BCM4310 Broadcom Wireless Network Card Linux Install Dell Inspiron 1525

[Obrzut]

http://www.blackermedia.com/BCM4310.html

This is a simple tutorial (there are better ones out there) that I put together for people with the same laptop as my self running FC8 and not being able to use their wireless networking card. I spent two hours last night trawling through tutorials and downloading drivers until I discovered the correct driver (just happened to be 89.9Mb) and now I have wireless networking on my Dell...

The driver is available for download at the above site. But please be aware that it probably only works for the BCM4310 Broadcom card. Do not download it if you have a different model to save bandwidth over at my site.

I have not been able to use my laptop as wireless ever since I installed Fedora Core 8 on it some time early in 2008 - until NOW! I am very happy with the service and performance, and I even got snort configured to work with it albeit not on machine boot.

But, that said, this is my first post here and soon I will take my Inspiron 1525 out to a wireless hot spot in the City to have a coffee and surf the Fedora network (:

Obrzut

[ogetbilo]

Good job!
I had bought a wireless card with this chipset a few weeks ago. It worked in 32 bit Fedora but I needed to use it in my 64 bit computer. Unfortunately I couldn't get this card work in 64 bit Fedora with ndiswrapper and I got it replaced by some other card.

What is your system?

[Obrzut]

Originally Posted by ogetbilo

Good job!
I had bought a wireless card with this chipset a few weeks ago. It worked in 32 bit Fedora but I needed to use it in my 64 bit computer. Unfortunately I couldn't get this card work in 64 bit Fedora with ndiswrapper and I got it replaced by some other card.

What is your system?

I'm not sure what you mean?

I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 - it is a 32-bit system (laptop) Intel Pentium Dual-Core 1.6Mhz 2Gb RAM. I am not sure you purchased a Broadcom BCM4310 because this card is not natively supported by ndiswrapper under 32-bit Fedora Core. Even Fedora Core 10 Live CD does not support it. That is why I included the Windows Drivers on the above website so you can use the *.inf file as in;

ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf

to install the correct settings for the card.

I do not know if the drivers support 64-bit use - or if you even have a Broadcom Card? Personally, if you download the driver, follow the link commands, give feedback here for other users in your same situation to see if it works...they would appreciate it as would I.

To test if you have a broadcom card - the same as mine try this;

lspci

The output should be;

0b:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4310 USB Controller (rev 01)

[stoat]

Hello Obrzut,

I'm glad your Broadcom wireless card works, and I'm sure others with that card will appreciate being able to read your steps. However, I just thought I should point out a couple of things that might interest you. I'm not suggesting that you change anything in your tutorial since it worked for you. What follows is just FYI.

Originally Posted by your tutorial

[root@obrzut ~]# echo 'blacklist bcm43xx' | tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

That step to blacklist the bcm43xx driver is not really needed. Did you know that Fedora transitioned from bcm43xx to b43 way back with Fedora 7? Initially, Fedora 7 was released with the bcm43xx module and began to include the b43 module in the middle of the F7 lifecycle. For a while they both existed together. But bcm43xx soon after disappeared completely from Fedora 7 kernels. Ever since and nowadays there is no bcm43xx module included with Fedora. Obviously, it does no harm to blacklist something that doesn't exit, but it's nice to understand a detail like that.

If you want to blacklist the b43 module while using ndiswrapper, you can do that. However, many ndiswrapper users have found that not necessary either. They have found that with ndiswrapper properly configured, the b43 kernel module is not loaded. No use bothering with the blacklist in that situation either. But once again, blacklisting b43 when you really don't need to does no harm. If you were to run /sbin/lsmod and discover that b43 is being loaded, then it would probably help to blacklist it.

Originally Posted by your tutorial

[root@obrzut ~]# vi /etc/modules

Edit /etc/modules to include ndiswrapper as the last line if not already present...

I thought you should know that Fedora does not have a file named /etc/modules. The ndiswrapper instructions state that most distributions have that file. But they also state that in Fedora you instead should add an alias for wlan0 in /etc/modprobe.conf. The ndiswrapper instructions are old, but that still applies today.

NOTE: The ndiswrapper -m command creates the alias for wlan0 in /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper. However, it is still often required to manually add the same alias line to /etc/modprobe.conf to get the module to load or to get the card to appear in the Network Configuration utility.

You may have been inspired to write your tutorial by something written for another distro. For example, Debian Etch still uses bcm43xx, and it does have a file named /etc/modules. Ubuntu may be the same way. I just thought you might appreciate knowing how Fedora differs in this matter from other distros.

[Obrzut]

Originally Posted by stoat

Hello Obrzut,

I'm glad your Broadcom wireless card works, and I'm sure others with that card will appreciate being able to read your steps. However, I just thought I should point out a couple of things that might interest you. I'm not suggesting that you change anything in your tutorial since it worked for you. What follows is just FYI.

