Need WIFI driver for Linksys WPC54gs

[RetiredInMaine]

HI all. I purchased a Linksys WPC54GS PCMCIA WIFI card for my HP Pavilion notebook running Fedora Core 6. The vendor's tech support told me Linux drivers were available. However the Linksys tech support say they only have Windows drivers. I do not know what chip set this device uses but I have request to Linksys for that information. In the meantime does anyone know if or what driver is available for this device? I still have time to return it if I can't find a driver, but I do need some kind of answer soon.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[scotta3234]

Do you not have a wireless card in that notebook?? As for the chipset you can always do "su -" then "lspci" in a terminal and it should give you a good starting point. Off the top of my head I'm guessing you'll use Ndiswrapper with the windows driver.

[RetiredInMaine]

My HP has a Braodcom WIFI chipset. I have been trying without success to use NDISWRAER for that chipset. I am really trying to get away from NDISWRAPER. BTW, I received a reply from Linksys tech support stating that they do not have access to the chip set information. :mad:

lspci shows my Broadcom but I do not see any indication that it sees my Linksys card. :confused:

[rerushg]

I've got a similar issue with my daughter's laptop. Have not tackled it yet but research indicates that ndiswrapper is your only choice. Linksys does not do Linux.
I'd be inclined to take the vendor to task for assuring you of a Linux driver. Perhaps (via ndiswrapper) he is technically correct; sort of like "Yeah, there's transportation available to the International Space Station, just catch the next shuttle." I would seriously consider returning the unit and than checking the forums and the sourceforge site for PCMCIA cards that might be more receptive to Linux.
I say all this with some reservation since Ubuntu 7.04 due out next week and FC7 (in May) seem to be promising much improved on-board connectivity. Hope so. Good luck.

[scotta3234]

Can you post the exact model of your broadcom device (through lspci). I'm on a Dv2120 and ive managed to get it working with native broadcom drivers and a custom kernel. Although, the stock kernels should include this patch. I'd be happy to help you set it up.

[RetiredInMaine]

lspci reports that I have a Broadcom BCM4318 wireless lan controller. I've tried getting ndiswrapper but I can't seem to install it, don't know what I'm doing wrong. If I could get ndis working I wouldn't need the pcmcia card

[scotta3234]

Your wireless card in your HP notebook WILL work! You won't be using ndiswrapper however. I'm not at my notebook right now but will post back with the info later this evening with a step-by-step.

[scotta3234]

Download the newest test kernel from here: http://people.redhat.com/linville/kernels/fc6/
If you're on i686 it's the third one down if not get the 64 bit one.

1. Install the custom kernel (which has the newer patch, otherwise you could use a stock kernel but speeds will be slow. I recommend using the custom kernel.
2. Install the firmware. Download from here: ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/wireless/WL-100g-03/Driver_330150.zip
Extract all of the contents to a folder. we will then cd into this directory later and cut the firmware.

Then install the bcm43xx-fwcutter package:
yum -y install bcm43xx-fwcutter
-cd to the directory where you extracted the files
Then do as root: /usr/bin/bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware bcmwl5.sys
Verify the extracted firmware:/lib/firmware by doing a "ls /lib/firmware

Go to: System/Administration/Services and turn NetworkManager "On"

Reboot... and you should be good to go.

[scotta3234]

Also.... since this is a custom kernel you will likely need your nvidia drivers back. Easiest way to do this is manually install the freshrpms nvidia package: http://zod.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=1111

After installing you will need to edit your xorg.conf and change your Device section to say "nvidia" instead of "nv"

[RetiredInMaine]

OK, thank you. I will fire up my notepad and give it a try.

But I do have 2 questions. I'm not sure how to extract zip files in Fedora and I do not have a dual boot system, I am strickly Linux. Also, do you know what the button marked "wireless" on my HP is? i.e. is it a hardware switch that turns on the power to the Broadcom chip set or is it a software interrupt of some kind? If the later do I need to worry about it?

I'll post my results when I finish. My guess is I'll have more questions, I'm not very familiar with Linux.

