# Dell Wireless 1390

## invisiblekid

I have a Compaq V3015NR Laptop (see my sig)

When i do a lspci i get this

...

01:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-PCI Card (rev 01)

...

But when i do ifconfig it only shows my ethernet (eth0)

I tried ifconfig eth1 up but it comes up as No such device.

Im not a complete n00b to linux but i cant figure out why it doesnt work since it doesn't come up as an Unknown Device in my lspci

Im running kernel 2.6.17-gentoo-r5

Thanks in advance!

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## dsd

lspci only attempts to put names to numbers, it does not offer an indication of whether your kernel supports a particular device or not (or even whether Linux supports it at all).

please show the output of "lspci -ns 01:00.0" and i'll attempt to see which driver supports it (bcm43xx maybe?)

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## invisiblekid

lspci -ns 01:00.0

01:00.0 0280: 14e4:4311 (rev 01)

so i would assume thats the bcm 43xx

do i need ndiswrapper for that?

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## invisiblekid

im re-compiling my kernel with bcm43xx support....ill post with my results

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## Sokertes

So what did you come up with on this issue?

I just bought a Compaq Presario V5000 and I am trying to get the wireless going on it so I can get rid of WinBlows.

TIA

Sokertes

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## invisiblekid

well i recompiled my kernel with teh bcm43xx driver enabled but it still doesnt work. but then again i dont really know waht im supposed to do after i enable it in the kernel.  any help would be great! thanks!

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## dsd

pci-express bcm4311 is currently only supported in a special wireless development tree (with a totally new wireless stack). it may be backported to the mainline kernel in time for 2.6.19-rc1

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## invisiblekid

i c. well how can i find out if it ever gets backported?

or is there any other way that ill be able to get this to work?

thanks for the help!!

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## invisiblekid

ok well i got gentoo to recognize that theres a network card there after messin with my kernel config (enabled bcm43xx driver and every option that comes with it) the problem is that it thinks it is a wired network card MAC address and all.  I was wondering how to tell it thats its a wireless card.

thanks!!

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## dsd

i'm kinda doubtful that you got it to detect the wireless card (more likely it has detected wired ethernet, or ethernet-over-firewire eth1394), but anyway: 802.11 is basically wireless ethernet, so it is normal for wireless cards to have MAC addresses and whatever else. this doc might help you configuration-wise: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=4&chap=4

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## Peper

Use ndiswrapper for it.

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## beatryder

I have a compaq v6000 for work with the very same card.

What you can do is use the windows drivers and ndiswrappers.

If you find that they don't work, what I had to do was us the -d option

```

ndiswrapper -i /path/to/bcmwl5.ini

ndiswrapper -m

ndiswrapper -d 14e4:4311 bcmwl5

modprobe ndiswrapper

```

and it should come up as wlan0

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## jeanfrancis

Great  :Very Happy: 

I was "checking" this thread since I wanted to buy a Dell laptop which came with this card, but when I looked yesterday they changed their mind  :Wink:   But... they no more offer the NVidia card and this is not good  :Wink: 

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## beatryder

Look at their latitudes. They are good machines. I have had Two.

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## jeanfrancis

I'll take a look  :Wink: 

I just looked at the Inspiron 6***/9*** and XPS (looks great but expensive!)

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## silon

I just got my 6400.  1.66Ghz, 1Gb, dvdrw, radeon mobile 128MB, 120GB hd, 15.4",.... just under $800 delivered(with a 3yr warranty).

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## jeanfrancis

Great  :Smile: 

I'm not happy that they changed the NVidia cards for ATIs in their Inspiron... If I'm right NVidia are known to provide better Linux drivers than ATI (their new Beta driver is great)

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## dsd

this patch will add support for your hardware to the bcm43xx driver

http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-netdev&m=116097241418345&q=raw

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## Xamindar

Did anyone get this patch working with the dell wireless 1390 card?

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## silon

 *Xamindar wrote:*   

> Did anyone get this patch working with the dell wireless 1390 card?

 

Yes, I've successfully applied the patch and now can see my card @ 54Mbs.  BUT, i've emerge -auvDN world after installing a no-sources kernel 2.6.18-no2.

I'm having a problem where when I modprobe ndiswrapper, the system either freezes immediately or in a couple of minutes.  I manually installed version 1.28.  Still, same problem.  I'm beginning to think that I need to grab a different Windows OS version of this cards driver and try it.  Note-installer complained about CONFIG_4KSTACKS, but I checked my kernel config and it was *not* set.

The first time I got wlan0 recognized, I even  had the lovely wifi light come on.  The 2nd and 3rd time, no light.  

```
tardus_mobile simon # ndiswrapper -l

installed drivers:

bcmwl5          driver installed, hardware (14E4:4324) present (alternate driver: bcm43xx)

```

I'm not sure whether the alternate driver:  bcm43xx should even be there.  I believe it is a remnant of my ill-fated attempt to use bcm43xx-firware cutter tool.  Though, bcm43xx and fireware_class modules aren't present in lsmod

```
Module                  Size  Used by

ieee80211softmac       26176  0

ohci_hcd               16260  0

sdhci                  15948  0

mmc_core               18688  1 sdhci

ohci1394               32816  0

ieee1394               74420  1 ohci1394

generic                 5188  0 [permanent]

snd_pcm_oss            33824  0

snd_mixer_oss          12800  3 snd_pcm_oss

snd_seq_oss            25600  0

snd_seq_midi_event      5952  1 snd_seq_oss

snd_seq                40464  4 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event

snd_seq_device          6156  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq

snd_hda_intel          13784  2

snd_hda_codec         144640  1 snd_hda_intel

snd_pcm                57796  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec

snd_timer              16516  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm

snd                    38308  9 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer

soundcore               5856  3 snd

snd_page_alloc          7304  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

```

Any ideas?  Need more information?

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## Xamindar

 *silon wrote:*   

> 
> 
> Yes, I've successfully applied the patch and now can see my card @ 54Mbs.  BUT, i've emerge -auvDN world after installing a no-sources kernel 2.6.18-no2.
> 
> I'm having a problem where when I modprobe ndiswrapper, the system either freezes immediately or in a couple of minutes.  

 

Wait, why are you using ndiswrapper with the patch?  I thought the patch was for a native linux driver.

I haven't tried the patch yet but when 

I use ndiswrapper and try to load the windows drivers, my wireless card comes up as a normal ethernet card and has no wireless extensions.  Did I miss something?

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## Xamindar

 *beatryder wrote:*   

> I have a compaq v6000 for work with the very same card.
> 
> What you can do is use the windows drivers and ndiswrappers.
> 
> If you find that they don't work, what I had to do was us the -d option
> ...

 

After doing what you posted I now get wlan0....Thanks!  I still wonder why I have eth1 now.  Or maybe I just never noticed it there before.

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