This question will sound like I'm asking how to get my BCM4318 wireless card to work in Fedora6, but actually, I've found enough contradictory information online that I'll eventually figure it out. What I really need help with is a deeper question about Linux distros, so please bear with me here.

I have a number of corporate and government customers who would gravitate towards Linux desktops if they were not intimidated by its reputation for technical difficulty. The people who maintain desktop machines in these organizations are unlikely to solve a new problem on their own, so any new hardware, OS, or network has got to be rock solid.

The problem was similar with servers years ago, but I could solve it by saying "here, Mr. Ops Manager, is the URL for Redhat 6.2 - spend an hour or two installing and configuring it and you'll be pleasantly surprised". Once they saw it was easier to use, and requires less specialized knowledge, than Solaris or HP/UX or whatever, I'd make some "sales".

Now is the time to do the same thing with desktops, but I can't, because of just *one* silly problem: most IT managers I know use wireless cards with Broadcom chipsets. I can get their attention long enough to get them to create a second partition with FC6 or Ubuntu on it. I cannot, however, get the IT guys to spend an extra day figuring out NDIS or recompiling the kernel, even if they have the skills. What I need is one of the following solutions:

1. A distro that comes with wireless card support. I mean *full* wireless card support.
2. A one-click installation, ideally, accessible seamlessly from Yum or Yast.

Oh, right, and failing that I would like to hear the latest wisdom about BCM4318 on FC6. I don't have time to do figure it out for myself right now, so I just stare wistfully at the DNA thing...

Blacklist the bcm43xx module and use ndiswrapper with the proper Windows driver.

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/

Thanks, that's one of about 5 solutions I'd already spotted. What I'm hoping for is a solution that non-technical or semi-technical people can use. Sorry for not being clearer before.

OK here you go step by step for Fedora Core 6;

Blacklisting the bcm43xx module is done as root by editing the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist file and adding a couple of lines like;

# wireless drivers
blacklist bcm43xx

For Fedora Core 6 add the Linva repo to your yum repos, as root type something like;

rpm -Uvh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-6.rpm

Or just download then install the package if no Internet connection is available for the system. Then install the ndiswrapper rpm file (and any needed dependencies) as root;

yum -y install ndiswrapper

Get one of the many Windows drivers that are known to work, like;
(32-bit) ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/note...iver/80211.zip
(64-bit) ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/note...bit/80211g.zip

Unzip the file; unzip 80211.zip or 80211g

The install the driver:

using the 80211/BG directory from the unzip file for the 32-bit driver;
ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5a.inf

using the WL_T60H906(8.0.10.0,XP64_logo) directory for the 64-bit driver;
ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf


Reboot the system.

Note that automatic software updates might break any customizations. I've heard that Fedora project does not backport patches (like Debian Stable, for example) but uses new (patched) versions of the programs instead. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

The problem is that if the wireless packages are updated, thing _might_ get broken, which is probably not what you want. I'd advance with any updates with caution, if reliable behavior is what you consider most important.

Thanks, Basileus, I wish Linux had an ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν such as yourself. From what you're saying, my only current choice is to script a solution such as Lenard's above and tell my customer, "look, here are CDs for a Linux desktop you can use out of the box. Oh, and if your wireless card won't work, click on this URL of mine". There are a couple of problems with that - first, the customer will be smart enough to see that Fedora does not always work out of the box; and second, it puts me in the distribution business, which is bad for me and bad for Linux.

Next question: is the answer the same for Ubuntu? Right now the RH family is the only Linux most CIO types have heard of, but Ubuntu may soon become famous if Oracle "buys" it. I had Ubuntu on my laptop for a while and ran into the exact same problem as I did with FC6.

To ryou:

First not all wireless cards work out of the box for Windows either, some do not even work well with the supply software and drivers from the manufacturer for Windows. No difference with Linux some work some do not. Some times one need to reload drivers even with Windows after an OS / core upgrade.

Honestly, I have never used the rpm version of ndiswrapper, I do have the source code and a nifty little script that will build, install and restart the network service after a kernel upgrade, takes less then a minute no rebooting required. No need to re-install the Windows driver also.

If you want to run Ubuntu run Ubuntu this is your choice, if your customers want you to install and support something else then you better have the knowledge support them.

Do not worry about drivers automatic updates or wireless packages breaking things, 99% of the time the updates do not break anything. Sometimes you need to also upgrade/rebuild third party stuff which might take a few minutes or a bit longer, this is just part of support and normal no matter what you supoort, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Windows or whatever.

Oh, here's the nifty little script;

cd /usr/src/ndiswrapper-1.28
sudo make distclean
sudo make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
sudo service network restart
cd

I have it saved as a file called WirelessBuild and I run it as a normal user, I did have to set the execute bit for the file; chmod +x WirelessBuild

Also note that ndiswrapper has dependancies which may not be configured on all systems.

For most cards or at least older kernels from the /boot/config or /usr/src/linux/.config.

CONFIG_NET_RADIO=y
CONFIG_NET_WIRELESS=y

Which I had when I originally setup ndiswrapper. Only it didn't quite work. Even though everything ndiswrapper wise seemed correct and installed. With the bcm 4318 or at least a 2.6.18 kernel. I had to add a few more options, most of which were added in the process of setting up bcm43xx.

CONFIG_IEEE80211=m
CONFIG_IEEE80211_CRYPT_WEP=m
CONFIG_IEEE80211_SOFTMAC=m

And the modules for bcm43xx. Taking note of a reference somewhere that bcm4318 does NOT support PIO.

CONFIG_BCM43XX=m
CONFIG_BCM43XX_DEBUG=y
CONFIG_BCM43XX_DMA=y
CONFIG_BCM43XX_DMA_MODE=y

I'm not sure if I need those, but I have them. And now my ndiswrapper configuration works. Things have gotten a little more complex to setup on this newer hardware. As opposed to the simpler that one would hope technology would evolve to.

My lsmod for related modules:

bcm43xx 420672 0
ieee80211softmac 31104 1 bcm43xx
ieee80211 32520 2 bcm43xx,ieee80211softmac
ieee80211_crypt 6016 1 ieee80211
ndiswrapper 179220 0

I'm not sure if it will work with bcm43xx not loaded, but I would assume it would since it seems to be using the ndiswrapper driver. I know a little techy. But the only other options are to get other better supported hardware, or wait six months for you current hardware to have better support (assuming some interest/level of support).

Shadow_7 you have no need for ndiswrapper module being loaded, the bcm43xx module is a native Linux module. You do need the firmware extracted from the Windows file. Use the bcm43xx-fwcutter package that can be downloaded as an rpm package or built from source;

http://developer.berlios.de/project/...?group_id=4547

FYI:The native Linux bcm43xx module is not stable a fair number of the 43xx chipsets;

http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/?go=devices

.

Well need is a relative thing. Many seem to report range issues with bcm43xx for my chipset. And I'm more used to using ndiswrapper. And I like having wlan0 as the wireless device name. While bcm43xx shows promise, for the 4318 device it's reportedly temperamental. Shortness of range, and other stability issues.

With ndiswrapper, I've downloaded 14GB of data in the last 24 hours and haven't had to unload and reload the wireless driver. Which is an improvement over my WMP54G card that uses basically the same driver and seems to stutter after 2GB of transfers.

I was actually in the process of setting up bcm43xx when my ndiswrapper starting working correctly. And once that happened, I no longer had a need to continue to setup bcm43xx. Although I suppose I will someday out of curiousity.