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minaite
30th January 2011, 07:40 PM
Thank you Stoat of your loooooong guide.

But still, as unfortunate many times with these linux-guides, something important is missing.

I installed Fedora 14 on my netbook with broadcom wlan and everything else with Fedora 14 installation went perfect ... but I only have wlan net connection and 3G mobile data. So I was on an island with Fedora with no internet connection.

But I had other OS in my netbook, with right out of the bow working wlan and internet connection. So googling leaded me here. I read your loooong guide and with it I found out that I have Broadcom BCM4312 in my netbook. But no working internet connection in Fedora to be able to add extra repository to get those Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA drivers (broadcom-wl) from rpmfusion.org.

Your guide says "If the computer does not have an Internet connection, then all of the packages mentioned can be downloaded to another computer and manually transferred to the hard drive of the wireless computer."
So I tried to browse http://rpmfusion.org/ and links in table "Browse available packages" at the end of that page... but no link opened... they just timed out.

Then googling more. And I found this excellent guide to guide me to install those drivers

http://fedoraunity.org/mobile/fc-wireless/broadcom-linux-sta-driver

That guide is short, but it gave me exact guides what and how to to (excluding that I figured out myself where to obtain those 3 driver rpm insstallation packages of Broadcom for Fedora 14 - while that guide only mention Fedora 12 and 13).
So to obtain those installation rpm packages from rpmfusion mirror

http://mirrors.cat.pdx.edu/rpmfusion/nonfree/fedora/releases/14/Everything/i386/os/

http://mirrors.cat.pdx.edu/rpmfusion/nonfree/fedora/releases/14/Everything/i386/os/broadcom-wl-5.60.48.36-1.fc13.noarch.rpm

http://mirrors.cat.pdx.edu/rpmfusion/nonfree/fedora/releases/14/Everything/i386/os/kmod-wl-2.6.35.6-45.fc14.i686-5.60.48.36-2.fc14.1.i686.rpm

http://mirrors.cat.pdx.edu/rpmfusion/nonfree/fedora/releases/14/Everything/i386/os/kmod-wl-5.60.48.36-2.fc14.1.i686.rpm

And to install them in Fedora 14 with
rpm -ivh *rpm

Then "modprobe wl" (or reboot) and wlan should work.


So, Stoat, could you take a look at that guide and maybe write some missing guidance in your guide?

Often one just needs to know ALL of what to do, and not so much information why to do so.

I think that some attitude change just needs to be done with linux offerings and these unnecessary problems to linux newbies. Networking and internet is so vital and important area nowadays. If everything else goes just fine but network and internet connection remains hard problem to user to fix, it just turns people off with linux. So maybe including some not free drivers in the installation media, like some distros do, for the sake of keeping up appearances with newbies, interested on linux desktops and to get internet onnection working right out ot the box like everything else with Fedora 14 seems to be capable right out of the box : ) It's the user experience that counts, it's the first impression that counts - and it just needst to be good to obtain good Fedora relationship to start like love at a first sight. And in war and love, everything "good" is ok.

stoat
31st January 2011, 02:56 AM
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Administrator's Note:

These first four post were moved from the Broadcom wireless HOWTO in
Guides & Solutions to Rants since that is all this exchange turned out to be.





So, Stoat, could you take a look at that guide and maybe write some missing guidance in your guide?You mean make it even longer? You've already clearly indicated your displeasure with its length...


Thank you Stoat of your loooooong guide.Maybe its great length is also why you overlooked what I said to do when no Internet connection exists for the computer to do its own downloads. Here is what it actually says...


If the computer does not have an Internet connection, then all of the packages mentioned can be downloaded to another computer and manually transferred to the hard drive of the wireless computer. For help with that, start a new thread in the Networking forum and mention your kernel version.You missed or ignored that last sentence and flew off on another search which led you to your Fedora Unity guide. But that sentence was sitting right there when you carefully highlighted the preceeding sentence to paste into your post.

Look, I am acutely aware of the length of this guide. Unlike your Fedora Unity guide which addresses only broadcom-wl, I attempted to cover every currently known Broadcom driver and method. And during the months I spent preparing it, I counted the words over and over. I had to decide what to put in and what to leave out. For broadcom-wl and ndiswrapper, I decided to divert people who could not use yum online back to the help forums for personalized help. I can't count how many times I have looked up and hand-typed links to those RPM Fusion files for various kernels and versions and the steps to install them. You don't like how I decided to handle that. But you also think the guide is too long. Well, for all of that I am sorry. But I don't accept any responsibility for the complicated and confusing nature of Broadcom wireless in Linux at this time. It is what it is.

Please don't return here to argue with me about this. You had your say. I had mine. Now we both can go away feeling better.

minaite
31st January 2011, 12:59 PM
Why you then argue?

Your guide explains with yum install -commands what to do, supposing that one has working internet connection, but you only guide to ask more, if one don't have working internet connection in Fedora.

I only messaged of missing alternative guidance and suggested you to add likewise how to do that "If the computer does not have an Internet connection, then all of the packages mentioned can be downloaded to another computer and manually transferred to the hard drive of the wireless computer." and not to just mention "For help with that, start a new thread in the Networking forum and mention your kernel version."

Or why you don't just guide "install with yum as usuall or start a new thread in forum to ask more specific guidance".

At least now http://rpmfusion.org/ is unreachable and your guide don' tell how to reach it.

You could add to your guide:

Take a look mirror site at http://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/mm/publiclist/

Then download appropriate rpm-installation packages from mirror' subfolder

either /rpmfusion/nonfree/fedora/releases/14/Everything/i386/os/

or /rpmfusion/nonfree/fedora/releases/14/Everything/x86_64/os/

Folder structure of all those mirrors is that.
Select version according your Fedora-release date and download
broadcom-wl-***.noarch.rpm,
kmod-wl-***.i686-***.i686.rpmor kmod-wl-***.x86_64-***.x86_64.rpm and
kmod-wl-***.i686.rpmor kmod-wl-***.x86_64.rpm

And to install them in Fedora 14 with
rpm -ivh *rpm

Then "modprobe wl" (or reboot) and wlan should work.

Before your first full yum update, be sure to have the rpmfusion repo installed, or else you'll lose wireless when your kernel is updated but the kmod-wl isn't.
Not bad idea to include commands, how to do it.
Btw, I myself first added original rpmfusion repo, but it didn't work, so I had to add mirror repo instead.


So, stoat, my point is that you have wrote excellent guidance with command of some ways to do the job, but your guidance should include allso better guidance with commands, how to do the job, while not working internet connection due to the lack of working wlan - and I'm sure that that is the problem with many in this problem area and your guidance don't cover it, or it is not at same guidance level as other ways. It is sometimes easy to miss something important in guidance, when one hasn't experienced it.

minaite
31st January 2011, 01:03 PM
I forgot in my earlier message:

In your guide

"1 Install the RPM Fusion repositories.
http://rpmfusion.org/Configuration"

That page says now that it's not accessible - ?