On Dec 30, 2007 11:09 PM, Rick Bilonick <rab@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I know the bcm4318 mini pci wifi card works in my Dell Inspiron 2200
> laptop - I had installed a hard drive with Fedora 8 (installed on a
> different laptop) and I had no trouble using ndiswrapper and getting the
> wireless nic to work perfectly. Now I've put the original hard drive
> (that had Fedora 6 working with the same wireless nic) back in,
> installed Fedora 8 (destroying all of the original data on the disk).
> I've installed the same kernel, ndiswrapper, kernel modules, etc. that
> is on the other hard drive with Fedora 8, went through the same process
> but cannot get the wireless nic with the new Fedora 8 to work. Surely,
> it can't be the hard drive (the laptop connects to the wired eth0
> connection). If I put the other hard drive in with Fedora 8, the bcm4318
> connects to the wireless network.
>
Hi Rick!
Sounds like a bad install attempt.
Probably it would be good to "snapshot" many of your /var/log files.
I like to do so with a command like "~# cat messages >
/home/tod/Desktop/messages.txt.01012008". Capture at least messages
and dmesg. Copy them all to a flashdrive or similar probably in thier
own little directory. While you are at it you might grab an lspci -vv
-xx and an lsmod.
It would probably be a good idea to re-seat the wireless card, hard
drive, and perhaps memory cards. Be very careful if you decide to do
this. Easy to cause problems. Be static aware and use good
anti-static practice.
Be shure the machine is unplugged and the batteries removed before
moving hardware. I know you know but sometimes a little reminder can
prevent a tragidy.
You might consider loading your CMOS defaults. If the battery is bad
CMOS tends to do weird things. If this works you will need to replace
the CMOS battery.
Start over I think:
1. Verify the disk. Do it twice and using the drive you intend to
install from if possible. By this I mean check the download sites
(several of them) and see that they have the same sha1sum numbers and
then use sha1sum on your disk an so check the numbers to be the same.
2. Do a memory test on the machine overnight.
3. Use a recovery disk {e.g. UBCD) and do a careful scan of your hard
drive. On the hard drive I am using I simply do not use part of the
disk anymore, that is probably because of a disk crash from a laptop
drop (it was not in my care). A scan showed me the bad section of the
disk and I simply formatted around it (it is un-used) For that matter,
it constantly fails smartd checks - but - I still use it because it
works (and keep my data very well backed up!!!). While you are at it,
do a smartd check (see man smartd and Google smartd).
4. Make sure you reformat the disk during the install. After the
install, check the disk with fsck or fsck.ext3 -- use the "-c -c"
option (non-destructive read write bad block test).
5. Use a notebook during the install and write down the steps you actually take.
Good Hunting!
Tod
