Robert Heller wrote: > At Tue, 03 Mar 2009 10:29:48 -0600 CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> wrote: > >> Any hope of getting my laptop's Broadcom BCM94311 wireless running >> on CentOS 5? I find lots of references to using fwcutter to get >> the needed firmware from Windows drivers, but there's a Catch-22: [SNIP] >> I've been searching and fighting this for quite some time. I >> have a Fedora 10 installation that runs the wireless just fine >> on that laptop (Lenovo 3000 N200), but I really hate the churn >> and instability of Fedora. I was hoping that CentOS 5.3 might >> include a backported b43 driver, but I grabbed a preliminary >> version of the new kernel (2.6.18-132), and it still has the >> old bcm43xx.ko driver. > > If the wireless card is on a miniPCI card, it is possible to replace it > with an Intel ipw2100 type card. Going to the Intel wireless means you > can use the fully supported open drivers that come with the kernels and > not have to message with dealing with MS-Windows drivers or closed > source drivers. Those ipw2100 cards seem to be scarce as hen's teeth now, and the new IBM/Lenovo laptops are reported to be very picky about what wireless cards the BIOS will accept. I can get an Intel WM3945ABG card, one that should be compatible, quite cheaply. It appears that the iwlwifi driver in the new kernel supports that. I just need to see if I can find an equivalent for a Broadcom-specific tool that I find quite useful under Windows XP, and then I can go that way. Based on all the (much appreciated) info everyone has provided, I'm not going to further pursue getting CentOS 5.[23] to work with Broadcom wireless. -- Bob Nichols "NOSPAM" is really part of my email address. Do NOT delete it.