I realise that 2008 is based on Ubuntu and 2007 is not, but why is 2007 able to use my wireless broadcom with less trouble than my WinXP machine, and Mandriva 2008 cannot use the card at all. My machine has 6 different distros working on it, but only 2008 fails to connect, though it shows up the network I want when scanned. Any help would be appreciated.

Can you tell us what driver you were using before? That may help pin down why it stopped working. Off the top of my head, I'm guessing that the switch from bcm43xx to b43 has something to do with it, but without more information, that is only a guess.

I am not well grounded in Linux. I like my Mandriva 2007 setup very much and prefer it against XP for some jobs. I do not know how much I can get to understand as late in life as I am, but I have to follow step by step instructions written by others, because I am not familiar with all the very basic Linux commands and procedures. When I installed 2007 it asked to be directed to the .inf file. That is all I needed to do to get it working. It is far more stable than my XP wireless connection. For some reason I have been unable to get a Ubuntu or the like to work wirelessly. Though they show the name of the network I want to connect to. On some distros I have had to direct it to the .sys file and that seemed to be enough.

From what you've described, Mandriva2007 was almost certainly using ndiswrapper. That is a program that allows a Windows driver to function in Linux.

What would help is if I could see the output of the lsmod command. Open a console and enter this:

lsmod > lsmodoutput.txt


That will create a file called lsmodoutput.txt that you can open in any text editor and copy and paste here.

This is the output!

