Broadcom Wireless Card Incompatible With Linux?

brandonjbegle

Apr 6 2009, 08:56 PM

Recently, i was trying out a copy of linux and was unable to connect to the internet. It said it could not locate my wireless card. Is this problem just that linux does not work with broadcom?

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jlhaslip

Apr 6 2009, 11:51 PM

How were you running Linux? off a Live CD? I have no problem running the WiFi card on my Laptop, but I can't recall the Brand.

Check out System > Administration > Hardware Drivers for an automatic Driver detection script that will indicate if the Driver is a non-free, non-open source Driver that can be installed. Worked for me.

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truefusion

Apr 7 2009, 12:33 AM

Broadcom is known to be troublesome concerning Linux; it's the only one i've heard that doesn't play well with Linux. I'm not sure if a success story exists concerning Linux and Broadcom, but if you haven't done so already, using perhaps a wired connection, visit their website and look for any drivers and, of course, documentation—you're bound to really need the documentation (if requiring to compile from source). If they don't have any, that would explain a lot, but also do complain to them about it.

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cicala

Apr 7 2009, 09:16 AM

I suggest you may want to contact your Internet Service Provider on this issue. They should be able to give you instructions/steps on how to make the card compatible, give you drivers or help you on-site. You never know?

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miladinoski

Apr 7 2009, 10:35 AM

Broadcom wireless cards don't have native drivers because the many manufacturers don't supply them for GNU/Linux (yet), so you'll have to use NDISwrapper so your card will become usable again.

QUOTE (en.wikipedia.org)

NDISwrapper is a free software driver wrapper that enables the use of Microsoft Windows drivers for wireless network devices (cards, USB modems, and routers), on Unix-like operating systems, for devices sharing the same architecture only, namely either x86 or x86-64. NDISwrapper works by implementing the Windows kernel and NDIS APIs, and dynamically linking the driver to this implementation.

Native drivers for Unix and Linux are not available for some wireless network adapters, as manufacturers supply neither drivers nor the information required to write them. NDISwrapper allows Windows drivers available for virtually all adapters to be used under Unix and Linux.

So, you'll just have to follow this video tutorial which explains step-by-step how to install the wrapper.

Tell us your results here.

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brandonjbegle

Apr 11 2009, 03:55 PM

Well, i really don't feel like i want to take the time just to find that it won't work anyway. so i'll prolly just wait til i get a new laptop, this time i'll look to avoid a broadcom wireless card

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karl77

Apr 29 2009, 09:56 PM

Yes, these issues are confirmed with linux. By defaut the drivers of the wireless card are not shipped with linux, moreover, I read that the distribution should include the newer kernels (2.6.21+). Broadcom recently released the native driver that should be compiled on your distribution

--> their website:

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

See first, if it supports your BCM card type, and then follow the provided instruction to install it.

Hope this helps.

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(G)samarth

Sep 28 2009, 07:42 AM

How to connect wireless lan in fedora 11?
Broadcom Wireless Card Incompatible With Linux?

I had installed the fedora 11 in my laptop. But, I cant access to the wifi network. Also, please suggest me simple steps to install package and configure the network..

-reply by samarth

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