to install firmware and see if that enables wireless. Otherwise you could try to install the Broadcom sta driver and see if that works. If b43 is being loaded, you would have to blacklist it if you install the sta driver.

In the services tab windows says it is BCM43XX, so i suppose i would have to use sta driver.
I have not bought support for RHEL5, i my using RHEL as i have to and not by choice.

I will try the driver and update if it helps.

Just be aware that the sta driver does not work with all Broadcom chipsets, so if it doesn't work, b43 might.