Dell Inspiron 1501 with Ubuntu/Kubuntu

Question

I decided to check out the Ubuntu/Kubuntu distribution on my Inspiron 1501 laptop. The problem I have is that the wireless radar button is off as soon as I put the live CD/DVD in. The only way I can put it back on is to install the bcm43xx driver with the fwcutter. I can do an installation with ndiswrapper and install my windows driver(bcmwl5), go through the whole process and have the driver installed (driver installed, hardware present,modprobe ndiswrapper etc)but the bottom line is that my wireless radar button remains off,so no connection. As soon as I install bcm43xx, I can switch the light on with fn-f2 but not before. Is this a known problem with the Inspiron 1501 and or Ubuntu/Kubuntu? Is there a solution or do I have to stick with the native bcm43xx? I ran Knoppix and Mandriva on this laptop and the wireless installation with ndiswrapper gave a much better connection (54Mb/s vs 24Mb/s) Thanks

vmeiste · Answer

You neglected to say which version of Ubuntu/Kubuntu you were running and the kernel version. I'm running Ubuntu 7.10 on my Dell 1501.  The wifi and everything else is working fine.

exsencon · Answer

Actually it is Kubuntu 7.10 and I installed it now on HD. I blacklisted the bcm43xx driver and installed the windows driver(bcmwl5) with ndiswrapper. Works great! I am running a dual boot between winXP and Kubuntu.
Thanks

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