I have an HP DV6 1030us and I am dual booting Windows 7 64bit and Slackware 13.0 64bit. I know there is a Broadcom wireless card and when I go to HP.com it says there are 2 drivers:

» Intel PRO/Wireless Drivers for Microsoft Windows 7 10-2009 13.0
>>>> Intel Wireless WiFi Link 5300 Intel Wireless WiFi Link 5100


» Broadcom Wireless LAN Driver for Microsoft Windows 7 10-2009 5.60.18.8
>>>> Broadcom 43224AG 802.11 a/b/g/draft-n WiFi Adapter

My question is, how do I get wireless access in Slackware? I already have it set up to work with an wired connection but I really need the wireless access to make the OS functional for me to use. I am new to Linux so please be patient. Any help is appreciated.

HP's not gonna give you Linux drivers. You'll need to find it yourself.
First, lets start with what's the wireless card that Slackware sees. Post the output of these:

LeechFace
Press the Report button, and ask for this thread to be moved to the Slackware forum. You'll get more help there.

Hi,

Welcome to LQ!

Do a search here on the 'Slackware forum' for 'Broadcom 43xx' and you will find loads of posts/solutions.

'Slackware 13.0 RC2 X86_64 Broadcom bcm4312 problems' was one of my threads that may lead you to some solutions.

On one of my laptops I finally used 'Missing your Wireless Drivers?' to get a older firmware/driver that worked for a bcm4312 chipset. I tried firmware from SlackBuilds for the bcm43xx but could not get a reliable connection with my chipset.

ongtec,

lspci -v gave me Broadcom BCM 4322 as my wireless controller. I also used the other command but I am not sure what to look for. Do you know of a good resource I can find a driver from for my system? Second I don't know how to install the drive once I find it. Also someone suggested to me to look for a program called wicd to set up my wireless connection. I didn't find that program as being installed.

Hi,

You did look at the links that I provided in the above post?

OneBuck,

I did look at that link. I am not sure that it applies to me since I am not using the RC release. So I followed this link to get the driver with instruction s in a read me file. It wasn't easy but I am pretty sure I have got the driver loaded properly. I want to try to get it working before moving on to troubleshooting. I need to keep this simple for now because I am new to Linux. Also, the driver at the following link was released in September so I think it may be a newer version than the one you were using in August.

(http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php)

Everyone,

The next step is getting my wireless running. I hear a lot about wicd. How do i install this, I did a full install and it is not there as far as I can tell i searched apps for it. So where do I get and how do I install it? BTW thanks for all the help I am really excited to get into Slackware so I can teach my friends and family the joys of linux. My mom is still running Windows98 YIKES!!!!

Regards,

LeechFace

UPDATE:

I have got wicd installed and working. You guys are a great help. When I open the program and look for wireless networks to connect to it says there are none available. I have another computer connected to the wireless so I know the router is not the issue. Also I am in an apartment so there should be several signals available.

Regards,

LeechFace

Welcome to the Great Broadcom Trap. Because of licensing, there is an interesting twist to getting Broadcom wireless devices working. The kernel contains the b43 driver, which is probably being loaded (check lsmod to see). However, the b43 driver is only half the equation: You also need firmware for b43 to work, and because of Broadcom's licensing, nobody can distribute that. The upshot is that when you first install Linux, the card appears to work because b43 is present, but doesn't actually work because there is no firmware. So you really have a few alternatives here:

1) Broadcom's own Linux driver - This doesn't require additional firmware but you do have to compile it yourself. It is actually pretty easy.

2) Continue with b43 - In this case visit Slackbuilds.org, search on b43 and install the needed tools and firmware.

3) Ndiswrapper - I would use this only if the previous two methods fail. It is a way to use a Windows driver in Linux.

Hangdog,

I am not using that driver. I am using the Broadcom driver. It is called wl and is loaded in the lsmod. There are no old drivers such as the b43. So just to recap: I have the Broadcom driver from Broadcom installed and when I open wicd it does not discover any networks???? Please Help, aslo, I have a NetGear USB wifi dongle, whould that be a better direction to go in considering everyone is stating there are issues with the Broadcom driver..?? The netgear dongle is the WNDA3100


here is my lsmod:

Module Size Used by
lib80211_crypt_tkip 9600 0
wl 1280320 0
lib80211 6308 2 lib80211_crypt_tkip,wl
i915 168584 1
drm 168128 2 i915
snd_seq_dummy 3172 0
snd_seq_oss 33536 0
snd_seq_midi_event 7264 1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq 56320 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device 7188 3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss 42976 0
snd_mixer_oss 16768 1 snd_pcm_oss
ipv6 288704 18
pcmcia 36824 0
pcmcia_core 36804 1 pcmcia
cpufreq_ondemand 8016 2
acpi_cpufreq 8536 0
freq_table 4160 2 cpufreq_ondemand,acpi_cpufreq
ppdev 8488 0
lp 11972 0
parport_pc 28200 0
parport 36752 3 ppdev,lp,parport_pc
fuse 60096 5
snd_hda_codec_intelhdmi 13728 1
snd_hda_codec_idt 68256 1
joydev 11968 0
snd_hda_intel 27176 2
snd_hda_codec 60192 3 snd_hda_codec_intelhdmi,snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep 8456 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 80872 3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
uvcvideo 63436 0
snd_timer 22256 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
videodev 43168 1 uvcvideo
snd 65000 16 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_hda_codec_intelhdmi,snd_hda_codec_i dt,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_timer
i2c_i801 10400 0
soundcore 7168 1 snd
hp_accel 10720 0
v4l1_compat 15364 2 uvcvideo,videodev
thermal 18880 0
rtc_cmos 11928 0
snd_page_alloc 9616 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
r8169 37860 0
led_class 4360 1 hp_accel
video 20148 0
v4l2_compat_ioctl32 10912 1 videodev
processor 43960 4 acpi_cpufreq,thermal
rtc_core 19652 1 rtc_cmos
psmouse 46748 0
intel_agp 30960 1
mii 5216 1 r8169
thermal_sys 13088 3 thermal,video,processor
btusb 14196 0
wmi 7456 0
output 3136 1 video
evdev 11392 11
serio_raw 6116 0
sg 29920 0
rtc_lib 2880 1 rtc_core
battery 12488 0
lis3lv02d 9024 1 hp_accel
bluetooth 58308 1 btusb
button 7328 0
ac 5000 0
hwmon 2728 1 thermal_sys


Regards,

LeechFace

# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"" Nickname:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:44 Mb/s Tx-Power:32 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thrff Fragment thrff
Power Managementmode:All packets received
Link Quality=5/5 Signal level=0 dBm Noise level=0 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0



GOT IT !!! I had to run iwconfig to see that wifi is under eth1 not wlan1 and then I made that adjustment in the wireless manager preferences. THANKS TO ALL !!!!

Hi,

Glad to hear you are up. You could still have used the linked firmware, you need to understand the usage of the level of software in '-current' and your stable install. The thread on RC would lead you to the same solutions. Plus the firmware that was linked would allow you to have and use the 'wlan0' device plus stable firmware.

That's the problem with the Broadcom STA driver. For some the device is recognized as 'eth1' device. Adjust your configuration information to use that device. Look forward to some issues with the 'STA'.

BTW, I would upgrade 'wicd-1.6.2-x86_64-1' to 'wicd-1.7.0-x86_64-1' package which is much improved.