iptable_raw 2656 0
xt_comment 2336 0
xt_policy 4480 0
xt_multiport 3744 4
ipt_ULOG 7748 0
ipt_TTL 2688 0
ipt_ttl 2336 0
ipt_TOS 2560 0
ipt_tos 2176 0
ipt_SAME 2880 0
ipt_REJECT 4288 4
ipt_REDIRECT 2720 0
ipt_recent 8312 0
ipt_owner 2464 0
ipt_NETMAP 2656 0
ipt_MASQUERADE 3872 0
ipt_LOG 6656 9
ipt_iprange 2336 0
ipt_ECN 3232 0
ipt_ecn 2656 0
ipt_CLUSTERIP 7460 0
ipt_ah 2400 0
ipt_addrtype 2304 0
nf_nat_tftp 2208 0
nf_nat_snmp_basic 9700 0
nf_nat_sip 4864 0
nf_nat_pptp 3552 0
nf_nat_proto_gre 3012 1 nf_nat_pptp
nf_nat_irc 2816 0
nf_nat_h323 6880 0
nf_nat_ftp 3424 0
nf_nat_amanda 2560 0
ts_kmp 2592 5
nf_conntrack_amanda 4544 1 nf_nat_amanda
nf_conntrack_tftp 5492 1 nf_nat_tftp
nf_conntrack_sip 8788 1 nf_nat_sip
nf_conntrack_proto_sctp 8520 0
nf_conntrack_pptp 6176 1 nf_nat_pptp
nf_conntrack_proto_gre 5152 1 nf_conntrack_pptp
nf_conntrack_netlink 24416 0
nf_conntrack_netbios_ns 3072 0
nf_conntrack_irc 6200 1 nf_nat_irc
nf_conntrack_h323 48572 1 nf_nat_h323
nf_conntrack_ftp 8768 1 nf_nat_ftp
xt_tcpmss 2656 0
xt_pkttype 2400 4
xt_physdev 3120 0
xt_NFQUEUE 2496 0
xt_NFLOG 2560 0
xt_MARK 2784 0
xt_mark 2400 0
xt_mac 2400 0
xt_limit 2944 0
xt_length 2464 0
xt_helper 2944 0
xt_hashlimit 8748 0
ip6_tables 12836 1 xt_hashlimit
xt_dccp 3588 0
xt_conntrack 3072 0
xt_CONNMARK 3200 0
xt_connmark 2688 0
xt_CLASSIFY 2368 0
xt_tcpudp 3680 11
xt_state 2784 11
iptable_nat 7332 0
nf_nat 16364 14 ipt_SAME,ipt_REDIRECT,ipt_NETMAP,ipt_MASQUERADE,nf_nat_tftp,nf_nat_sip,nf_nat_pptp,nf_nat_proto_gre, nf_nat_irc,nf_nat_h323,nf_nat_ftp,nf_nat_amanda,nf_conntrack_netlink,iptable_nat
nf_conntrack_ipv4 14988 13 iptable_nat
nf_conntrack 54824 29 ipt_MASQUERADE,ipt_CLUSTERIP,nf_nat_tftp,nf_nat_snmp_basic,nf_nat_sip,nf_nat_pptp,nf_nat_irc,nf_nat_ h323,nf_nat_ftp,nf_nat_amanda,nf_conntrack_amanda,nf_conntrack_tftp,nf_conntrack_sip,nf_conntrack_pr oto_sctp,nf_conntrack_pptp,nf_conntrack_proto_gre,nf_conntrack_netlink,nf_conntrack_netbios_ns,nf_co nntrack_irc,nf_conntrack_h323,nf_conntrack_ftp,xt_helper,xt_conntrack,xt_CONNMARK,xt_connmark,xt_sta te,iptable_nat,nf_nat,nf_conntrack_ipv4
iptable_mangle 2976 1
nfnetlink 5112 4 nf_conntrack_netlink,nf_nat,nf_conntrack_ipv4,nf_conntrack
nvidia 6213232 24
iptable_filter 3104 1
ip_tables 11716 4 iptable_raw,iptable_nat,iptable_mangle,iptable_filter
x_tables 12196 44 xt_comment,xt_policy,xt_multiport,ipt_ULOG,ipt_TTL,ipt_ttl,ipt_TOS,ipt_tos,ipt_SAME,ipt_REJECT,ipt_R EDIRECT,ipt_recent,ipt_owner,ipt_NETMAP,ipt_MASQUERADE,ipt_LOG,ipt_iprange,ipt_ECN,ipt_ecn,ipt_CLUST ERIP,ipt_ah,ipt_addrtype,xt_tcpmss,xt_pkttype,xt_physdev,xt_NFQUEUE,xt_NFLOG,xt_MARK,xt_mark,xt_mac, xt_limit,xt_length,xt_helper,xt_hashlimit,ip6_tables,xt_dccp,xt_conntrack,xt_CONNMARK,xt_connmark,xt _CLASSIFY,xt_tcpudp,xt_state,iptable_nat,ip_tables
af_packet 17960 2
snd_seq_dummy 3492 0
ipv6 252772 11 nf_conntrack_h323
snd_seq_oss 29280 0
snd_seq_midi_event 6816 1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq 45968 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device 7244 3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss 37312 0
snd_mixer_oss 14624 1 snd_pcm_oss
video 15112 0
thermal 11304 0
sbs 16520 0
snd_hda_intel 279548 0
snd_hwdep 7332 1 snd_hda_intel
hsfmc97sis 63544 0
hsfmc97ati 62424 0
hsfmc97ali 69120 0
fan 4260 0
hsfmc97via 64704 0
hsfmc97ich 66936 0
hcfpcihw 9472 0
hsfpcibasic2 63352 0
container 4032 0
hcfpciserial 21508 1 hcfpcihw
hcfpciengine 834676 2 hcfpcihw,hcfpciserial
hsfserial 21540 6 hsfmc97sis,hsfmc97ati,hsfmc97ali,hsfmc97via,hsfmc97ich,hsfpcibasic2
button 6576 0
hsfengine 1291884 7 hsfmc97sis,hsfmc97ati,hsfmc97ali,hsfmc97via,hsfmc97ich,hsfpcibasic2,hsfserial
hsfosspec 85128 8 hsfmc97sis,hsfmc97ati,hsfmc97ali,hsfmc97via,hsfmc97ich,hsfpcibasic2,hsfserial,hsfengine
hsfsoar 86472 6 hsfmc97sis,hsfmc97ati,hsfmc97ali,hsfmc97via,hsfmc97ich,hsfpcibasic2
hcfpciosspec 56364 2 hcfpciserial,hcfpciengine
dock 7600 0
battery 10344 0
ac 4452 0
binfmt_misc 9352 1
loop 14212 0
ext3 118824 4
jbd 50184 1 ext3
ide_cd 35488 0
dm_mirror 20032 0
dm_mod 47776 1 dm_mirror
ide_generic 1824 0 [permanent]
ide_disk 14496 3
amd74xx 14716 0 [permanent]
ide_core 99396 4 ide_cd,ide_generic,ide_disk,amd74xx
floppy 54692 0
cpufreq_ondemand 7404 1
cpufreq_conservative 6664 0
cpufreq_powersave 2240 0
powernow_k8 14432 0
freq_table 4544 2 cpufreq_ondemand,powernow_k8
processor 25764 2 thermal,powernow_k8
amd64_agp 10116 0
agpgart 27592 2 nvidia,amd64_agp
ndiswrapper 178748 0
i2c_nforce2 5664 0
k8temp 5120 0
snd_intel8x0 29756 3
snd_ac97_codec 97732 1 snd_intel8x0
ehci_hcd 30828 0
i2c_core 20384 2 nvidia,i2c_nforce2
ohci_hcd 20036 0
forcedeth 45192 0
ac97_bus 2752 1 snd_ac97_codec
usbcore 113928 5 hsfosspec,ndiswrapper,ehci_hcd,ohci_hcd
snd_pcm 68996 5 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer 19460 3 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd 43972 15 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_hwdep,snd_intel8x0,sn d_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 6592 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 8456 3 snd_hda_intel,snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
evdev 8480 3
tsdev 7072 0
sg 30680 0
scsi_wait_scan 1984 0
sd_mod 25888 5
sata_nv 15972 4
libata 109424 1 sata_nv
scsi_mod 124908 4 sg,scsi_wait_scan,sd_mod,libata

