Re: Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe?
On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:50:27 -0400 Bill Sconce sco...@in-spec-inc.com wrote: a whole stream of replies -- and most significantly, an answer to the last question. (I.e., don't give up.) I'm glad I (we) didn't. Victory! Thanks to everyone who responded. I'll do some more reading and choose a new approach. The library shall have its laptops FREE OF MICROSOFT after all! More later... I was back at the library today, armed with the information from this thread. I explained to the librarian the copyright issues regarding firmware (and what firmware is), how the Linux community works, how it's very seldom that any one of us is the first to encounter a problem, and how conversely the solution to your problem is often just an e-mail away. I took in some CAT5 cables and a small hub, connected the first laptop via cable, and was able to download and use fwcutter (as recommended here and at the URLs suggested here). I restarted NetworkManager, and Presto. Wireless! There was their (unsecured) wifi in the popdown list. Just like on Windows. We look like heros. Heck, we ARE heros... They'll use the first laptop for a week or two, see how patrons like it or what problems they find, then we'll do the other laptop. So far, so good. (Thanks to this list! The Broadcom picture has become less disgusting than I remembered it, but I would have thrown in the towel rather than pursue the answer without the tips, and encouragement, from GNHLUG.) -Bill P.S. There was a yucky part, of course: for the first time ever I had to install the unspeakable Flash plugin on a Linux system... ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe?
On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 9:02 PM, Bill Sconce sco...@in-spec-inc.com wrote: We look like heros. Heck, we ARE heros... Mal: Well, look at this! Appears we got here just in the nick of time. What does that make us? Zoe: Big damn heroes, sir! Mal: Ain't we just? Good job, Bill! P.S. There was a yucky part, of course: for the first time ever I had to install the unspeakable Flash plugin on a Linux system... I suggest Firefox 3.6.4 (now in beta), which gives you out-of-process plugins, thereby keeping most of Flash's braindamage isolated from the rest of the browser. -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe? [now OT]
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 10:52 PM, Benjamin Scott dragonh...@gmail.com wrote: On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 8:38 PM, Dan Jenkins d...@rastech.com wrote: We don't have to wear spandex, do we?? I, for one, definitely do not look good in spandex. But a cape might be cool. No capes! Thunderhead, Stratogale, the list goes on... Yeah, but Thunderhead ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe? [now OT]
On 6/11/2010 4:34 PM, Joshua Judson Rosen wrote: It's *us*. *We're* the Software Freedom Squad. Since when? Since *now*. We don't have to wear spandex, do we?? I, for one, definitely do not look good in spandex. But a cape might be cool. My business partner, Keith, actually would look good in spandex. (He can lift 1,000 pounds.) :-) -- Dan Jenkins, Rastech Inc., Bedford, NH, USA, 1-603-206-9951 *** Technical Support Services for four decades. Now featuring Keith the Incredible Hulk and Dan the Double-Brained. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe? [now OT]
On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 8:38 PM, Dan Jenkins d...@rastech.com wrote: We don't have to wear spandex, do we?? I, for one, definitely do not look good in spandex. But a cape might be cool. No capes! Thunderhead, Stratogale, the list goes on... -- Ben ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe?
David Rysdam da...@rysdam.org writes: On 06/10/2010 05:32 PM, Joshua Judson Rosen wrote: Dan Jenkins d...@rastech.com writes: I haven't had as much luck with Fedora and Centos, though I didn't really try to; just gave the folk network cards which did work and put the Broadcoms in Windows laptops. (I had a surplus of laptops to exchange components between, and an enormous time crunch to just get things working.) I just had a thought along those lines, myself: depending on how much Bill's time is worth to him, might it actually make sense to just donate the $10-per ($20 total?) required to buy Linux-compatible WiFi adaptors? That was my very first thought as well. I was even going to ask what library it was. If it's one of the ones I visit, I'd be willing to chip in (or outright pay for it) too. If there are a lot of libraries being infected with Micros~1 generosity someone should form a roving band of Software Freedom Fighters... It's *us*. *We're* the Software Freedom Squad. Since when? Since *now*. -- Don't be afraid to ask (λf.((λx.xx) (λr.f(rr. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe?
