MEPIS Community Forum

Hello everyone,

Installed mepis 11 on my mom's dis-used laptop (she was having the usual microsoft problems with it & couldn't consistently connect to the internet wirelessly). Installation went like a dream. As I have the option of connecting via ethernet any wireless problems are a minor annoyance only! But in an attempt tp learn a little I have been persevering (see previous posts in testimonals).

Currently, i have tried several ad-hoc approaches without success. Have checked out the broadcom site. Checked whether 32 or 64 bit system and confirmed 32 bit (means nothing to me, but apparently it's important!) Downloaded instructions & tar for installation. Not sure where or how to start with this file, should I use the network assistant to add the driver to installed drivers? Which drivers should I remove? Do I have to unzip it first? and if so how?

I need a guide please,

Lesley

Again, tell me the exact model number and any other identifying info on the laptop itself and I'll see about getting the XP drivers for use with ndiswrapper.

I'd stay away from the compiling instructions you got from broadcom. At least for now.

One last thought -- is it possible the wireless NIC itself is faulty? You said your mother had wireless difficulties too.

no need to build as debian has it> http://wiki.debian.org/wl

note*** In Synaptic on a stock M-11 under section kernel/non-free you should have the following installed>
firmware-b43-installer
firmware-brcm80211
and your card should work unless it is conflicting with another driver. You can use the network assistant to blacklist any other drivers that may be conflicting with it.

Every possibility, in fact I'd say almost certainly - knowing what little care my mother took of this poor laptop!!!! Still I'd just like to be sure that's the case before I either buy a new card or replace with usb alternative. The latter is quite appealing as I could plug & go when I eventually replace it. The current one is a Compaq pressario C500. Does that help?

Thanks Lesley

OK,
I see that, do I have to do everything as per debian (haven't got a clue what squeeze is!) or what to do

Lez

No you do not... see my edit in previous post... (synaptic is the package manager in M-11 found in the menu under system and you run it as root.)

There's a wl kernel module package that's preinstalled with M11 so I don't think you need to build it. It's also in the Mepis repo and can be reinstalled with either apt-get or Synaptic if you've removed it.

32bit: ftp://ftp.mepis.com/mepis/pool/main/w/w ... 1_i386.deb
64bit: ftp://ftp.mepis.com/mepis/pool/main/w/w ... _amd64.deb

Squeeze is the name of the stable debian linux repository (package pool) that M-11 uses.
Synaptic is the package manager that M-11 uses to access and work in that repository.
From the desktop you can access synaptic from the main menu by clicking the menu icon in the lower left hand corner and going up to system... clicking on synaptic will cause a pop up requesting your root password. If you created a root password when you installed Mepis enter it there if you did not create a root password when you installed then enter root for the pawwsord and synaptic will start. Once started click on the tab on the left hand side that says "sections" and scroll down to "kernel and modules (non-free)" and see if the packages you need are installed or not. At the top of synaptic under "settings" you will find a tab for repositories where you can see what repos are in use by synaptic and you can add or change repositories there. If you have never done so you should first (in synaptic) mark all possible upgrades and then "apply" them to bring your system up to date... after that install the firmware packages if they are not already installed.

Have checked out synaptic, firmware + broadcom drivers are there. Not sure which driver relates to which in network assistant and don't understand why network assistant doesn't allow me to tick the enable wireless box. Any ideas please.

Sorry I really hate being such a pain

Lez

Lez, the wl driver kmathern provided can be downloaded... it will go to your /home/(your user name)/downloads folder. From there just right click on the .deb file and gdebi will install it for you. After you have done system updates in synaptic and installed the deb Kent provided then reboot your system and check for wireless again. Some systems will auto bypass wireless if hardwire connection is present so best to unplug eth0 when you reboot to test it. Jerry