Broadcom Wireless issue

[Ladrack]

Hey guys,

I know this topic seems to be well drawn out and I hate to beat a tired rug, but, I'm going to ask anyway.

Disclaimer: I am a linux noob. There I said it. I have been running Ubuntu and Xubuntu for a few months on my own but recently found this distribution.

Ok, on to my question. With Ubuntu and Xubuntu my Broadcom Wireless driver is found and installed by those distributions. I am able to find network signals, connect to networks and browse the internet with zero connection issues. Now, I was a little shocked to find out that even though BackTrack is build off Kubuntu I can't get it to find or use my Wireless network Card. (My Eternet port works just fine) So I looked around on the forums and on the FAQ: I ran /etc/init.d/networking start and it still doesn't work. I am hoping some one here can find a creative way to get this working for me. Like, could I somehow get the driver from Ubuntu or Xubuntu and copy over to BackTrack? How would I even do that? or is there any other creative way to get this taken care of?

Thanks for any help you can give me. I really look forward to getting a chance to learn about these tools.

[anathema7g]

When you ask a question about wireless cards, normally it is customary to post up some information about your wireless card. For example, the manufacturer, model, and chipset would greatly help in troubleshooting your issue.

A good place to get this info is by running this command:

lspci -n

And/or looking it up on the Linux Wireless LAN support website, or even better, searching the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) area on the forums.

[Ladrack]

Ok so I ran a tool called Astra which reports system hardware information. This is what I have:

Adapter Vendor: Broadcom Corp
Adapter Name: BCM4309 802.11a/b/g

So I took a look at your link with the list of broadcom devices that are suppose to be supported in linux. Most all were named as BCM43XX... so Here is my best quess. The system is an HP. So, I scrolled down to the two HP drivers listed. This is an internal nic so I know its not the USB. So I'm thinking its the other one (mini-pci). So that is also labeled BCM43XX which my card would fit into and in driver support it is lit GREEN. Which, is to say it has some support for this wireless card in linux. Thank you for taking the time to help me trouble shoot this.

[Ladrack]

So I think I found my issue. I have been running Ubuntu and XUbuntu with my wireless driver just fine on 10.04 - but on 9.10 it was not running. That leads me to the conclusion (right or wrong) that perhaps my card does not work in BT4 because it is built on Ubuntu 8.04 - oh well. I prefered XUbuntu anyway. Thanks for you help guys.