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friar_tux
13th October 2011, 07:28 AM
Hi,

I'm using a Dell laptop Inspiron laptop running Fedora 15 (it originally came with Ubuntu) and I can't get any wireless. When I click networking icon it's says Wireless “Firmware missing”. Now I've never even used wireless on this machine before. Because it wasn't an option but now it is and I would like to be able to use it. The card is a “Dell Wireless 1397 802.11g Half Mini-Card”. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

PAX

stoat
15th October 2011, 06:22 PM
That wireless device probably has a Broadcom chipset. And it probably will work with the b43 wireless driver that comes with Fedora kernels. But that driver needs firmware that you have to acquire from elsewhere and install. I recommend that you identify the chipset, confirm that it is one known to work with b43, then install the firmware. It's all explained in the Broadcom wireless HOWTO here...http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=239922But return here to deal with any problems or questions related to what you read there.