Member Avatar for migthyjohn

i am running SuSe 9.x and i have 2 different wifi cards(d-link dwl650 and a mini pci card that came with the laptop..i think its a broadcom) and i cant get either one of them to work. on the d-link card it has the 2 lights(link and act) the act light is coming on, but no link light. im starting to think that im not compatable with linux. i have d/l'd the prism54 driver set but i just dont know what to do with it. any help would be great. i just want to use linux and be online too :cry:

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A short, practical companion to the thread: steps to identify why the D-Link DWL-650 or the laptop’s mini‑PCI Broadcom won’t link under SuSE 9.x, and what to try next. This pulls together @mightyjohn’s hardware notes and the hints from and into concrete checks and commands.

First, identify the exact chipset: DWL-650 had multiple hardware revisions (Prism, Realtek, ADMtek, etc.), so the same model name can need different drivers. (linux-wlan.org) (DWL-650 revisions). Useful commands to capture what the system actually sees:

lspci -nn
lsusb
dmesg | tail -n 80
dmesg | grep -i firmware
lsmod | egrep 'p54|prism|b43|ndiswrapper'
ifconfig -a
iwconfig

On SuSE, PCMCIA/CardBus can be a separate issue: the distro provides rcpcmcia/cardmgr or kernel PCMCIA (switchable via /etc/sysconfig/pcmcia). Start/restart the service and watch /var/log/messages for what cardmgr reports. (scribd.com)

If the DWL-650 is Prism-based: modern kernels use the p54 family (p54pci/p54usb) and they require non‑free firmware placed in /lib/firmware; older prism54 code/firmware sets exist too, so match the firmware name the driver requests in dmesg and put that file in /lib/firmware before reloading the module. (wireless.docs.kernel.org)

If the mini‑PCI is Broadcom: many Broadcom chips need the b43/b43legacy stack plus extracted firmware (b43‑fwcutter) or the proprietary wl/ndiswrapper fallback on very old kernels. Extract the proper firmware into /lib/firmware, then modprobe the b43 module and scan with iwlist. (help.ubuntu.com)

Quick notes: the ACT LED only means the card has power/traffic but not an association; check for hardware RF switches and for encryption/ESSID mismatch; dmesg lines mentioning "firmware" or "unknown PCI id" are the most actionable clues. If a driver is missing, either use the in‑kernel module (modprobe p54pci or modprobe b43), install the distribution’s firmware helper (b43‑fwcutter), or build the vendor driver you downloaded (follow its README).

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Member Avatar for mepnoob2005

i am running SuSe 9.x and i have 2 different wifi cards(d-link dwl650 and a mini pci card that came with the laptop..i think its a broadcom) and i cant get either one of them to work. on the d-link card it has the 2 lights(link and act) the act light is coming on, but no link light. im starting to think that im not compatable with linux. i have d/l'd the prism54 driver set but i just dont know what to do with it. any help would be great. i just want to use linux and be online too :cry:[/
Hello...I use mepis.It autodetcts all of my internet.You may need to manually input the settings for your wireless card .I use a D-link router(not wireless) and it auto-detects.Mepis is one of the easiest to use and one of the easiest to install to the hard drive....k ;)

Member Avatar for ilaiy

USe dmesg to see if the card was detected.
You would also want to start the pcmcia service .

./thanks
ilaiy

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