Hello, I'm new here and just wanted to post about my Dell Latitude E5410. I just installed OpenSUSE 11.4 and everything is working great except for my wireless network card. I searched around here for anything related to this laptop and OpenSUSE or Linux in general. I'm new to Linux and still trying to figure out how to deal with unrecognized hardware.

I have a dual-boot system with Win7 and I'm going to boot back to it and see if I can find what type of wireless adapter it is. I assume that different Linux packages require specific "drivers" for that hardware? A hardware driver for Ubuntu or Red Hat wouldn't necessarily work for OpenSUSE or another build would it? Sorry for the newbie questions. So far I really like OpenSUSE, minus my wireless card not working. All the other hardware seems fine. Haven't tried the card reader yet, but I hear those are common problems too.

Yeah, there's 3 stock wifi cards that can be had on the E5410, so you'll definitely need to post WHICH one you have. I know that the Wifi6200 works fine on my system that I have that in, never used a 6250 or Dell 1520 though

Thanks for the reply. My Latitude has a DW1501 Wirless-N Half-Mini Card. I've found that it's manufactured by Broadcom. I'm searching around for any kind of Linux hardware info on it, but mostly I just find rubbish. I'll keep at it. Is there a big difference in the versions of Linux? Like Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Red Hat, ect when it comes to finding drivers? Are they even called "drivers" in Linux or is there another term for them? I'm a total Linux newbie, if you couldn't tell. So sorry if I sound dumb. I have no problems fixing Windows based machines, but Linux is a challenge I want to take on. OpenSUSE seems really great, and like I said all of my hardware is running great except for that wireless card.

Oh yeah, I'm running 64bit version of OpenSUSE 11.4. I know that makes a difference as well when it comes to hardware drivers. I'm running in Windows right now looking around. I'm going to boot back into Linux. I think I'm hooked.

Maybe this will help:

http://www.blakeanthonyjohnson.com/?p=125

Don't have that chipset myself. Try installing broadcom-wl

Not sure if the 4313 that you have is supported though in it, as it only specifically references the 4311, 4312, 4321, and 4322 in the description. Worth a try though.

If that doesn't work here's an open source driver that you can try downloading and installing via their instructions. Supposed to support that chip according to Broadcom.

Thanks for your help guys. I actually got this worked out using a thread on OpenSUSE.org. Here's the solution for anyone running a DW1501 Broadcom WiFi card. I'm on Kernel 2.6.37 so this solution was a part of the newer 11.4 OpenSUSE package, apparently. It was mentioned that packages exist in the Packman repository. Whatever the heck that means.

su
(enter your super user password)

sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware

Reboot and test. It worked perfectly for me. I actually moved to that directory (usr/sbin/) first and just typed: install_bcm43xx_firmware and it installed. Super! Now I can try to enjoy my first experience with Linux. Installing stuff in Linux is like sticking an ice pick in my eye.