Wireless drivers for Acer Aspire 7100 notebook

apmarsenault · 05-28-2008, 01:58 PM

I want to run a Linux distribution on my laptop, but have had problems getting wireless drivers to work. I'm stuck with Windows XP until I can figure out which drivers to use and how to install and configure them.

My laptop is an Acer Aspire 7100, and I believe it uses a Broadcom wireless adapter (802.11b/g)-- I have not had luck thus far in getting wireless to work, but it's been a while since I've tried so I can't remember the steps I took and which specific Broadcom configurations I've attempted.

I'm thinking a popular flavor such as openSUSE, Fedora, or Ubuntu - has anyone had experience configuring this model or chipset to work with Linux, and how did you go about doing it? Any answers, tips, or links would be greatly appreciated.

Note: This model laptop can not currently be found on Acer's site (unless you visit the European one) -- crappy laptop, I know, but I have no other options currently.

I should also mention that everything else configures and works automatically upon installation of any distribution - the only issue I ever have is my wireless drivers.

Peacedog · 05-29-2008, 06:56 PM

Hi apmarsenault, Welcome to lq. The best thing to do is boot to a live cd or do an install and the post the output from the the following commands.

Code:

/sbin/lspci -v
/sbin/lsmod
/sbin/ifconfig -a
/sbin/iwconfig

With th output from these we can see what card you actually have, what modules are loaded, and the state of your network interfaces. If it turns out that it is a Broadcom chip, have a read here and here. There are a number of tutorials available here at lq. The first step though is identifying the chip/card.
Good luck. ;-)