Puppy 4.2 on Dell mini 9 wireless tragedy

Post Reply
Message
Author
Tunen
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue 07 Jul 2009, 00:37

Puppy 4.2 on Dell mini 9 wireless tragedy

#1 Post by Tunen »

I've made a fresh install of Puppy 4.2 in my usb stick (live whit save file), I want to use it whit my dell inspiron 910. I've tryed any solution posted in the web, nothing usefull. Ndiswrapper with bcmwl5.inf, propietary broadcom sta drivers, b43 and b43xx driver, adding b43 firmware, macumbas and 3 visit on "sacra sindone" site in Turin Italy.
For one thing or another nothing work.
My question are:

How I can install the wireless driver for broadcom 4315 on dell mini 9 running Puppy 4.2?

Thanks

P.S.
Sorry for my bad english that I use only for linux issues

Roy
Posts: 451
Joined: Wed 31 Dec 2008, 18:31

#2 Post by Roy »

Tunen,

For your Dell Mini 9, you will need this broadcom-5.10.27.14-k2.6.25.16.pet that is located here: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... h&id=14917

I will try to help you with this, if you keep me informed of your progress and problems. Just be aware that my own internet access is very limited, so there might be long lapses without a response from me.

Please post back with your progress.

-Roy

PenPen
Posts: 20
Joined: Mon 07 Jul 2008, 04:16
Location: Other Side of The World

Broadcom Wifi

#3 Post by PenPen »

I thank you for this posting :)
My Lenovo S10 has the same Broadcom Wifi, After installing the .pet I used the setup Network Wizard and there was my Wifi listed as Broadcom WI....
I had no trouble loging on to a Wap2......
Before I had to use Ndiswrapper with the Windows driver but was only able to log on to a wep.....

I'm using NOP413rc

Hope this helps others
PenPen :D

Roy
Posts: 451
Joined: Wed 31 Dec 2008, 18:31

#4 Post by Roy »

PenPen,

You are most certainly welcomed, but the REAL thanks should go to Tempestuous for compiling that .pet and putting it in this thread:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=34159

Tunen,

With the Mini 9 netbooks, the problem I had for the longest time was learning to empty the left side SDHC slot before booting. If you leave the extra memory card in while using the 2.6.25.16 kernel, the boot sequence will hang at "loading usb". You can insert the memory card after the boot sequence completes, and everything behaves normally.

-Roy

PenPen
Posts: 20
Joined: Mon 07 Jul 2008, 04:16
Location: Other Side of The World

Thanks & MemCard

#5 Post by PenPen »

Roy,

Thanks for the info, I'll be sure to give THANKS to Tempestuous for compiling that .pet

Also The Levono S10 will not boot from the Sd card.....
What a disapointment that was, I have a HighSpeed 8 Gig SD card.

A quick work around is to use a card reader via the USB port though... :D

PenPen

Tunen
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue 07 Jul 2009, 00:37

#6 Post by Tunen »

Roy
Tunen is online! Magically online! Thanks Roy, thanks Tempestuous, very, very, thanks.
After your reply I removed the SDHC from the left slot and installed Puppy 4.2.1. The broadcom-5.10.27.14-k2.6.25.16.pet fully work, installed, rebooted and voila! "eth0 Wireless wl pci:Broadcom USB Controller" appears on the Puppy Network Wizard and the wired Ethernet interface r8101 becames eth1. Simply configuring eth0 with Puppy Network Wizard and go...
Wpa-tkip and dhcp work and my favourite porno site appears :lol:
I dont know if the problem was on the sdhc inserted on the slot, the problem that gives to You sdhc inseted during booting was with network?
I dont know if the problem was on the version 4.2 that I've changed with 4.2.1 or simply if I've made mistakes on previous attempts.
The important thing are that Puppy 4.2.1 wireless fully work on dell inspiron 910 or dell mini 9 simply installing by network wizard the broadcom-5.10.27.14-k2.6.25.16.pet.
Now I must understand why the connection will not start automatically, any idea?

