(Update 6-12-2011: Meego 1.2 was released on 5-19-2011, and nothing has changed in this setup, so this guide still applies to getting your broadcom wireless chipset to run. Thus why it it named “.. and above” )
So you are running the newest Meego OS for your netbook, ( wait you are not? Then you should! ) and you have a netbook using a Broadcom wireless device you will see wireless does not work. Well since Meego (and Moblin before that) is in part a project of Intel, only Intel chipsets are supported out of the box (which is a very large number of netbooks). But if you are like me and own an HP netbook (1030NR) then the Broadcom chipset for wireless will not work and you need to find or build your own driver.
In the past I had looked to Slaine.org and Andy Bleaden for help with this issue. Slaine would build his own driver and provide it to users to install. While Andy, did very nice job showing how to build your own. And using this method it will always work without waiting for someone to compile some drivers and package them.
So here I am today. Meego just pushed out 1.1.4. This included a new Linux kernel also. Which means my wifi no longer works. So I am writing this as a more copy and paste (with some manual changes) to allow me to rebuild the driver and install it again quickly. (If you want pictures go see Andy Bleaden’s blog).
First make sure to hook up the network for a wired ethernet connection (remember wireless doesnt work) and for good measure make sure you have the power adapter pluged in (dont want it to die on you in the middle of your work). Now open a terminal up. (Applications -> System Tools)
Next go ahead and download the Broadcom drivers from their website DRIVERS ( http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php ) It would be useless to link to this as they will change, but as of this post the current ones are 5.100.82.38 file name hybrid-portsrc_x86_32-v5_100_82_38.tar.gz . Keep in mind where you downloaded this driver. By default it should be in /home/your-username/Downloads . If you used wget then whatever folder you were in as you ran the command.
Now for some commands (in the boxes with what the command does on the next line):
(switch to the folder you downloaded the driver in)
(make sure you are up to date)
(get the tools to be able to build the driver)
(make a folder to work in)
(move the driver to the wireless folder)
(extract the driver from the compressed archive, protip: type hyb and hit tab)
make clean
make
(start fresh and then create the wireless driver)
(this will give you the linux kernel number you are currently running)
(copy the new driver to the wireless folder for the kernel, ie 2.6.35.3-17.1-netbook)
(kernel dependency stuff)
(load the module for the driver into the kernel)
You should see right away you now have wireless! (no reboot needed) Now the next time Meego updates you can quickly and easily get your wireless up and running again using the official Broadcom drivers.
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can you tell me what i did wrong. i did everything word for word in the post but when i get to the last step and type in [sudo modprobe wl] i get a message that say FATAL: Error inserting wl (/lib/modules/2.6.37.6-12.1/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/wl.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknow parameter (see dmesg). any ideas on how to fix this. thank you
Sounds like it did not build properly. Ensure you do have the latest downloaded for your system, and remove the old driver and packages and try it again. Do look at dmesg (sudo dmesg, or just dmesg if root user) It will look like a lot of junk but might give you a hint of where to start hunting next. It is had for me to test anything as my netbook gave up the ghost 🙁 But never did recieve that as an error in my various tests and such.
“can you tell me what i did wrong. i did everything word for word in the post but when i get to the last step and type in [sudo modprobe wl] i get a message that say FATAL: Error inserting wl (/lib/modules/2.6.37.6-12.1/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/wl.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknow parameter (see dmesg). any ideas on how to fix this. thank you”
Same happened to me, following the output of dmesg:
[ 2396.331871] wl: module license ‘unspecified’ taints kernel.
[ 2396.331881] Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
[ 2396.341398] wl: Unknown symbol lock_is_held (err 0)
[ 2396.341782] wl: Unknown symbol lockdep_rcu_dereference (err 0)
[ 2396.343218] wl: Unknown symbol lockdep_init_map (err 0)
[ 2396.348374] wl: Unknown symbol debug_lockdep_rcu_enabled (err 0)
[ 2396.349310] wl: Unknown symbol debug_locks (err 0)
[ 2396.349751] wl: Unknown symbol rcu_sched_lock_map (err 0)
with: 2.6.37.6-12.1
and driver: hybrid-v35-nodebug-pcoem-6_30_223_141.tar.gz
i got make error
Neither CFG80211 nor Wireless Extension is enabled in kernel
after forcing similar to above
any clues?