Hi ..
Got my Laptop [HP Presario ze2000] up and running under 5.0.1 and the broadcom card working using FWCutter finally ...
But now the problem seems to be that the wireless connection is only running at around 8-10 mbps rather than the usual 45-54 under Windows ??? .. Hence it takes almost forever to get anything done on the internet .. when I 'ping' the router it takes approz 30-40 ms to get an echo and even longer to get an echo from other systems on my network
The Router is a Dlink 524 and the Wireless card is the Broadcom 4318 ..
If I boot up in 4.02 and use Ndiswrapper to setup Wireless the speed seems to be in the normal 45-54 Mbps ...[ note: I could not get the Wireless to work in 5.0.1 using Ndiswrapper ]
Any help would be greatly appreciated

thanks in advance
Wolf

Yep this is true, the bcm43xx wireless modules can only handle up to the 11Mb/sec connection which is why it is not included in my custom kernel(which is your clue).

Custom rebuild the kernel from source and disable the CONFIG_IEEE80211_SOFTMAC option;

# CONFIG_IEEE80211_SOFTMAC is not set

Then after booting to your new kernel download/install and use ndiswrapper for you wireless device;

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/

You might want to get ndiswrapper beforehand.

Lenard ... thanks

something I dont understand ... generally the Broadcom 4318 crusies along at 50+ Mbps even in version 4.02 [where I have to use ndiswrapper] it is only in ver 5.0.1 when I use fwcutter that the speed drops so severly

wolf

OK one more time........... in a bit more detail..............

Fwcutter is used to extract the firmware files from your Windows or Mac driver for your wireless interface. These firmware files are used with the new boardcom modules (bcm43xx and ieee80211_softmac) which only work up to the 11-Mb/s speed.

Ndiswrapper is a different way of using the same Windows or Mac driver, it does not need (or use) the extracted firmware files.

So with knoppix 4 you were using the ndiswrapper module and getting the "normal 45-54 Mbps", with knoppix 5 you are now using the bcm43xx and ieee80211_softmac modules and can only get the slower 8-10 Mbps speed. These two modules are also the reason why you cannot get ndiswrapper to work with knoppix 5, they take control of the wireless interface before the ndiswrapper module has a chance to load.

Thanks again Lenard ...
it seems that the more I learn the moreI realize that I have more to learn !!! your explanation was crystal clear !!
rgds
wolf