Why are Broadcom chipsets so horrible?

coastie

Well my dad has been using ubuntu for quite a while.

He bought an acer laptop, and had linux put on it. They gave him Vista to dual boot with. The laptop has a broadcom chipset. Sometimes he can get connected wirelessly in buntu, but more often he can't connect. I can't get it to connect in buntu at home on my wireless network. I have WPA encryption. Tomorrow I will take the encryption off and try that way.

My dad wants to try another flavor of linux. My question is this, Is there a broadcom friendly version out there. I know that fwcutter works better than ndiswrapper now. Isacklow told me to try bcm-fwcutter.

Crouse...would arch work better? I need something that is easy enough for him to use. He is used to gnome since the only version of linux he has ever used is Ubuntu. He knows enough on how to connect to the internet wirelessly, and to open his email and what not. His neighbor lets him connect to his wireless network.

My main worry is that every time he updates the kernel he has to fix the broadcom drivers.

I told him not to do any kernel updates unless it was a security update.

_________________
Ubuntu on the thinkpad
Easy Peasy on the EEEPC
Desktop is down.

tlmiller · Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2025 3:55 am Post subject:

Older broadcom chipsets work GREAT. If you doubt it, just use a router using dd-wrt. It's built around Broadcom wireless chipsets and linux kernel, and is one of the best performing home routers I've ever used.

I had GREAT success with my old mini-pci Broadcom chipsets. What's the chipset? That will determine if supports there or not. The absolute newest Broadcom chipsets still aren't supported in most distros yet through the fwcutter. Although it appears it's ready, as the latest beta of Mepis has it and I hear it works.

_________________
Debian Squeeze, Arch, Kubuntu mostly. Some Mandriva. Some Windows.
Desktops: shadowdragon, medusa
Laptops: bluedrake, banelord, sandwyrm, aardvark.

coastie · Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2025 4:08 am Post subject:

I was able to connect to my network when I took the WPA off.

Here is a screen shot of the settings.

_________________
Ubuntu on the thinkpad
Easy Peasy on the EEEPC
Desktop is down.

tlmiller · Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2025 4:11 am Post subject:

That's not a broadcom, that's an Atheros. Newest distros no longer use madwifi, but now use ath5k. Everything I found on it says it should be suported in both madwifi and ath5k.

_________________
Debian Squeeze, Arch, Kubuntu mostly. Some Mandriva. Some Windows.
Desktops: shadowdragon, medusa
Laptops: bluedrake, banelord, sandwyrm, aardvark.

tlmiller · Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2025 11:52 pm Post subject:

Speaking of broadcom, I'm ditching mine. I have a 4310 in my Studio, which simply will no longer connect to my network since updating to WPA2. So I just ordered an Intel 5100 to replace it. Seems the support for that is already out and quite good. YAY! My new laptop can stop being a doorstop again!

_________________
Debian Squeeze, Arch, Kubuntu mostly. Some Mandriva. Some Windows.
Desktops: shadowdragon, medusa
Laptops: bluedrake, banelord, sandwyrm, aardvark.

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