I got an e-mail a couple of weeks ago, from a public library in a small New Hampshire town, with the subject HELP SAVE US FROM MICROSOFT! (I am not making this up.) Such a plea caused me to do some perhaps-foolish things. I called the library; I volunteered to help them; I omitted to ask what hardware was involved. Turns out they had acquired a pair of Dell E5500 laptops (under a Gates Foundation grant, I believe), and of course the machines came with you-know-who's software. And not just the operating system, but a selection of add-on cruft including DeepFreeze and role management apps, the combination of which proved to be a nightmare and impossible to get or keep working. Eventually someone suggested to the library that the Linux community might be able to help; somehow my name came up, and I received the HELP SAVE US message. After an initial visit, I burned a Fedora 13 live CD for them to try, took it over to the library, booted it and showed it off. All OK. But then the zinger: of COURSE...they only use wireless. And of COURSE...the laptop has a Broadcom Wifi adapter. And of course it doesn't work. I've spent today so far researching. I searched my GNHLUG archives and found only one discussion, circa 2/22.(*) From the Web it looks like fwcutter, proprietary firmware copyrights, kernel modules...pretty ugly. (And Latitudes use Nvidia, but it does seem that Fedora 13 has the Nvidia part working.) Does anyone have experience, either with this laptop (Dell Dimension E5500) or with getting a $#! Broadcom adapter to work (a 4318 apparently) -- or experience which justifies a decision to just not do this? Many thanks! Be_careful_what_you_volunteer_for'ly yrs, -Bill (*) 2/22: Wherein Alan Johnson offers the clearly definitive advice, In any case, be sure to steer clear of Broadcom. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe?
On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 2:11 PM, Bill Sconce sco...@in-spec-inc.com wrote: After an initial visit, I burned a Fedora 13 live CD for them to try, took it over to the library, booted it and showed it off. All OK. But then the zinger: of COURSE...they only use wireless. And of COURSE...the laptop has a Broadcom Wifi adapter. And of course it doesn't work. I've since install Ubuntu 9.10 on a really old Dell laptop with broadcom wifi and it works beautifully. It is not there right after install, but when connected wired, it hardware driver tool finds the necessary packages and installs them with minimal effort. You must simply agree to the warnings about installing prorpietary crap, and it just works. That said, I don't believe all broadcoms are the same, so YMMV, but it is worth a shot IMHO. If it were me, I'd tried 10.04 first since that is long term service. In full disclosure, this machine was rebuild for my son to use with an Arduino board I got him for his 5th birthday, so it has not spent much time in the on state. So, I can't speak explicitly to stability, but I never had trouble keeping these Broadcoms on line once they were on. (*) 2/22: Wherein Alan Johnson offers the clearly definitive advice, In any case, be sure to steer clear of Broadcom. Awe, shucks. =) Also, I think that same thread lists several very cheap USB wifi options that just work in Linux. You can find a nice list of them some where on wiki.ubuntu.com and I expect Fedora has something similar. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe?
Bill Sconce wrote: But then the zinger: of COURSE...they only use wireless. And of COURSE...the laptop has a Broadcom Wifi adapter. And of course it doesn't work. My netbook reports having a Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g (rev 01). It's currently running Ubuntu 10.04, with the proprietary broadcom drives (installed by the handy Hardware Drivers application). I didn't have to do any work to get it going ... just installed the driver and all was seemingly well. This is not intended as a my distro is better than insert other distro - just a data point that it worked fine for me. -- Cole Tuininga Lead Developer co...@code-energy.com ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe?
On 06/10/2010 02:30 PM, Alan Johnson wrote: On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 2:11 PM, Bill Sconce sco...@in-spec-inc.com mailto:sco...@in-spec-inc.com wrote: After an initial visit, I burned a Fedora 13 live CD for them to try, took it over to the library, booted it and showed it off. All OK. But then the zinger: of COURSE...they only use wireless. And of COURSE...the laptop has a Broadcom Wifi adapter. And of course it doesn't work. I've since install Ubuntu 9.10 on a really old Dell laptop with broadcom wifi and it works beautifully. It is not there right after install, but when connected wired, it hardware driver tool finds the necessary packages and installs them with minimal effort. You must simply agree to the warnings about installing prorpietary crap, and it just works. That said, I don't believe all broadcoms are the same, so YMMV, but it is worth a shot IMHO. If it were me, I'd tried 10.04 first since that is long term service. In full disclosure, this machine was rebuild for my son to use with an Arduino board I got him for his 5th birthday, so it has not spent much time in the on state. So, I can't speak explicitly to stability, but I never had trouble keeping these Broadcoms on line once they were on. (*) 2/22: Wherein Alan Johnson offers the clearly definitive advice, In any case, be sure to steer clear of Broadcom. Awe, shucks. =) Also, I think that same thread lists several very cheap USB wifi options that just work in Linux. You can find a nice list of them some where on wiki.ubuntu.com http://wiki.ubuntu.com and I expect Fedora has something similar. Most Broadcom chips work fine in Linux. Like Alan, my laptop is running fine with Ubuntu 9.10, but it also ran SuSE and Fedora. First of all you need to install /b43/-/fwcutter. This tool is needed to extract and install the firmware. The ubuntu packages for fwcutter will prompt you to automatically download and install the firmware, but other distros do not. I recently helped a guy at the installfest who was installing Linux Mint. In his case, rather than doing it the manual way I removed the fwcutter package he installed and installed the Ubuntu 9.10 version. His wireless worked after that. /Here is a pretty decent site that tells you how to install fwcutter and the firmware: http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43. Additionally, do not use ndiswrapper unless you absolutely have to. That is like flying a 150 upside down with a manual fuel pump. -- Jerry Feldman g...@blu.org Boston Linux and Unix PGP key id: 537C5846 PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846 signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe?
