Jun 13, 2010

Enable Broadcom Wireless on Linux Mint 9 Isadora

The next thing to do in Linux mint is to browse...Internet. But what is this? You are unable to connect to the wifi router, which was working fine in Windows. This solution approach is only for Broadcom Wireless Device as I have Dell Inspiron Laptop...

So the steps are:

  1. Download the Broadcom drivers: http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php
  2. Unpack and modify the ‘src/wl/sys/wl_linux.c‘:
    Line 35 (after #include ) add:
                #include < linux/sched.h >
  3. Compile the code with: make
  4. Copy the new driver: sudo mv wl.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless
  5. Update dependencies: sudo depmod -a
  6. Modify the blacklist to include the ‘b43′ and ’ssb’ drivers /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf (Add below the bcm43xx blacklist)
  7. Modify the /etc/rc.local to include before the exit(0):
  8. rmmod ssb 
    modprobe wl
Restart your system!!!

You will notice at bottom right corner of the desktop, network manager started detecting the wireless networks available in your area...Connect to your Home Network by giving security key...

Happy browsing...

1 comment:

  1. Hi, I am a complete newbie,(like 3 hrs new..) and the only thing I understood from your post was "Download the Broadcom drivers." Is there anyway you could"dumb down" the rest of it? I don't want to be tied to this cord anymore....
    Oh and maybe you could help me with another problem. I can't seem to type in the terminal - nothing registers when it asks me for my password which I found out is normal, but even though I type my password in and press enter, it still tells me there is an error, and then after a few tries, the type turns to red. What am I doing wrong?

    ReplyDelete