This is a problem that many people have written about, but have yet to find a Slackware solution. There's some proposed workarounds on the Ubuntu forums (Google-searching led me there), but they don't work on Slackware - I'm not an idiot, so please don't assume I followed the instructions verbatim.

I have a Dell Vostro 1000 laptop, and - for the most part - Slackware 12.1 runs beautifully on it. The only problem I have is with getting my wireless to work through ndiswrapper. The laptop's networking is all Broadcom, which worked fine under Debian, but I longed for a change - I needed the amount of tweaking and non-automagicness of Slackware.

The problem (as is well documented amongst many other distributions' forums) is as follows:

1. Since the networking is all provided by Broadcom, I need the b44 driver module for Ethernet, and the bcmwl5.inf file inserted through ndiswrapper for wireless. The b43 driver is crap - let's face it.
2. b44 and b43 require the ssb module; ndiswrapper conflicts with the ssb/b43 combo (or maybe just ssb - I need to tinker with this some more).
3. Removing the ssb module means removing the b44 module, leaving me with absolutely no networking. ndiswrapper won't even load if b43, b44 and ssb are blacklisted.
4. Blacklisting b43 and ssb still leads to ssb being loaded as it is needed by b44 (b43 can be successfully blacklisted).

Googling has led me to discover that this is a problem with the 2.6.24 kernel release, but is supposedly fixed in the 2.6.25 branch.

Does anyone here have any possible input as to how I could go about fixing this problem? Is there a nice workaround?

When I have the time, at home, I will try and compile the 2.6.25(.2) kernel, but I would much rather not do this; simply for the reason that running "make oldconfig" leaves me with an excruciatingly long, interactive yes/no/? list to go through. I like the current presets in the Slackware 12.1-provided kernel, I just want to copy those settings over, but get rid of the need for that blasted ssb module (which is what seems to be the source of my frustration here).

Any suggestions/comments? (They would be greatly appreciated, and welcome.)

I could not get this to work well or consistently, and ended up reverting to an older kernel, which causes some other problems, but at least my wifi is fast and reliable. BTW, this is not a Slackware problem, it is a kernel problem. It also depends on the rev of your wifi chip.

However, have you tried loading ndiswrapper first, and then loading b44? ssb should not cause you a problem if ndiswrapper is already loaded.

Brian

Hmm...I didn't think of trying that. I'll let you know how it turns out.

EDIT: I've ran into a small problem - I ran "sudo cat /etc/rc.d/rc.* | grep ssb" (I also tried it with "grep b44") and both results returned nothing. I have no idea where the modules are being loaded from. :S

I would assume that udev is automatically loading the driver. I try building a custom kernel and leaving ssb out of it.

Actually, thinking about it, try looking at the configuration for the network devices. I don't recall were slackware stores them ATM.

Try it manually first. If it does work, blacklist b44 and ssb, and then load it _after_ ndiswrapper in rc.modules or rc.netdevice.

Brian

I also have a broadcom card that works with the bcmwl5 driver (Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI (rev 01))
I had the same problem and all i did was blacklisted the modules in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

and then loaded the ndiswrapper module in /etc/rc.d/rc.local.
It works for me

This is OT, but out of interest, what's wrong with b43?

Good question, Nylex.

indienick ->

When was the last time you checked b43? Half year ago I would completely agree with your opinion, but now it works on my several cards with different chips just perfectly. All it needs is proper firmware.

In the past there have been some serious stability issues, particularly on the 4318 chipset. However, most of that was the bcm43xx version of the driver and it could be that b43 has improved that significantly. The other major complaint was that bcm43xx was limited to 802.11b speeds, even on an 802.11g chipset. I'm not sure that they've cracked that one in b43 yet.

Just as I thought give b43 a chance.

Shweeeeeeet! Thank you, everyone, for your replies! I rmmodded b44 and ssb, and modprobed ndiswrapper; the wireless LED "lit up like a Dutch brothel."

Any attempts to use bcm43xx and b43 have left me significantly frustrated - I have, since, given up on them, and always just resorted to ndiswrapper; it's easy, and simple, I suppose you could say it's slack.

Well, in my case, it just didn't work. It would recognize the card, I could see the interface, but I could not get an IP address. My card is a bcm4306 rev 03, which appears to have fallen through the cracks between b43 an b43legacy.

Brian

Fair enough. I've got a 4306 card and b43 appears to work fine. Thanks also to others for their answers!

I am having the same problem with the same chipset 4306 Rev3. did you ever find a solution? I can't get it to work with ndiswrapper, b43, bcm43xx, fwcutter, or wicd. I am at my wits end, but I love my Slack.any ideas for the Rev 3? I have gotten it to work on all of the "automagic" distros ddd debian based but not with slack...

Thanks, and I could really use the help here...
I am running 12.1