Broadcom wireless card

[CaffeinatedCthulhu]

Hi,

My problem is this: I'm dying to get a Linux distribution onto my computer to make it a dualboot again, I'm wondering if there's any distribution that would be slightly better with Broadcom machinery.

Also, is it only Ubuntu that has the Wubi installer? I tried manually dividing my computer's hard disk once, and Windows refused to accept its part, so Wubi is probably my safest bet.

[nujinini]

My problem is this: I'm dying to get a Linux distribution onto my computer to make it a dualboot again, I'm wondering if there's any distribution that would be slightly better with Broadcom machinery.

I'm not sure what you mean but with my own little experience, at least the top 5 more popular distros are generally Broadcom friendly.

Also, is it only Ubuntu that has the Wubi installer? I tried manually dividing my computer's hard disk once, and Windows refused to accept its part, so Wubi is probably my safest bet.

Haven't tried Wubi.

I have a multiboot machine and have partitioned my HD to 6 different OS and 2 Storage Partitions.

Just download and burn an ISO image of the distro of your choice. Boot live cd and follow instructions on the installer. Since you are contemplating on Ubuntu, they have a very ncie release 10.04 that is also LTS. Just post on the different forums here when you encounter issues along the way and the gurus will be more than happy to help.

[CaffeinatedCthulhu]

The wireless card is always gving me a headache, apparently because it is that brand.

Thanks for the advice

[waterhead]

Here is the deal with Broadcom wireless cards. There are actually two major drivers, each for different types of Broadcom chips. These two drivers cover the majority of Broadcom wireless chips.

b43 - Very good open source driver. It covers most of the Broadcom chips. BUT, the cards require firmware to be installed before they will work. This firmware is usually not open source, so it is not included in the distro. Many distros have a means to download and install the firmware, to make it easier. A wired internet connection is needed to do this.

b43 - Linux Wireless

Once you have identified the firmware that your wireless needs, you can save it to a USB pen drive or on a CD. Then when you try other distros, you can just drop the firmware into the /lib/firmware folder.

wl - (AKA: Linux_STA) This driver in known to support these wireless chips: 4311, 4312 (4315), 4321 (4328, 4329), 4322 (432B). It is not open source, and is not included in the distro. Some distros, like Ubuntu, do make this driver available after installation. A wired internet connection is needed to do this. If it is not available through your distro, you will need to download and compile the driver. This is fairly easy, once you have done it a few times.

Broadcom.com - 802.11 Linux STA driver