slackware 15 not picking up wifi on dell inspiron <SOLVED>

[smooth_buddha]

just installed slackware 15 xfce on a dell inspiron. everything seems fine other than network manager not picking up wifi.

wifi is not showing up, to activate/turn on internal wifi usually press Fn key + f2 but seems to have no effect

$lshw not available
ran a $ping localhost which works

i ran $lspci does pick up my wifi card - a broadcom BCM4312

 

[Brickwizard]

You need the BCM 43** drivers,
you will need a wired Internet connection
instructions here https://blog.desdelinux.net/en/slackware-14-install-broadcom-drivers-bcm43xx/

 

[smooth_buddha]

just installed slackware 15 xfce on a dell inspiron. everything seems fine other than network manager not picking up wifi.

wifi is not showing up, to activate/turn on internal wifi usually press Fn key + f2 but seems to have no effect

$lspci , $lshw and $ifconfig command isnt available
ran a $ping localhost which works

i ran $lsusb and i doesnt appear to pick up my wifi card

i ran a $lsmod to list the kernel modules, but not really sure what im doing here lol

You need the BCM 43** drivers,
you will need a wired Internet connection
instructions here https://blog.desdelinux.net/en/slackware-14-install-broadcom-drivers-bcm43xx/

thanks brickwizard i will give that a try!

 

[kc1di]

just installed slackware 15 xfce on a dell inspiron. everything seems fine other than network manager not picking up wifi.

wifi is not showing up, to activate/turn on internal wifi usually press Fn key + f2 but seems to have no effect

$lshw not available
ran a $ping localhost which works

i ran $lspci does pick up my wifi card - a broadcom BCM4312

You need the Broadcom driver for it. the one your looking for is broadcom-sta this page will tell you how to install it several different ways. However there may not be one yet for Slack 15 since it was just released.
(Note: Just saw that Brickwizard recommended b43 drivers but I believe that the Sta driver would work better for that particular card. I had a dell with that card and b43 was intermittent so try them both if you want but sta will work

 

[smooth_buddha]

You need the Broadcom driver for it. the one your looking for is broadcom-sta this page will tell you how to install it several different ways. However there may not be one yet for Slack 15 since it was just released.
(Note: Just saw that Brickwizard recommended b43 drivers but I believe that the Sta driver would work better for that particular card. I had a dell with that card and b43 was intermittent so try them both if you want but sta will work

i downloaded the broadcom-sta driver and burned it to usb then put it into slackware machine.
made file executable chmod +x and ran script and got this error:

./Makefile: Line 21: syntax error near unexpected token '$(KERNELRELEASE),'
./Makefile: Line 21: 'ifneq ($(KERNELRELEASE),)'

im guessing its thrown this error becasue im running it on slackware 15 and this is meant for slacware 14.2??

 

[Deleted member 108694]

If a working internet connection is available on the laptop, use sbopkg to install the drivers :

sbopkg -i broadcom-sta

 

[kc1di]

It's throwing those errors because of the newer kernel. Try Lord Boltar's suggestion.

 

[smooth_buddha]

If a working internet connection is available on the laptop, use sbopkg to install the drivers :

sbopkg -i broadcom-sta

YES!!!!!

wipped out an old ethernet cable

Ran $sbopkg -i broadcom-sta

Installed- rebooted

Now wifi is working ! Thanks guys

 

[captain-sensible]

just installed slackware 15 xfce on a dell inspiron. everything seems fine other than network manager not picking up wifi.

wifi is not showing up, to activate/turn on internal wifi usually press Fn key + f2 but seems to have no effect

$lshw not available
ran a $ping localhost which works

i ran $lspci does pick up my wifi card - a broadcom BCM4312

you can get lshw from slackbuilds.org https://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/system/lshw/?search=lshw

you download the slackbuild , unpack it to a directory , place source inside, cd into slackbuild directory and run :

#  ./lshw.SlackBuild

 

[smooth_buddha]

you can get lshw from slackbuilds.org https://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/system/lshw/?search=lshw

you download the slackbuild , unpack it to a directory , place source inside, cd into slackbuild directory and run :

#  ./lshw.SlackBuild

Thanks captain! I will do that. I take it slackbuilds is the goto place for many packages on slackware?

 

[captain-sensible]

There are a few worthwhile things about a slackbuild; its considered old fashioned , but by first by going to slackbuilds.org you can read about the dependencies and features of the deps. So you can actually learn a bit about software.

By reading up on slackbuilds it will tell you that you can, at build time, have small tweaks such as if i remember correctly the mirrors , when you run freshclam for clamav.

Actually clamav is a good example ; before you run or install clamav you need to set up appropriate groups needed. The info on the slackbuild page for clam will tell you that and how to do it.


Also when you run a slackbuild on your machine there are a couple of things that it takes account of and makes you take account of. It will take into account to a degree the Architecture of your machine. I did write a bit on slackbuilds here :

howtos:misc:anatomy_of_a_slackbuild - SlackDocs

docs.slackware.com

So what it means in practice is that sometimes a ready to install package for Slackware may install Ok but not work , because prep work was not done.

So slackbuilds.org is the first place to go to read up. If you then find that there are no particular prep work to do, then you can automate install of package and its deps using : https://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/system/slpkg/?search=slpkg

For slpkg ,you have to run its slackbuild to create a package and install it using : installpkg <packageName>

Once you've done that you need to do some editing to configure it. After that you can search and install packages more or less like any other command line package installer , using that software