Here is the solution that has worked for me:
Upgrade Kernel to 2.6.24.3:
[CODE] http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/veclinux-5.9/kernels/
Download the kernel and kernel modules, the source is not necesary, unless you want to manually compile the kernel.
Afterwards, install the new kernel, and the kernel modules. As a root user, update your lilo by typing: "/sbin/lilo".
Once your done working with the kernel, time to work with b43 module.
*Note: You may want to become root, "su", since most of the things we will be doing require root priviledges.*
What we're going to do now is just remove the ndiswrapper driver, to make sure it doesnt interfere with the b43 module.
Type in: "ndiswrapper -l";
You should see a driver called bcmwl5. Thats the one we want to remove.
Type in: "ndiswrapper -r bcmwl5"
This removes the bcmwl5 driver.
Now, your going to want to blacklist the bcm43xx module as well, since it is deprecated. You do not want it to interfere with b43 module either.
[I'm not 100% sure if the bcm43xx module, or ndiswrapper interferes with b43, but I was not in the mood to "test" it. ]
Use your editor of choice, in my case it is bluefish:
bluefish /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
To the end of that text file, add the following lines:
#Broadcom Wireless:
#bcm43xx is deprecated
blacklist bcm43xx
After this, there shouldn't be anything interfering with the b43 module.
So now, we follow the instructions posted in:
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43"../../b43-fwcutter-011/b43-fwcutter" is basically just the directory where you compiled b43-fwcutter. If you prefer to put it in manually, then do so.
Once the firmware is extracted, we have to edit "/etc/modprobe.conf" to tell it to make wlan0 use the b43 driver. Again, using your editor of choice, in my case bluefish:
bluefish /etc/modprobe.conf
[CODE]
You should see something like: "alias eth1 xxxx"
xxx is whatever module, or driver is set for eth1 or eth0. Under that,
Add the following line:
"alias wlan0 b43"
Then, type in:
"modprobe b43"
Reboot.
Once the system comes back up, what you do is use VL-WIFI to set up the wlan0 interface.
Honestly, I always have a bit of trouble connecting to a Wireless Connection... Its not the driver though, it seems to be VL-WIFI and Wifi-Radar... If I scan for networks manually, it detects them... BUt when I try to connect, I cant get the IP. Sometimes I have to leave all the entries in VL-WIFI empty, and set it up with wifi-radar, and other times I just manually scan for the available networks and enter the stuff manually into VL-WIFI. I'm going to try to get wicd running in VL. If I do, I'll let you guys know how it goes.
You can run basic tests just to make sure you have everything set up properly:
iwlist wlan0 scan ---THIS SCANS FOR WIRELESS CONNECTIONS AVAILABLE
if the result says: "interface is down", you'll have to bring it up manually. I have had more personal success using VL-WIFI instead of bringing it up manually, no clue why.
iwconfig --- SHOULD SHOW THE WLAN0 INTERFACE
NOTE: I'm not really a networking expert, this is just what worked for me. It may, or may not work for you. If you have any questions about the steps followed, let me know and I'll gladly try to help. [/code][/code]