[RetiredInMaine]

First problem. I clicked on the link to the ftp site and tried to download. I received an error message saying the zip part was unreadable and could not be saved.. I tried to ftp to the host but got a message
'AUTH GSSAPI': command not understood
'AUTH KERBEROS V4' :command not understood
KERBEROS_V4 rejected as an authentication type
Name (ftp.asus.com.tw:george):

Note that george is my logon name. I guess it wants some sort of password. I tried to ftp directly to the pub directory but received a mesage saying "unknown host"

I did install the i586 kernel and the bcm43xx-fwcutter package.

Any idea what I can do next?

[ramasees]

hi here how to get native broadcom drivers working with wep wpa

su yum -y install bcm43xx-fwcutter

get the file bcmwl5.sys this will be on the driver disc that came with the card if not download the driver
cd into the directory where ever you put it (doesnt matter where could be cd ) and simlpy enter the below

/usr/bin/bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware bcmwl5.sys

restart

this should work on any kernel ver in fc6
hope this is some help

[AMDX2]

Did you say that you were having problems with ndiswrapper?

post your error here if so and i'll try to help you out. It can be hard if you don't have the right RPM's

[RetiredInMaine]

HI,

I've been trying to get this working by cuting the firmware as per instructions above. Took me a while to get a copy of bcmw15.sys but I finally got it installed, also got the fwcutter installed, and even reinstalled the kernel patch and the new nvidia drivers.

When I try to cut the firmware, as root, I get a message that says The file bcmw15.sys can not be opened. I looked at the permissions and it is read/write for everyone. The file is id'd as a dos executable, which I expected. I looked at the entry for "open program with" and it was the archive manager so I changed it to be the fwcutter. Same message.

Any ideas ?

[scotta3234]

You need BOTH the bcmwl5.sys AND the bcmwl5.inf file. Move those files into a directory and then try to re-cut the firmware

-Edit- Make sure when you're in the terminal that you've cd'ed into the directory that contains those files before you cut the firmware.

[RetiredInMaine]

I copied both files from my original Windows disk into the same folder. Nothing else in the folder. I then opened a terminal, became root, cd'd to the folder, checked that they were both there, and enterd the code as instructed above. I get a message saying that file bcmw15.sys could not be opened. I checked permissions on both files and both are read/write for every one. bcmw15.sys is id'd as a dos executable, but bcmw15.inf is listed as unkown (actually inf type, no known application.) I looked at bcmw15.sys with a hex editor, looks like it should open with gedit, but it doesn't. I get a gedit message saying it can not detect the character encoding. I tried both western and UTF8. I tried setting both archive manager and fwcutter as the program to open bcmw15.sys, but got the same message. This is driving me nuts.

[RetiredInMaine]

I copied both bcmw15.sys and bcmw15.inf from my original windows driver disk to the same folder. I opened a terminal, became root, cd'd to the bcmw15 folder, checked that both files were there, and tried to cut the firmware using the code you reccomended in a prior post. I get a message saying that can not open bcmw15.sys.

I checked permissions on both files, they are both read/write for everyone. The .sys file id id'd as a dos executable, but the .inf file is id'd as an inf file, no known application to open it. I looked at it with a hex editor and it sure looks like a plain text file, but gedit will not open the file. I get a gedit message saying it can not detect the character encoding. I tried both western and UDF 8 , neither woked. I tried setting the "application to open with" for the .sys file to fwcutter and to archive manager (the default for this file). Same result.

This is driving me nuts.

[scotta3234]

Ohhhhhhh.... I think i know what's going on here. The file name is bcmwl5.sys not bcmw15.sys!!!! Make sure when you're doing /usr/bin/bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware bcmwl5.sys it's L not 1.

[RetiredInMaine]

Well, you were right, changing the 1 to an l worked. Now I can't configure my network card. I opened the network administrator application and told it I wanted to add a wireless card. When I try to configure the card I get a list for wireless cards that does not include my broadcom model and that does not allow me to put in a generic or unknown model. I choose to use the only broadcom model in the list, but got a message saying that the device does not appear to be presant ans can not be configured. Is there any way I can tell the system what card I am using?

[scotta3234]

You should be able to go to System/Administration/Services..... and turn network manager ON. Then go ahead and reboot and your light should turn on for your wireless... Don't worry... we'll get this!