PenPen
booting on sd are not supported by bios on dell mini 9 but you can bypass the problem by creating a initrd with sdhc and other modures required for booting on sd. you can make start the grub on the hd tath will launch a kernel and an initrd copied on hd, now the modified initrid can launch the installation on the sd. don't ask me tecnical details but I think possible, and I will do! I don't know how to modify the initrd but I'll try.
Thanks to all
W Led Zeppelin!!!

Roy
Posts: 451
Joined: Wed 31 Dec 2008, 18:31

#7 Post by Roy »

Tunen,

I am glad to hear that your wireless connection is now working! Unfortunately, I travel a lot, so do not use a dedicated "home" network to consistently connect to and always (manually) start Pwireless to find available networks before beginning. Perhaps someone else can jump in here to help with automatic connection at startup....

The issue with the side-mounted SDHC media is that the Dell Mini 9's will not boot Puppy's 2.6.25.16 kernel when the card is installed; the SDHC card must be completely disengaged from power-up until the end of the full booting sequence. The SDHC card may afterwards be fully inserted and it will mount as normal for use. (All of this, of course, is just to get to the initial pin-board desktop and is not about the network connection.)

I only mention the SDHC media issue here because the 2.6.25.16 kernel Puppy is required for this Broadcom .pet to work. The older 2.6.21.7 Retro kernel does not suffer from the SDHC media issue, but this Boadcom .pet is not compiled to function on that older kernel. (Tempestuous, please correct me if I am mistaken.) Using a Retro version of Puppy would limit you to using Ndiswrapper with a Windows driver, as PenPen had experienced in his post above.

But getting back to the current issue at hand, is anyone reading this able to answer Tunen's automatic network connection question?

-Roy

foxbat
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri 28 Aug 2009, 02:40

Noob Wifi Problems

#8 Post by foxbat »

OK - I'm a complete noob and this is my first post - so please forgive me in advance.

I'm trying Puppy 5 series by usb stick on my Dell Mini 9. I love Ubuntu, but want something skinnier that leaves some storage. Puppy is great, except I'm having wifi problems. I used the PET (from http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 942#251942). Then, when I run Puppy Network Wizard, and choose Load Module, the wl module is there. But when I load it, I get the following error message:

Loading wl failed with the following message:
WARNING: Deprecated config file /etc/modprobe.conf, all config files belong into /etc/modprobe.d/.
FATAL: Module wl not found.
Maybe try a different driver.

Again, I'm new, so probably missing something obvious. Any help is appreciated.

Roy
Posts: 451
Joined: Wed 31 Dec 2008, 18:31

#9 Post by Roy »

foxbat,

All caveats apply here (concerning my Puppy expertise**), but I don't believe the .pet for Broadcom wireless support mentioned in this thread will work with the 5-series Puppy. The 4- and 5-series use different kernels as their base....

**I have not played with anything above the series-4 stuff myself, so am in no way "qualified" to state the above as a fact.**

One problem that some of the 4-series users had earlier experienced was caused by the lack of a firmware script. Look for a post in the Beginner's section made by BruceB and use the forum search function found in his signature block to search for Broadcom Firmware in the Puppy forums. (Scripts are not kernel-dependent.)

My best advice would be to start a new thread that references your Broadcom 4312 b/g wireless module and Puppy series-5 in the title. It might get more attention than listing it under this thread about Puppy 4.2.

-Roy

P.S. - I understand completely your reasons for using Puppy on the Mini-9; I have the same machine and appreciate the very same attributes of both machine and Puppy linux. If you don't mind me asking, how is Puppy 5 working on your Mini? Does your screen display start smoothly or is there a bit of hash for the moment it takes to sort itself out from booting?

foxbat
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri 28 Aug 2009, 02:40

#10 Post by foxbat »

Roy - Thanks for the advice. I've done what you suggest.

Puppy 5 runs great on my Mini. There is no screen flicker, and the only bug I've encountered is with the wifi. But, as you probably realized, I'm not an advanced user (and I've just started trying Puppy), so there may be issues I haven't surfaced.

Post Reply