Slackware Wireless Driver How-To
 

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.

Did you try wicd? If it's not installed by default. you'll find it in the etra/ directory of the installation CD/DVD. You may need to add your user to the netdev group, if you haven't already.

Extra note: wicd itself is started as a background application, wicd-client is the GUI part, similar to the one in windows.

Hi LeechFace,

Go to http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php download the 64 bit driver and follow the instructions in the README file. This would install the driver for your Broadcom wireless adapter.
After that install wicd to get a gui for configuring your connections.

You may also want to read this


Hope this helps!
koodoo

My advice would be to consult Alien's pages on setting up a wireless connection http://alien.slackbook.org/dokuwiki/...eless_networks

My understanding is that there is broadcom support in the kernel. It might be worth running lsmod to check that the modules are loaded. Another first step is to run ifconfig (as root). You may well have wireless up and running and you just need to configure rc.inet1.conf

Whether the driver was there before or not I don't know. I followed the above link (http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php) and was able to install the driver.... 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!!!!

I think you will find the package on the installation dvd under extras. One you have found it installpkg name_of _package (as root) will install it.

here you'll find a series of very useful links to just about everything you might need and the kitchen sink :P . just found it myself today :)

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

The Broadcom driver is highlighted in red.

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

If your wireless card is detected, you should see the interface name in the output of "iwconfig" (run it in a terminal as the root user). Make sure that in the wicd preferences window, the interface name is set correctly (it's usually wlan0).

First i named the wireless wlan0 in wicd as you instructed. Second, I rand the iwconfig command and got the following result:

# 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 thr:off Fragment thr:off
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

Still not up and working... let me know what you think about this iwconfig output.

GOT IT !!!
the only thing i had to do was switch wlan0 to eth1 in wicd.... THANKS ALL OF YOU !!!!!