On 06/10/2010 02:33 PM, Cole Tuininga wrote: Bill Sconce wrote: But then the zinger: of COURSE...they only use wireless. And of COURSE...the laptop has a Broadcom Wifi adapter. And of course it doesn't work. My netbook reports having a Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g (rev 01). It's currently running Ubuntu 10.04, with the proprietary broadcom drives (installed by the handy Hardware Drivers application). I didn't have to do any work to get it going ... just installed the driver and all was seemingly well. This is not intended as a my distro is better than insert other distro - just a data point that it worked fine for me. Coreection my laptop is currently running 10.04 not 9.10 not that it matters -- Jerry Feldman g...@blu.org Boston Linux and Unix PGP key id: 537C5846 PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846 signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe?
Google results seem to suggest for Fedora that you have 2 options: * Get the proprietary Broadcom firmware and use the fw-cutter tool to extract the firmware and drop it in /lib/firmware http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#device_firmware_installation * Use the open rewrite/replacement from the OpenFWWF project which is allegedly as simple as a yum install b43-openfwwf Project: http://www.ing.unibs.it/openfwwf/ Forum post where I read about it: http://fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=228418 -Shawn On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 2:11 PM, Bill Sconce sco...@in-spec-inc.com wrote: I got an e-mail a couple of weeks ago, from a public library in a small New Hampshire town, with the subject HELP SAVE US FROM MICROSOFT! (I am not making this up.) Such a plea caused me to do some perhaps-foolish things. I called the library; I volunteered to help them; I omitted to ask what hardware was involved. Turns out they had acquired a pair of Dell E5500 laptops (under a Gates Foundation grant, I believe), and of course the machines came with you-know-who's software. And not just the operating system, but a selection of add-on cruft including DeepFreeze and role management apps, the combination of which proved to be a nightmare and impossible to get or keep working. Eventually someone suggested to the library that the Linux community might be able to help; somehow my name came up, and I received the HELP SAVE US message. After an initial visit, I burned a Fedora 13 live CD for them to try, took it over to the library, booted it and showed it off. All OK. But then the zinger: of COURSE...they only use wireless. And of COURSE...the laptop has a Broadcom Wifi adapter. And of course it doesn't work. I've spent today so far researching. I searched my GNHLUG archives and found only one discussion, circa 2/22.(*) From the Web it looks like fwcutter, proprietary firmware copyrights, kernel modules...pretty ugly. (And Latitudes use Nvidia, but it does seem that Fedora 13 has the Nvidia part working.) Does anyone have experience, either with this laptop (Dell Dimension E5500) or with getting a $#! Broadcom adapter to work (a 4318 apparently) -- or experience which justifies a decision to just not do this? Many thanks! Be_careful_what_you_volunteer_for'ly yrs, -Bill (*) 2/22: Wherein Alan Johnson offers the clearly definitive advice, In any case, be sure to steer clear of Broadcom. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe?
On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:11:01 -0400 Bill Sconce sco...@in-spec-inc.com wrote: Does anyone have experience, either with this laptop (Dell Dimension E5500) or with getting a $#! Broadcom adapter to work (a 4318 apparently) Wow. Before I could finish typing this after interruption I see several have pointed out my suggestions which is to try Ubuntu. It has quite a few debs for proprietary drivers including some Broadcom Wireless cards which have worked for me in the past. -- Ed Lawson Ham Callsign: K1VP PGP Key ID: 1591EAD3 PGP Key Fingerprint: 79A1 CDC3 EF3D 7F93 1D28 2D42 58E4 2287 1591 EAD3 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe?
