[CentOS] Dell Wireless WLAN Card Utility - mini-pci wireless card 1390

Andrew Allen

andy.allen at virgin.net
Sat Dec 1 19:28:58 UTC 2007


On Fri, 2007-11-30 at 15:13 -0600, Barry Brimer wrote:
> Quoting Andrew Allen <andy.allen at virgin.net>:
> 
> > On Mon, 2007-11-19 at 15:52 -0600, Barry Brimer wrote:
> > > Quoting Andrew Allen <andy.allen at virgin.net>:
> > >
> > > > On Sun, 2007-11-18 at 19:41 -0600, Barry Brimer wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > I have a Dell laptop that I believe has the same card.  The CentOS 5
> > > > > kernel did not appear to support it, but the RHEL 5.1 (and subsequently
> > > > > upon its release) the CentOS 5.1 kernel does support it.  You will need
> > to
> > > > > drop the firmware into /lib/firmware .. I believe this is a bcm43xx
> > card.
> > > > >
> > > > > Barry
> > > >
> > > > Thanks Barry,
> > > > In view of what you say about CentOS 5.1 supporting this card, I think
> > > > I'm going to wait until it's released - hope that won't be too long. Any
> > > > other possible solutions (eg like using ndiswrapper) look far too
> > > > complicated for a linux newbie like me!  I hope that I'll be able to
> > > > update the kernel without having to do a complete re-install. In the
> > > > meantime I'm just going to have to use MS Windows XP (I have dual-boot
> > > > on this laptop) for any wireless networking.
> > >
> > > I was using ndiswrapper for this card until RHEL 5.1's kernel picked it up.
> >  I
> > > noticed that it now found an 'eth1' interface that didn't exist before.
> > > ndiswrapper does work, but has somewhat occasional crashes most likely due
> > to
> > > RHEL's 4k stack size that is not really compatible with ndiswrapper.  I
> > agree,
> > > you should wait until the CentOS 5.1 kernel comes out because assuming you
> > and
> > > I have the same card, all you need is the firmware .. and it will work
> > without
> > > further issue.
> > >
> > > Barry
> > >
> > >
> > I've now upgraded the kernel to CentOS 2.6.18-8.1.15.e15, so assume my
> > OS is now effectively CentOS 5.1. However, I'm afraid I'm still at a bit
> > of a loss as to how it supports my Dell laptop wireless card (bcm43xx
> > card?), as it's still not listed in the list of supported adapters in
> > Network Config. Can anybody please suggest where I go from here?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Andy
> 
> You are still on the CentOS 5 kernel, not the CentOS 5.1 kernel.  The base RHEL
> 5 kernel is kernel-2.6.18-53.el5 and the most recent is
> kernel-2.6.18-53.1.4.el5.  I don't believe CentOS 5.1 is out yet, but I've not
> checked today.
> 
> Barry

Thanks Barry,
Some recent CentOS-list emails have implied that if CentOS 5 is fully
updated, it will be (effectively) CentOS 5.1, but this is clearly not
the case! I've looked again at the Release Notes at
http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS5.1 and see that
CentOS 5.1 isn't relesed yet. So I'll have to be patient and wait - I
hope that'll be rewarded when I find it does support my wireless card!

Andy

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