Fedora laptop list - Aug 2007 - Wireless problems

I''m bugging you guys because Fedora Project page says to. *grin* I run
Fedora 7 on a PowerBook G4. Until about a month ago (while I was still using
FC6), I had no problems using my Apple AirPort card. After installing a
kernel update, it stopped working. I used bcm43xx-fwcutter and reinstalled
the AppleAirPort2 driver. When I dmesg, I get the error message:

 ERROR: YOUR FIRMWARE IS TOO OLD. Firmware from binary drivers older than
version 4.x is unsupported. You must upgrade your firmware files.

So I searched through bugzilla and found bug: 240820 which was marked as
Closed/RAWHIDE.

The fix was to d/l the wl_apsta.o driver and use bcm43xx-fwcutter on it. I
did so.

Failed with following msg:

broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod/wl_apsta.o
Sorry, the input file is either wrong or not supported by bcm43xx-fwcutter.
This file has an unknown MD5sum 9207bc565c2fc9fa1591f6c7911d3fc0.

I''ve tried every other driver listed in the man pages or the README and
I
get either FIRMWARE TOO OLD or unknown MD5sum.

Since I''d been thinking of upgrading to F7 anyway, I waited until the
DVD
came in and I upgraded. No luck. Same exact problems. They rolled out a new
release w/o fixing the problems of the old one.

Since PCMCIA support has not worked since FC6, this pretty much makes my
laptop a brick. What use is a laptop w/o wireless? I noticed on your list
that someone else asked about PCMCIA support but was never answered.

I''ve used Linux, specifically Redhat/Fedora since Redhat 4.0. I was an
actual customer who bought the discs, since I didn''t have the ability
to d/l
them, so you can image how disappointed I am at how the quality of the Linux
product has degraded over time. Unless someone, somewhere knows how to fix
this problem, I''m going to have to blow away the Linux partition and
say
good-bye after 10 years. I''ll have to learn how to use OS X. *sigh*

BTW, I''m NOT a guru. I''ve been using Linux because it was so
EASY to use. I
rarely even open the terminal - until the last year anyway. So if anyone
does have a fix, please keep it simple.

Many thanks.

Check out the fedora-list or thread archive for that list. They have
been talking about the issues with bcm43xx. I did not follow the tread,
since I do not use these drivers, but from the casual glance, these
folks have it working.

 

Threads title is "Problem with bcm43xx-80211 Revisited"

 

Hope is helps

 

________________________________

From: fedora-laptop-list-bounces@redhat.com
[mailto:fedora-laptop-list-bounces@redhat.com] On Behalf Of Smitten
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 5:03 AM
To: fedora-laptop-list@redhat.com
Subject: Wireless problems

 

I''m bugging you guys because Fedora Project page says to. *grin* I run
Fedora 7 on a PowerBook G4. Until about a month ago (while I was still
using FC6), I had no problems using my Apple AirPort card. After
installing a kernel update, it stopped working. I used bcm43xx-fwcutter
and reinstalled the AppleAirPort2 driver. When I dmesg, I get the error
message: 

 ERROR: YOUR FIRMWARE IS TOO OLD. Firmware from binary drivers older
than version 4.x is unsupported. You must upgrade your firmware files.

So I searched through bugzilla and found bug: 240820 which was marked as
Closed/RAWHIDE. 

The fix was to d/l the wl_apsta.o driver and use bcm43xx-fwcutter on it.
I did so.

Failed with following msg:

broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod/wl_apsta.o
Sorry, the input file is either wrong or not supported by
bcm43xx-fwcutter. 
This file has an unknown MD5sum 9207bc565c2fc9fa1591f6c7911d3fc0.

I''ve tried every other driver listed in the man pages or the README and
I get either FIRMWARE TOO OLD or unknown MD5sum. 

Since I''d been thinking of upgrading to F7 anyway, I waited until the
DVD came in and I upgraded. No luck. Same exact problems. They rolled
out a new release w/o fixing the problems of the old one. 

Since PCMCIA support has not worked since FC6, this pretty much makes my
laptop a brick. What use is a laptop w/o wireless? I noticed on your
list that someone else asked about PCMCIA support but was never
answered. 

I''ve used Linux, specifically Redhat/Fedora since Redhat 4.0. I was an
actual customer who bought the discs, since I didn''t have the ability
to
d/l them, so you can image how disappointed I am at how the quality of
the Linux product has degraded over time. Unless someone, somewhere
knows how to fix this problem, I''m going to have to blow away the Linux
partition and say good-bye after 10 years. I''ll have to learn how to
use
OS X. *sigh* 

BTW, I''m NOT a guru. I''ve been using Linux because it was so
EASY to
use. I rarely even open the terminal - until the last year anyway. So if
anyone does have a fix, please keep it simple.

Many thanks.