[SOLVED] Broadcom Wireless / Debian installation

coffeebug · 08-18-2010, 12:33 PM

I have so many issues.
I found linuxwireless.org, which seems great, but I'm kinda stumped by basics to get my wireless card working.

I have kernel 2.6.26 and I think I need 2.6.27, but update manager says my system is up-to-date. How do I get an upgraded kernel?

I have a wireless card but I cannot find anything in the UI to enable it, or connect to my home net. Would Debian come with a connection manager with an oddball name?

Jim

Kenny_Strawn · 08-18-2010, 12:52 PM

The current kernel is 2.6.35.2, a full 9 versions ahead of yours. You may need to try the "testing" branch of Debian or perhaps ditch Debian and go with Ubuntu or Mint, which recognize plenty of wireless cards (for one, Ubuntu has a modified 2.6.35 kernel that has perhaps even more hardware support than the mainstream kernel, and Mint is based on Ubuntu).

snowday · 08-18-2010, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coffeebug

I have so many issues.
I found linuxwireless.org, which seems great, but I'm kinda stumped by basics to get my wireless card working.

I have kernel 2.6.26 and I think I need 2.6.27, but update manager says my system is up-to-date. How do I get an upgraded kernel?

I have a wireless card but I cannot find anything in the UI to enable it, or connect to my home net. Would Debian come with a connection manager with an oddball name?

Jim

Hi Jim, welcome to the forums!

Debian Lenny has excellent support for most Broadcom cards; you probably do not need to switch distros or kernels to get your card working.

The first step is to figure out specifically which card you have (it makes a difference whether you use the b43 or wl module).

These two wiki pages should get you started, good luck!

http://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx
http://wiki.debian.org/wl

coffeebug · 08-19-2010, 07:51 AM

Thanks both.
Glad I started in the Newbie forum! Not going to do the "testing branch" until I give up on the http://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx procedures.

(bcm4306rev 2 needs b43legacy)

uname -a
Linux POS-Compaq 2.6.26-2-686 #1 SMP Mon Jun 21 05:58:44 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux

I may be OK with my kernel and downgrading the firmware from 4 to 3 using fwcutter.

[editing my post]

Working through issues....I'm happy for the moment