Newbie: acer ferrari wireless

isaan · 04-07-2009, 05:09 PM

i have an acer ferrari 3200.. just installed fedora 10..

how do i setup my wireless..? i am a total newbie trying to get a grip on linux and move away from windows.. Is there a post i can read about this or if someone has dealt with this or a similar issue, your input is welcome

repo · 04-08-2009, 10:10 AM

AFAIK you need to use ndiswrapper for this laptop.
Take a look at
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=29659
on how to use ndiswrapper

farslayer · 04-08-2009, 11:27 AM

Post the output of lspci so we can see what wireless you have. there may be other options than ndiswrapper (yuck)

if it's the Broadcom BCM4306 then it should work with the b43 driver. bcm4306 (Rev. 2 uses b43legacy, Rev. 3 uses b43)

http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43

isaan · 04-09-2009, 05:06 PM

here is what i got from lspci

Code:

00:09.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)

00:0b.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5788 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 03)

also when i right click on the network icon on the launch panel it say device unmanaged, i have tried the system-config-network and activated the device and also checked the 'Controlled by NetworkManager' box but to no avail..

I have tried ndidwrapper but did not like it and gave up due to too many commands as was too complicated for a newbie like me

farslayer · 04-09-2009, 08:01 PM

Using the native driver isn't really going to be any less complicated.. but I do prefer native drivers to using a shim like ndiswrapper.
BCM4306 Rev 3 so that is the b43 Driver.

Here are step by step directions for Fedora 10 Scroll down to the section titled, Using the b43 driver
http://www.linlap.com/wiki/configuri...the+b43+driver

isaan · 04-11-2009, 05:01 PM

Thanks farslayer tried that link, followed instructions, heres what i got:

Quote:

# echo "modprobe b43" >> /etc/rc.modules"
> chmod 755 /etc/rc.modules"
bash: /etc/rc.modules
chmod 755 /etc/rc.modules: No such file or directory

Restarted the machine, and BINGO... its workin, many thanks for this..

why did it say

Quote:

No such file or directory

? did it create said directory? seems like a dumb question to ask but i'm curious

isaan · 04-11-2009, 05:07 PM

Thanks farslayer tried that link, followed instructions, heres what i got:

Quote:

# echo "modprobe b43" >> /etc/rc.modules"
> chmod 755 /etc/rc.modules"
bash: /etc/rc.modules
chmod 755 /etc/rc.modules: No such file or directory

Altho i have the wireless working.. YEAY... many thanks for this.. but i'd like to know why i got that error message?

isaan · 05-30-2009, 11:56 AM

... and now for Ubuntu 9.04? same issue, how do i make it work?

farslayer · 05-30-2009, 06:48 PM

For Ubuntu, I would suggest starting here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/b43

Quote:

simply by installing b43-firmware package

I know in Debian the b43-firmware package is in the non-free repository.. looks like you need a specific repository in Ubuntu as well then just install the firmware package.
sudo apt-get install b43-firmware

Sorry for your earlier query, I do not know why you got that error..

isaan · 05-30-2009, 09:45 PM

thats great.. i found help here

Quote:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...ative%20Driver

did exactly what it said.. lol

my query was merely for my own curiosity.. i like to know the why's and hows lol

thanks