Debian 6 on a Dell Latitude D800 can't see the Broadcom BCM4306 WLAN
 

Hey all, I've been trying to get the wireless card working on my laptop and now I'm giving up and asking for help. I've tried using the wicd utility but it can't see my wireless card. I tried downloading and installing the twcutter driver but even though I'm SU'd as root I get an access denied error. I've been Googling and nothing I'm finding even looks like it's headed in the right direction for me. Can someone please point me to a web site that can help me get the wireless working in my laptop? I have a Dell Latitude D800 with Debian 6 and the wlan card is a Broadcom BCM4306. I'm fairly new to Linux so go easy on me.

Thanks,

Joe B

as root should solve your problem.

Thanks TobiSGD but:

jobee@SpeckOne:~$ su
Password:
root@SpeckOne:/home/jobee# apt-get install firmware-b43-installer
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package firmware-b43-installer

Do I need to make any changes to where my apt-get searches for updates?

Thanks,

Joe B

Never mind; that's exactly what I had to do. I had to change

to

apt-get update, then install. Now that it's installed I'm off to my next hurdle.

Thanks very much for the pointer in the right direction.

Joe B

Wow, my post last night disappeared.

Even after the b43 firmware install I'm still a no go. Running ifup wlan0 gives me the same message about ignoring an unconfigured device. I tried manually installing it in Network Devices, and once it's there I can ifup and ifdown, but it won't see or connect to anything. I've heard that there's a way to configure a device using ifconfig only. I'll give that a shot when I get home from work and see if I can get any movement.

Thanks,

Joe B

Ok, I'm not sure what I was doing wrong before but now, with my home wireless information manually entered in System > Preferences > Network Connections > Wireless tab I can get a connection. BUT, what I want to be able to do is have the ability to go somewhere and have my laptop look for available wireless connections. I just can't find where to get that set up. Ideas? Suggestions? Recommendations?

Thanks,

Joe B