On 06/10/2010 02:35 PM, kenta wrote: Why not use fwcutter? I used it recently with Ubuntu 10 .04 on an aging Dell laptop (I don't remember the model, but it was about an 2 inch thick brick of a laptop). It too had a Broadcomm chip based wireless adapter and after an apt-get and hitting OK a few times I was on 'net in under 5 minutes. The alternative for broadcom's seems to be to setup NDISWRAPPER with the windows driver which takes some additional time. If my memory serves me correctly, a lot more of a hassle. As I mentioned, the Ubuntu version of b43_fwcutter package will automatically prompt you to download the firmware, but other distros do not. What fwcutter does is to cut out the firmware from the windows driver and with the appropriate options place it into /lib/modules/kernel version/kernel/drivers/firmware. If you take a look at dmesg, you will see that the b43 driver fails because the firmware has not been loaded. -- Jerry Feldman g...@blu.org Boston Linux and Unix PGP key id: 537C5846 PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846 signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe?
On 06/10/2010 02:11 PM, Bill Sconce wrote: (I am not making this up.) Such a plea caused me to do some perhaps-foolish things. I called the library; I volunteered to help them; I omitted to ask what hardware was involved. No good deed goes unpunished. Does anyone have experience, either with this laptop (Dell Dimension E5500) or with getting a $#! Broadcom adapter to work (a 4318 apparently) -- or experience which justifies a decision to just not do this? Linksys uses Broadcom drivers in their wireless access points, so apparently I've gotten quite a few drivers working. I stumbled across this page which seems to have a lot of suggestions, Fedora-specific: http://forums.fedoraforum.org/archive/index.php/t-239922.html As an alternative, you might suggest they buy a wireless card which is supportable, but then you'll be responsible for identifying the correct card: ExpressCard, CardBus, PCMCIA and which vendor is using which chip in which revision... -- Ted Roche Ted Roche Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe?
On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:11:01 -0400 Bill Sconce sco...@in-spec-inc.com wrote: Does anyone have experience, either with this laptop (Dell Dimension E5500) or with getting a $#! Broadcom adapter to work (a 4318 apparently) -- or experience which justifies a decision to just not do this? Look at that! Before I can even get back from customer site to check my mail, a whole stream of replies -- and most significantly, an answer to the last question. (I.e., don't give up.) Thanks to everyone who responded. I'll do some more reading and choose a new approach. The library shall have its laptops FREE OF MICROSOFT after all! More later... -Bill ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe?
On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:50:27 -0400 Bill Sconce sco...@in-spec-inc.com wrote: The library shall have its laptops FREE OF MICROSOFT after all! More later... Of course you could go crazy and turn them into thin clients. You have seen how well that works as I recall in an educational environment. Might be a gig there...as if you needed one. Ed Lawson Ham Callsign: K1VP PGP Key ID: 1591EAD3 PGP Key Fingerprint: 79A1 CDC3 EF3D 7F93 1D28 2D42 58E4 2287 1591 EAD3 ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe?
On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 2:43 PM, Shawn O'Shea sh...@eth0.net wrote: Google results seem to suggest for Fedora that you have 2 options: * Get the proprietary Broadcom firmware and use the fw-cutter tool to extract the firmware and drop it in /lib/firmware http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#device_firmware_installation * Use the open rewrite/replacement from the OpenFWWF project which is allegedly as simple as a yum install b43-openfwwf Project: http://www.ing.unibs.it/openfwwf/ Forum post where I read about it: http://fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=228418 There's an option #3 for Broadcom wifi cards, Broadcom's hybrid-wl driver, which I suspect is what Cole is running on Ubuntu, and which is also packaged for Fedora in the RPM Fusion repositories. http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/updates/13/x86_64/kmod-wl-2.6.33.5-112.fc13.x86_64-5.60.48.36-1.fc13.7.x86_64.rpm On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 2:11 PM, Bill Sconce sco...@in-spec-inc.com wrote: I got an e-mail a couple of weeks ago, from a public library in a small New Hampshire town, with the subject HELP SAVE US FROM MICROSOFT! (I am not making this up.) Such a plea caused me to do some perhaps-foolish things. I called the library; I volunteered to help them; I omitted to ask what hardware was involved. Turns out they had acquired a pair of Dell E5500 laptops (under a Gates Foundation grant, I believe), and of course the machines came with you-know-who's software. And not just the operating system, but a selection of add-on cruft including DeepFreeze and role management apps, the combination of which proved to be a nightmare and impossible to get or keep working. Eventually someone suggested to the library that the Linux community might be able to help; somehow my name came up, and I received the HELP SAVE US message. After an initial visit, I burned a Fedora 13 live CD for them to try, took it over to the library, booted it and showed it off. All OK. But then the zinger: of COURSE...they only use wireless. And of COURSE...the laptop has a Broadcom Wifi adapter. And of course it doesn't work. I've spent today so far researching. I searched my GNHLUG archives and found only one discussion, circa 2/22.(*) From the Web it looks like fwcutter, proprietary firmware copyrights, kernel modules...pretty ugly. (And Latitudes use Nvidia, but it does seem that Fedora 13 has the Nvidia part working.) Does anyone have experience, either with this laptop (Dell Dimension E5500) or with getting a $#! Broadcom adapter to work (a 4318 apparently) -- or experience which justifies a decision to just not do this? Many thanks! Be_careful_what_you_volunteer_for'ly yrs, -Bill (*) 2/22: Wherein Alan Johnson offers the clearly definitive advice, In any case, be sure to steer clear of Broadcom. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/ -- Jarod Wilson ja...@wilsonet.com ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe?