That step to blacklist the bcm43xx driver is not really needed. Did you know that Fedora transitioned from bcm43xx to b43 way back with Fedora 7? Initially, Fedora 7 was released with the bcm43xx module and began to include the b43 module in the middle of the F7 lifecycle. For a while they both existed together. But bcm43xx soon after disappeared completely from Fedora 7 kernels. Ever since and nowadays there is no bcm43xx module included with Fedora. Obviously, it does no harm to blacklist something that doesn't exit, but it's nice to understand a detail like that.

If you want to blacklist the b43 module while using ndiswrapper, you can do that. However, many ndiswrapper users have found that not necessary either. They have found that with ndiswrapper properly configured, the b43 kernel module is not loaded. No use bothering with the blacklist in that situation either. But once again, blacklisting b43 when you really don't need to does no harm. If you were to run /sbin/lsmod and discover that b43 is being loaded, then it would probably help to blacklist it.

I thought you should know that Fedora does not have a file named /etc/modules. The ndiswrapper instructions state that most distributions have that file. But they also state that in Fedora you instead should add an alias for wlan0 in /etc/modprobe.conf. The ndiswrapper instructions are old, but that still applies today.

NOTE: Your ndiswrapper -m command creates the alias for wlan0 in /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper. However, it is still often required to manually add the same line to /etc/modprobe.conf to get the module to load or to get the card to appear in the Network Configuration utility.

You may have been inspired to write your tutorial by something written for another distro. For example, Debian Etch still uses bcm43xx, and it does have a file named /etc/modules. Ubuntu may be the same way. I just thought you might appreciate knowing how Fedora differs in this matter from other distros.

Hi Stout,

I've made the necessary modifications to the tutorial and given you credit where credit is due. Thank you for the help, I did parse this tutorial together from several on the net and actually /etc/modules seemed to already exist under Fedora Core 8 because when I went to edit it it existed with ndiswrapper as the only line inside the file.

[stoat]

Originally Posted by Obrzut

...and actually /etc/modules seemed to already exist under Fedora Core 8 because when I went to edit it it existed with ndiswrapper as the only line inside the file.

Well, maybe so. When I went through exactly what you just went through with ndiswrapper, I looked for that file in Fedora. It was never there and is not now in any of my Fedoras (currently 8 & 9). If that single line is all that is present in your /etc/modules file in Fedora, it's possible that you created it when you attempted to open it with vi. Attempting to open a file that doesn't exist with an editor like vi or gedit will create the file where it did not exist before if you also then save it (try it). For example, here is what is in a real /etc/module file (from Debian Etch)...

debian:~# cat /etc/modules
# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.

loop
debian:~#

But it doesn't really matter, and is a very minor point. But I don't believe Fedora consults that file when loading kernel modules. It will do no harm just sitting there.

[Obrzut]

Originally Posted by stoat

Well, maybe so. When I went through exactly what you just went through with ndiswrapper, I looked for that file in Fedora. It was never there and is not now in any of my Fedoras (currently 8 &9). If that single line is all that is present in your /etc/modules file in Fedora, it's possible that you created it when to attempted to open it with vi. Attempting to open a file that doesn't exist with an editor like vi or gedit will create the file where it did not exist before if you also then save it (try it). For example, here is what is in a real /etc/module file (from Debian Etch)...

debian:~# cat /etc/modules
# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.

loop
debian:~#

But it doesn't really matter, and is a very minor point. But I don't believe Fedora consults that file when loading kernel modules. It will do no harm just sitting there.

Ah, you miss my point - I'm saying it was already created with the line ndiswrapper inside - I did not even have to modify it - and this made me think that it was included in Fedora Core 8. BUT - as you say, it does not exist on your distro - sooo...I wonder how it got there!?

[ogetbilo]

Originally Posted by Obrzut

I'm not sure what you mean?

I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 - it is a 32-bit system (laptop) Intel Pentium Dual-Core 1.6Mhz 2Gb RAM. I am not your you purchased a Broadcom BCM4310 because this card is not natively supported by ndiswrapper under 32-bit Fedora Core. Even Fedora Core 10 Live CD does not support it. That is why I included the Windows Drivers on the above website so you can use the *.inf file as in;

ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf

to install the correct settings for the card.

I do not know if the drivers support 64-bit use - or if you even have a Broadcom Card? Personally, if you download the driver, follow the link commands, give feedback here for other users in your same situation to see if it works...they would appreciate it as would I.

To test if you have a broadcom card - the same as mine try this;

lspci

The output should be;

0b:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4310 USB Controller (rev 01)

OK , let me be more clear.

