e1705 ubuntu 7.04 wireless questions.

Ok so I have been following this forum for some time, but i have decided to register. I'm pretty familiar with linux and have been using RH since the 90's, i also use Irix for two of my SGI machines. I run it on my servers but have been leary to install it on my laptop full time.

So I have a e1705 C2D 2Ghz, 1gb ram, dell broadcom, 7900gs. Great laptop. I installed ubuntu FF 7.04, just yesterday. I am happy with the improved Nvidia drivers, and all, however getting the broadcom card to work is a pain, it showes up in network manager, however it will simply refurse to connect to both encrypted and non encrypted wifi networks. Id love to buy the intel card off hand but no are avalible, if you have a broadcomm on you e1705, id be interested in how you got it to work.

thanks,

John

 

Yeah, you're not going to have much luck getting a Broadcom chip working natively. The best suggestion I can give you at this point is just download the drivers from Dell's website and use ndiswrapper. This should get things done until you can get an Intel card (which I HIGHLY recommend).

 

I will also suggest getting the Intel 3945 card. My wireless is working great on WPA and unlocked networks out of the box (except for LEAP authentication which I can't figure out.)

 

Thanks for the replys. Thats kinda what i figured, now is there any place but ebay and dell to purchase the intel mini pcie card, or does anyone have a better discription of the card or model number. BTW Im having issues with crossover office and ubuntu, ahh I hate switching distros.


John

 

Ok found one brand new on Ebay, thanks, so it works out of the box huh!

 

I was able to get my broadcom drivers working in Feisty. I think what I did was download the WinXP Drivers from Dell and install them via ndiswrapper.

 

That's pretty much the easiest way to do it unfortunately. I think if Dell is serious about their Linux machines, they're going to have to work on their hardware as well as their software. They should at least move to Atheros-based chipset for their network devices.

 

In Australia, Dell doesn't give us the option for the Dell Wireless cards, it's all Intel. Don't quite understand why they do the third party ones.