On 6/10/2010 2:11 PM, Bill Sconce wrote: I got an e-mail a couple of weeks ago, from a public library in a small New Hampshire town, with the subject HELP SAVE US FROM MICROSOFT! (I am not making this up.) Such a plea caused me to do some perhaps-foolish things. I called the library; I volunteered to help them; I omitted to ask what hardware was involved. Does anyone have experience, either with this laptop (Dell Dimension E5500) or with getting a $#! Broadcom adapter to work (a 4318 apparently) -- or experience which justifies a decision to just not do this? I've had almost no trouble getting Broadcom to work with Ubuntu and Mandriva distros. Just get the most current versions. I haven't had as much luck with Fedora and Centos, though I didn't really try to; just gave the folk network cards which did work and put the Broadcoms in Windows laptops. (I had a surplus of laptops to exchange components between, and an enormous time crunch to just get things working.) ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe?
Dan Jenkins d...@rastech.com writes: On 6/10/2010 2:11 PM, Bill Sconce wrote: I got an e-mail a couple of weeks ago, from a public library in a small New Hampshire town, with the subject HELP SAVE US FROM MICROSOFT! (I am not making this up.) Such a plea caused me to do some perhaps-foolish things. I called the library; I volunteered to help them; I omitted to ask what hardware was involved. Does anyone have experience, either with this laptop (Dell Dimension E5500) or with getting a $#! Broadcom adapter to work (a 4318 apparently) -- or experience which justifies a decision to just not do this? I've had almost no trouble getting Broadcom to work with Ubuntu and Mandriva distros. Just get the most current versions. I haven't had as much luck with Fedora and Centos, though I didn't really try to; just gave the folk network cards which did work and put the Broadcoms in Windows laptops. (I had a surplus of laptops to exchange components between, and an enormous time crunch to just get things working.) I just had a thought along those lines, myself: depending on how much Bill's time is worth to him, might it actually make sense to just donate the $10-per ($20 total?) required to buy Linux-compatible WiFi adaptors? -- Don't be afraid to ask (λf.((λx.xx) (λr.f(rr. ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe?
On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 5:56 PM, Ed lawson elaw...@grizzy.com wrote: On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:50:27 -0400 Bill Sconce sco...@in-spec-inc.com wrote: The library shall have its laptops FREE OF MICROSOFT after all! More later... Of course you could go crazy and turn them into thin clients. You have seen how well that works as I recall in an educational environment. Might be a gig there...as if you needed one. Thin clients over wifi? Ew, no thanks. :) -- Jarod Wilson ja...@wilsonet.com ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
Re: Broadcom WiFi -- for a public library -- in Fedora 13 maybe?
On 06/10/2010 05:32 PM, Joshua Judson Rosen wrote: Dan Jenkins d...@rastech.com writes: I haven't had as much luck with Fedora and Centos, though I didn't really try to; just gave the folk network cards which did work and put the Broadcoms in Windows laptops. (I had a surplus of laptops to exchange components between, and an enormous time crunch to just get things working.) I just had a thought along those lines, myself: depending on how much Bill's time is worth to him, might it actually make sense to just donate the $10-per ($20 total?) required to buy Linux-compatible WiFi adaptors? That was my very first thought as well. I was even going to ask what library it was. If it's one of the ones I visit, I'd be willing to chip in (or outright pay for it) too. If there are a lot of libraries being infected with Micros~1 generosity someone should form a roving band of Software Freedom Fighters... ___ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/