I have a 32 bit computer (Fedora 8, i386) and a 64 bit computer (Fedora 9, x86_64). I went and bought a BCM4310 card. I found some windows drivers. They installed fine in the 32 bit system via ndiswrapper without problems.

The same card and same drivers did not work in my 64 bit computer. I also found some 64 bit windows drivers for this card. They did not do anything but made ndiswrapper crash.

Then I returned this card and got another brand, which has rt2870 chipset. The new card has native linux drivers so I don't even need ndiswrapper.

This was my story.


I just wanted to know if you got this card working on a 64 bit computer, out of curiosity...

[Obrzut]

Originally Posted by ogetbilo

OK , let me be more clear.

I have a 32 bit computer (Fedora 8, i386) and a 64 bit computer (Fedora 9, x86_64). I went and bought a BCM4310 card. I found some windows drivers. They installed fine in the 32 bit system via ndiswrapper without problems.

The same card and same drivers did not work in my 64 bit computer. I also found some 64 bit windows drivers for this card. They did not do anything but made ndiswrapper crash.

Then I returned this card and got another brand, which has rt2870 chipset. The new card has native linux drivers so I don't even need ndiswrapper.

This was my story.


I just wanted to know if you got this card working on a 64 bit computer, out of curiosity...

Well, all I can say is it is the driver you use that is the most important thing here. I tried several drivers for my 32-bit laptop without success until I discovered the one I uploaded to my site in the first post with the tutorial. I thought it important to state which driver works with the card, and which do not.

I was curious, also, on your experiences with the 64-bit machine and this driver. But you state you replaced the card with a native Linux one, so no worries.

Thanks for the input, all the same, everything counts in small amounts.

[EldaradP]

Hi, Obrzut! I also have Fedora 9 on Inspiron 1525. I'm now installing Wireless Network Card Driver. Thank you for driver! Could you say please where you found audio driver?

[Obrzut]

Originally Posted by EldaradP

Hi, Obrzut! I also have Fedora 9 on Inspiron 1525. I'm now installing Wireless Network Card Driver. Thank you for driver! Could you say please where you found audio driver?

Hello - I found the driver on the Internet at a link I no longer remember or bookmarked at the time.

[Obrzut]

Dear Stoat,

Apologies for getting your name wrong. I made a lot of mistakes in the forum that night because I was phased from installing the wireless network card.

I have corrected the tutorial to include your correct name - credit where credit is due and all that...

Thank you for your assistance in writing the tutorial - I really appreciate it - especially when it helps other Linux users in the same predicament as my self. I have recovered, slightly, from writing the tutorial, but sadly now I am stressed from college - doing a National Diploma in IT, and having to research Signal Theory for my first assignment.

Thank you again for your contributions.

Kind regards,

Obrzut

[ifeatu]

I'm getting stuck at this portion of the tutorial:

[root@obrzut ~]# ndiswrapper -ma

[root@obrzut ~]# depmod -a

[root@obrzut ~]# modprobe ndiswrapper

here is the output when I run these commands:

[root@localhost modprobe.d]# /sbin/modprobe ndiswrapper
FATAL: Module ndiswrapper not found.

I cannot understand this error. Can someone please explain a "module"?

[mowestusa]

Originally Posted by Obrzut

http://www.blackermedia.com/BCM4310.html

This is a simple tutorial (there are better ones out there) that I put together for people with the same laptop as my self running FC8 and not being able to use their wireless networking card. I spent two hours last night trawling through tutorials and downloading drivers until I discovered the correct driver (just happened to be 89.9Mb) and now I have wireless networking on my Dell...

Obrzut

I just wanted to write to say THANK YOU. This issue has been driving me nuts. After getting this laptop I soon discovered that the wireless card would only work under ndiswrapper. So I searched the Dell site, looked for a long time at the descriptions about the drivers. Downloaded a driver which seemed to work. Doing ndiswrapper -l gave me exactly the same messsage that you got but the driver had a "6" instead of a "5".

When I tried the driver on your site, everything just worked. I'm writing this while being on WiFi for he first time ever in Fedora. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for this helpful tutorial.

Now the only thing that doesn't see to work well on my Dell 1525 is the sound and some of the special function keys. So if you have a tutorial for that I would love it.
- When I first installed Fedora 9 the multimedia keys at the top would control the volume and mute, now they do nothing after some updates.
- When I plug in headphones I loose all sound then too. So there is something weird with the sound driver.

Anyway, thanks so much, and let me know of any other things you get to work on the Dell Inspiron 1525 because I believe we have exactly the same model. :-)

[Dangermouse]

Hi just a quick note, i created a rpm for f9 and f10 that will install broadcom 43xx, on or offline, it does not support usb though, and is under 1mb in size
http://dnmouse.org/broadcom.html