I have resurrected an old Compaq Presario 1200 xl400 to use on my Uno project. I want to add wireless and bought Linksys WPC54GV3 pcmia wireless adapter. I could not get the adapter working on Windows ME. Windows would install the driver but then would show a yellow exclamation mark on the adapter in Device Manager and I could not see my router (Netgear WNDR3400V3). Linksys support is no help, only offering downloads of a driver that I already have on CD.

Googling for solutions, I noticed a lot of hits including Linux with various approaches for solving this problem. Unfortunately, many of the references were at least 10 years old. I did conclude that the preferred Linux driver for the chipset on my wireless adapter card is B43.

There's the everything works out of the box on a variety of hardware (just not mine). There's the b43-fwcutter approach, with and without re-installing the B43 firmware. There's using WL driver rather than B43. There's a rather complicated approach involving modifying the microcode on the card that could destroy it if not done "properly". Finally, there is throwing away the card, the OS and the computer.

I am ok with working any solution except quitting.

Here's my question - Who has current info on what approach should be used to help me get my Linksys WPC54GV3 wireless adapter working?

I have included relevant information below on my work so far.

I am running Puppy Linux (Bionicpup32 19.03) on my Compaq from a CD boot and have found that WPC54G card uses the Broadcom 4318 chipset. I used the Puppy Network Wizard to load the B43 driver. The driver loads but does not show router access points.

So, WPC54GV3 card still not working.

With newbie knowledge on Linux, I executed the following commands (results included):

# lspci -nnk
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8601 [Apollo ProMedia] [1106:0601] (rev 05)
Kernel driver in use: agpgart-via
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8601 [Apollo ProMedia AGP] [1106:8601]
00:07.0 ISA bridge [0601]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super South] [1106:0686] (rev 22)
Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686/A PCI to ISA Bridge [1106:0000]
Kernel driver in use: parport_pc
Kernel modules: parport_pc
00:07.1 IDE interface [0101]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE [1106:0571] (rev 10)
Kernel driver in use: pata_via
00:07.2 USB controller [0c03]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xx/62xx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller [1106:3038] (rev 10)
Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. (Wrong ID) onboard UHCI USB 1.1 Controller [0925:1234]
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:07.4 Bridge [0680]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI] [1106:3057] (rev 30)
Kernel modules: i2c_viapro, via686a
00:07.5 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 AC97 Audio Controller [1106:3058] (rev 20)
Subsystem: Compaq Computer Corporation Soundmax integrated digital audio [0e11:b194]
Kernel driver in use: snd_via82xx
Kernel modules: snd_via82xx
00:09.0 Communication controller [0780]: Conexant Systems, Inc. HSF 56k Data/Fax Modem [14f1:2013] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Compaq Computer Corporation Bear [0e11:b195]
00:0b.0 CardBus bridge [0607]: Texas Instruments PCI1410 PC card Cardbus Controller [104c:ac50] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Compaq Computer Corporation Device [0e11:b103]
Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus
Kernel modules: yenta_socket
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Trident Microsystems CyberBlade i1 [1023:8520] (rev 6a)
Subsystem: Compaq Computer Corporation CyberBlade i1 AGP [0e11:b16e]
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4318] (rev 02)
Subsystem: Linksys WPC54G v3 802.11g Wireless-G Notebook Adapter [1737:0048]
Kernel modules: ssb

# ifconfig
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:65536 Metric:1
RX packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1
RX bytes:1248 (1.2 KiB) TX bytes:1248 (1.2 KiB)


# lsmod |grep b43
b43 369324 0
bcma 34872 1 b43
mac80211 332935 1 b43
cfg80211 220381 2 b43,mac80211
ssb 45650 1 b43

# dmesg |grep b43
b43-pci-bridge 0000:02:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
b43-pci-bridge: probe of 0000:02:00.0 failed with error -2

I've seen this before...

Also looks familiar.

The errors you're seeing above seem to indicate that the B43 firmware isn't being found. (Going from memory here. It's been a while since I've seen these.)

Did you get through the `fwcutter' process and still no joy?

I'd be interested in seeing what you have under `/lib/firmware/b43'? (There should be 150+ files under that directory.)

I've used that process for an old Dell laptop running openSUSE (both Leap and Tumbleweed) and, then, Slackware and got wireless networking working just fine with our Netgear routers.

I've looked at the `wl' driver after reading that it might be higher performing than the `b43' driver but haven't tried it yet. I would not mess around with trying to reprogram the Linksys card.

If you were going the Debian route, the process described in this article involved a whopping two commands. A similar solution may be available via Mint's repository.