Hey everyone... I wanted to let you know that for the first time, Ubuntu Dapper Drake (still in development stages) has a daily build (both Live CD and Install CD versions) that recognized my Broadcom 4318 WLAN!!!!

To download the the daily build I'm using, click here.

Finally, my WLAN is found automatically!!!

Are you using 32 or 64 bit?

Why do you need Dapper Drake?

What are the steps to get this to work?

I have HP L2000 (clone of Compaq v2000z, running Mepis (Debian variant - 32 bit OS),
kernel 2.6.12-1-586tsc (DCC kernel)
Thanks!

Mike

Hi there,

Dapper Drake already encompasses the driver and hence the reason I'm suggesting people use that distro. There is a link in my first post for the driver snapshot and the instructions. Good luck!

What would be the advantage of using this over using ndiswrapper. I have an Acer 3003LCi with the 4318 chipset, I use ndiswrapper and haven't had any real problems.

I know this is a native driver, but does it offer anything else?

Great. Now what's the chance they'll feed that back to the Debian pool I wonder.

It's now part of the kernel tree

At some time in the future, many distros will recognize Broadcom 43xx automagically, as they do ipw2200, with a kernel patch that will be added automagically when the live CD routine or install routine sees the Broadcom 43xx.

The plan for the DCC kernel is that it will soon be very similar to the Ubuntu kernel, and so it should soon contain this driver natively.

I believe Dave Neil of Xandros and Warren Woodford of Mepis will soon agree and announce that they will use the Ubuntu kernel, or at least nearly all of it, as the DCC kernel or the basis for the DCC kernel.

I hope I'm not too premature in mentioning this here.

They recognize that some good has come from all of the Shuttleworth-Ubuntu testing of laptops, etc. and the expenditure of people and money in Ubuntu, and they want to retain as much of this as possible in the DCC kernel ...

This is the advantage of a native driver ... it will make Linux in general much more desktop and laptop-friendly. It is much closer to point-and-click for drivers. It should help in Linux adoption on the desktop.

I have not had problems with ndiswrapper either, but a friend who is an experienced Linux server admin using FC4 on a home system reported spending 4 hours and being frustrated trying to get a Broadcom 43xx to work with ndiswrapper. He was looking for a card that would work "out of the box" with FC4. I suggested that he keep trying, that I would be happy to help, but I haven't heard any more about it yet. There is also the problem of the hotplug/udev switchover -- so any thing that makes hardware detection easier is welcome ...

Getting too long-winded ... but I think this sort of work is very important. I may try a new kernel with my laptop to see if I still need ndiswrapper.

Keep up the great work.

I will try to send part of this to Warren Woodford and Dave Neil so that they will see more proof that a DCC kernel needs to include all these sorts of advances, no matter where they come from.

Many of the advances, such as this one, are showing up first in Ubuntu because of Shuttleworth's public relations campaign and investment there.

Mike

;-)

Thanks for that information! I was previously a Mepis user, and enjoyed it. I tried kanotix, and it became my desktop distro. After buying the new laptop, I started testing which distro came closest to working "out of the box", and Mepis had a slight edge by allowing the native 1280x800. If Warren added the support for the 4318, that's probably what I'll put on it.

Hey

Maybe I spoke too soon ;-)

I clicked on the link in the first post, downloaded, and burned a CD of the daily build of Dapper Drake (Ubuntu 6.04 future release) -- It would not install on my laptop. It booted, loaded the kernel to ram, then froze and "booting the kernel". I had to remove the batteryy to get it to restart. Of course it's still a beta. I'll work on it a little more as I have time.

Mike

Does the Dapper CD come with the firmware installed? I have been trying to use the driver but I haven't gotten hold of any firmware that works for me.


Håkan

Yes, the driver recognizes my card. (I tried the install again, used vga=771 no_timer_check as boot params, and it is working on the install as I post. It did not set up the wireless properly on install, though, so I'm using ethernet). I'm guessing that once the install completes, I'll be able to set up the wireless in konsole with sudo iwconfig.

Mike

i have an acer 3020 with broadcom 4318. i have ubuntu 6.10 edgy but i don't know how to configure it. i tried all methods, but nothing. please help meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I just want to let you know that this is
OLD NEWS

That driver was added to the main kernel tree a long time ago.

BTW, I've had better success with that wifi card as an eraser. If the company who made it realeased the source code for the driver, mabye I would typing this without a big, blue cord sticking into my laptop.

So, either use ndiswrapper, or get a better wifi card.