Hello,

I have a Gateway MX6121 laptop with an integrated Broadcom bcm4318 wireless chipset. The operating system is PCLinuxOS 2007. The kernel version is 2.6.18.8.tex5 as listed by uname -r

I've had the wireless card running under Windows XP successfully. I have also had it running using ndiswrapper on PCLinuxOS 2007, but it was behaving funny and disconnecting randomly, not re-appearing on reboots, etc. The monitoring tool NetApplet would only report the signal strength at the time of connection. This was displayed as 5 green bars in the system tray. The signal strength indicator would not update as I walked further away from my router. This behaviour was strange as I never knew what my actual signal strength was. Obviously, I would like to know my signal strength in real time.

Could somebody help me install a "native" linux driver for this wireless adapter; I've given up on the ndiswrapper solution. I have read thousands of forum posts regarding the use of fwcutter, etc. but nothing has worked for me so far.

Thanks in advance.

The bcm43xx solution is imperfect although recent versions are supposed to support the 4318. You are much better off using ndiswrapper. I have had good success in pclos with two different machines using 4318. This was without blacklisting anything and using the pclos control center. Kernel and software updates can upset ndiswrapper solutions.

You can check what .inf file you used. bcmw5.inf or bcmw5a.inf are available. I have used both with no discernable difference. Make sure one or the other is selected and that modprobe is not trying to load both. You could also add bcm43xx to the /etc/modules/blacklist because that could be causing the trouble too. Sometimes kernel drivers are loaded regardless of ndiswrapper.

You have read thousands of posts on this so I've probably told you nothing you do not know. The best thing to do is delete the network connections and start fresh.

Thanks for replying.

I did try blacklisting bcm43xx, while trying both .inf files mentioned.

I know that people have gotten the native drivers to work, and I really want to go that route; Whether it be bcm43xx, or b43. I've used the ndiswrapper solution, and I wasn't happy with the results.

If anybody has experience with this, I would appreciate the guidance.

Thanks.

I've given up on PCLinuxOS when it comes to this wireless chipset. Moved on to MEPIS and I am very pleased with the results. Case Closed.

Thanks.