Good, ndiswrapper is in the list, but b43 isn't, so we don't have to worry about a driver conflict. What you probably need to do is reinstall the Windows driver (the .inf and .sys files). There are good instructions on how to do that at the Ndiswrapper wiki, but pretty much you'll need to run

ndiswrapper -i /path/to/driver.inf

And if there are no errors, you should be ready to go

Firstly thank you so much for your patience. I am currently replying on my 2008 and with my broadcom connection working. I do not know exactly what I did to get it working, but watch this space. I fiddled about with : remove connections. There was a 1:9 and a 1:9:9! I still need to learn more about what I am doing, but thanks again.

Congrats! Yes, if you do figure out what you changed to get it to work, please post back here. You never know who will stumble into this thread with a similar problem.

Thanks again for your patience. I think the problem is that it does not connect automatically when I boot up. When I clicked on the not connected icon at the bottom, it took me through the business of setting up a new network connection, so that I had two or three competing connections. Now I know how to get it working, but not how to get it to work automatically on booting up!

Well, if you're issuing console commands, you could write a simple script that runs at startup time. If you're using the GUI, I'm afraid I can't help as I've never used Mandriva.

I will try and help you a little bit on writing a simple script and I am not trying to be smart either. When you can find extra time google for 'script writing' and there are plenty of tutorials from people who can write and teach better than I can.

For this, a script is pretty easy.

All scripts start out something like this:

#!/bin/bash

Which basically tells the script what console it will run under (almost always bash for Linux). After that, you just add the normal console commands as you would enter them. So a full blown script could look something like this:

All scripts are are a file that contain valid commands. You make the file executable, then you just run that file and all the commands will be run. It can get a LOT more complex than this, but at its most basic, a bash script is nothing but commands.

No need for the script, remlapsirhc. The next time you need to go through the business of setting up a new network connection, look on the gui for the check box that indicates "start at boot". I don't have it in front of me at the moment, and I'm doing this from (poor) memory, but I do recall that you'll see it once you click the "advanced" (or possibly "options") button when you manage your connection. It works.

remlapsirhc - I just checked and, of course, I got it wrong. Still, there's no need for the script (even though it will work). All you have to do, once, when you first configure your wireless network, is to check the right box.

Menu->Tools->System Tools->Configure Your Computer and enter in the root password. From there, choose

Network and Internet
Set up a new network interface, then
Wireless, then, as you already have, click the option to use a windows driver (with ndiswrapper).

From then on, since you've already established a connection in the past, the entries that work for you, for your essid and (optional) encryption information, should still be there, and you can just keep choosing "next" at the bottom of the page until the last, where you should see the check box to "Start At Boot".

Hoped this helped.