Turing on Broadcom Wireless card in SUSE 10.2

[soutthpaw]

Hi,
I am new to Linux, but I have just installed SUSE 10.2 on my gateway 7405GX laptop.
The problem I am having is being able to get the Broadcom Wireless card in my laptop to turn on. I think it may have something to do with the built-in function keys on this laptop as the Fn+2 which is supposed to turn on the Wireless card does not always work. In Windows XP I sometimes have to use the SYSTEM : Device Manager : broadcom wireless device and then edit the device properties and choose enable for the radio state. then it works fine in windows XP...

Now is there a something similar to device manager in SUSE??? I tied to do the Network card config, it shows both my Ethernet and the Broadcom wirless devices but I just don't see any way to turn on the radio state??? any help would be great,

I am trying to learn more about Linux as I can also run it on the Playstation 3 with Yellow Dog Linux 5.0
Plus I really don't care for Microsoft's greedy ways...

[valemon]

If your wireless network card is detected and configured you are really lucky.
If not, you need to download ndiswrapper. and install the windows drivers.
My card (linksys) was detected but i had to configure it and install drivers.
As far as i know there is an application called KwifiManager,included in your openSuSE cd.
I managed to activate my card with this program.

[soutthpaw]

I just changed over to the fedora 6 linux and that didn't even detect it but it appears that maybe the broadcom driver is not in the update.... I think I may call gateway and see why the Function+ wireless button combo does not work outside of windows when all the other combo buttons such as screen brightness etc do work...
I found the "ethtool" command, after i installed fedora, but it does not show a device for eth1 which is the wireless modem...

need to figure out how to run the NDISWrapper.. . I am not familiar with using the command line functions in Linux.... I used DOS many years ago but thats about it...

[planecrazee]

NDISWrapper works out of the box in openSUSE 10.2. It will detect your wireless card during early stages of installation. Then at the end of the installation you can configure your card in the hardware configuration section.

[Basstrom_Dave]

Not sure, i got my card to be detected only after building and installing ndiswrapper separately once all installed.
But now have another problem, the settings won't apply let alone save, I'm using SuSE 10.2 and my card is a Netgear WG311v3. I can scan and pick up my network but when i use iwconfig wlan0 essid home and then for the key afterwards nothing happens can't connect. Any ideas?

[valemon]

Ndiswrapper won't detect your card. It is just a way to install windowz drivers.
If you have installed the drivers successfully the easiest way to get your network card working is with YaST.
Network devices->network card->used controlled with networkmanager
If your card is detected click edit. Be sure that device type is wireless.
Also in advanced->hardware details->module name put "ndiswrapper"
Then complete the configuration and if you have done everything ok knetworkmanager shall start. You can use kwallet to remember your encryption key