Mageia forum

I wanted to find a distro that can setup my netbook wireless without too much trouble. problem is I am not full of knowledge. I wanted to use mageia but I couldnt even find my broadcom wireless. I had bluetooth listed but was unable to find a mention of a wireless possibility. I have tryed many distros but have only found 2 that could get the wireless working

rustguard wrote:I wanted to find a distro that can setup my netbook wireless without too much trouble. problem is I am not full of knowledge. I wanted to use mageia but I couldnt even find my broadcom wireless. I had bluetooth listed but was unable to find a mention of a wireless possibility. I have tryed many distros but have only found 2 that could get the wireless working

If you just want to test if it works with Mageia then you can try special live iso that is created for testing broadcom chips: http://distrib-coffee.ipsl.jussieu.fr/p ... 3-wl-test/

If you already have installed some version of Mageia 3 then you have to check that you have all the latest packages installed. If so then open 'MCC -> Hardware -> Browse and configure hardware' and see if it wants to install some broadcom related packages. (You have to do the same with the test iso if it doesn't list your wireless device in net_applet).

yes I installed mageia 3. which was a rc
I came from mint but it wouldnt accept my choice of netbook, which was funny because I had no trouble getting the partners laptop to work which has a broadcom 4312 or there abouts.
I am trying different distros so far I have tryed vector, pclinuxos, solydx, lubuntu, crunchbang, opensuse, manjaro and debian. only two have recognised the network card. but funny enough they both had other problems, one with audio and the other with the synaptic touchpad. Its really stressed the importance of making it easy to get under the hood and know what is happening, if I cant even find a list of my hardware that is not good.
The saddest part was when I installed opensuse and select gnome Its just like unity. which I really liked when it came out. I tryed oh I so did but it's just un-usable in fact I have found it is an excellent way to stop people using there computer.
so yeah just a user so not much technical nohow and anyway its been a good (and bad) exercise in compatibility with linux and finally I took a look at gnome 3 which is not for me.

Did you try to open 'MCC -> Hardware -> Browse and configure hardware' and see if it wants to install some packages? Your device should be supported, you just have to update your RC and try to browse hardware..

the bcm4313 should works fine, try iwlist scan as root in a console, if it's works you have to check the status of networkmanager if you use it (or use net_applet to configure nm)

Hi all,

unfortunatelly this wifi chipset is not supported.
I have tried the installed version of Mageia 3 and then the live spins of OpenSuse, Fedora and LinuxMint... it is not working.

on the Broadcom internet site I found the source of the linux driver but unfortunately I can not compile it. Maybe somebody with "certain skills" could help us and maybe even make an update out of it.
Here is the link: http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

Thanks a lot for your help!

Regards
aconst

PS: I would just try to explain all the experienced linux users here in that forum that for normal people without programming know-how working with the command line and compiling different stuff is practically impossible. If you give a solution for this problem, please try to pack it in some sort-of rpm file or similar... or just provide the inf/dll file for the ndiswrapper.

If it's not working in any distro, the chipset in the not the bcm 4313 or it is broken.

the chip is working perfectly under Win7

under the linux distros it is impossible to see the wifi networks around, and if found, than it is impossible to connect to it.

aconst wrote:the chip is working perfectly under Win7

under the linux distros it is impossible to see the wifi networks around, and if found, than it is impossible to connect to it.

What is the DE (KDE, Gnome, something else) you are using?

What is the output of this command:

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ps aux |grep wpa

KDE

I have tried even Kubuntu (live) with the same effect

This is Broadcoms fault. Please never willingly buy anything with a broadcom chipset, I see complaints against atheros too around the forums, dont know if they are related? The 4313 will work; some distros have this sorted, some of them do not. I dont mind fixing things but without network it can be hard, also not knowing anything makes it hard too So a good community is awesome to have about

You are totally right!
But on the other side, at least a small part of this problem stays with the linux community: some sorted it out and some not

The linux community is so splitted in small factions, everybody doing his own thing-for the same software you have as many versions as linux distros.
The linux community must leave behind the geek way of thinking. Instead of developing n+1 versions of programs psolving the same problem, they should choose the best tool and than everybody must work together to make it perfect. At the end of the day you will have with the same amount of work a tool which can compete with any win / mac / android similar one.
If the hardware manufacturer will see that they need to develop only a SINGLE linux version of a driver, they will find eventually the resources for it and then linux will be a real alternative to windows or mac or even android.

As long the command line is still required for most of the actions (I am fully aware that a GUI is not easy to develop) linux will not be accepted by normal people (which have studied everything but programming or simply have other things to do than coding and scripting while being at home).

Regards from Germany
aconst

aconst wrote:KDE

If you want your problem to get solved you have to help! I also asked the output of this command:

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ps aux |grep wpa

And one more step: go to MCC -> Hardware -> Browse and configure hardware, does it ask you to install any broadcom related packages?

One more command to get some info:

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rpm -qa |grep broadcom

4313 should be supported by free driver, so we just need to figure out why it's not working, but to do that you need to give us some info.

Please also show the output of

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lspcidrake -v | grep -i net

so that we can see which chipset and pci id's you really have.

Hi all,

well, it seams that a gnome environment (Ubuntu) has no problems with the WiFi chipset.

Due to the fact that I don't like gnome, I decided to by a (very) small WiFi adapter which is recognised by Linux. It is not the perfect solution but it is better than struggling with command lines and black lists.

I found one with a Ralink chipset (BIGtec 150Mbit nano). The CD included in the package has also Linux drivers, which are not in .rpm files but as source code. Nevertheless the drivers on CD are not necessary. Also in the Mageia repositories there is a Ralink driver which was downloaded automatically by the OS.

Just for record,

I use Mageia 3 64bits and my wifi with BCM4313 works like a charm.

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lspcidrake -v | grep -i net
bcma            : Broadcom Corporation|BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller [NETWORK_OTHER] (vendor:14e4 device:4727 subv:103c subd:1483) (rev: 01)


HP Pavilion DV6

Hi,

I have a Lenovo G780 Laptop and the BCM 4313. Wlan is not working. Allthough Mageiea asked me to install Broadcomdrivers. I cant see networks around. Please help!!!!!!

I have BCM4318 and it works fine. First use lsmod. The output should look like this:

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[root@media Pobrane]# lsmod |grep b43
b43                   383232  0
bcma                   40902  1 b43
mac80211              441484  1 b43
cfg80211              404132  2 b43,mac80211
ssb                    61224  1 b43
mmc_core              106636  2 b43,ssb
rng_core               13158  1 b43
pcmcia                 51431  2 b43,ssb

If not, try:

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modprobe b43

If any error will be display, install b43 firmware

I am very sure that I got my Broadcom 4313 working very easy. I ended up going with a distro based on Xfce. but I tested many distros just to see how they coped with my 4313. some good some not.
My partner spilled breakfast on my netbook this morning, so as soon as I pull it apart and clean the keyboard I will install mageia and check for you.