I spoke to someone at Broadcom who told me that they can provide the driver if Dell asks for it but won't if Dell doesn't ask. Who do we contact at Dell to get them to ask?
Well I got a message back from Broadcom and it's bad news............
John,
After researching with our engineers and Dell it appears that there are no plans to offer Linux drivers for the TrueMobile line of products, also just as an FYI, Broadcom Corporation does not provide silicon solutions for the 1180.
Sorry we could not be of more help. You will have to escalate within Dell if you want to pursue other alternatives..
Like many of you, I've also noticed the lack of Linux support for the BCM4301 chipset.
If you are interested, you might want to sign this petition:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/BCM4301/petition.html
Basically, we are trying to convince Broadcom that releasing a Linux driver or the chipset's spec can only help in the further adoption of their product. If you agree, please take a minute to sign the petition.
I just called dell, transferred 7 times, gave my phone number, address, name, service tag..etc 8 times, all for them to tell me that there's no way to return my 1180 card, because it's integrated onto the motherboard. The only thing that I can do is return my entire laptop, get a "credit" and buy a completely new one or buy one of their PCMCIA cards. Anyone found a driver that works?
Because we do not install the version of software you are attempting to install, we do not have any support information to assist in it's installation, usage or troubleshooting. However, here are some excellent websites that we have sent numerous folks to for these type questions and you can find your answers here:
The problem with going to these sites is that Broadcom has not made drivers available for Linux. Most people that are on this forum have probably already been to these sites anyway. Nobody on any of these sites has gotten the 1180/BCM4301 to work with Linux. This is why people are posting on the Dell forums to try and figure out if Dell is going to support this. I don't know if you looked at those sites before you suggested them but you may want to at least try to find some of the information that people are asking for next time before directing them to the sites.
I do thank you however for responding to this matter. It shows me that you are looking at these forums so you can tell that people are a little upset about this card.
On some of these sites that you suggested there are links to a petition site that shows how many customers are upset with the recent change to the broadcom chip. I am one of these people and am not sure why dell would go from one of the best/most supported chipsets to one that is supported very little.
Our company just recently bought an i8200 just to test how well it runs linux, since we need new notebooks for the whole IT department. Unfortunately, the 1180 WLAN card doesn't work with Linux at all.
Before buying the 8200, we looked at the dell-site, and it told us that it has a 11_5_0 card in it and that it DOES run under linux, which is true, since it has the orinoco chipset. But the card we got was an 1180. Bad luck. So we called customer care.
The dell phone-support wasn't helpful at all (to be honest, the five different guys on the phone didn't have the slightest clue what I was talking about). No replacement or any other kind of compromise, just the hint: "Uh, you can find about any driver on the internet! Believe me, if you keep looking long enough, you'll see!"
So, unfortunately, our experiences with information on the dell-website and the quality of customer support we so bad, that we decided NOT to buy any more dell notebooks. Ever.
Sorry guys, I don't really want to pick on dell, this is just my experience. You could have sold about 50 more of your (otherwise fine) i8200.
I work for the Quality Assurance department for my company and I deal with Tech Support and Development on a regular basis. So I understand where Tech Support personnel are coming from, what their point of view is in relation to others. In my company Tech Support is told that if an end user is using software that was not provided or installed by us, that it is not supported. So I understand where you're coming from and the reason for your generic answer to these types of posts. Although I appreciate that you provide some web site links to help people, please understand the following:
Most, if not all, of the people posting have gone to all the major Linux websites. We do not need info on more web sites.
The problem that this particular thread is trying to solve is to obtain drivers specifically for Linux for the Broadcom chipset. Looking at websites is not the solution.
The only way for the Linux community to obtain a driver for the Broadcom chipset is for Broadcom to supply the driver or provide specs on the chipset so that a third-party can write the driver.
Providing a generic response about Dell not support X operating system or X software is not helpful. We already know Dell doesn't provide any support if Dell did not install or provide us with X first. That's just how business is. I would instead hope that you go to your Tech Support Manager and tell him or her that there are a lot of customers complaining about the availability of drivers for Linux for the Broadcom chipsets, that's helpful.
I realize that you, as a representative of Tech Support for Dell, cannot provide us with definitive answers to our questions in regards to software that was not installed or supplied by Dell (or "X" as you seem to call it). However, I do expect that you do your part to help us by escalating issues such as these up the management chain. Obviously home users as ourselves are not as important as other Fortune 500 companies. However, when managers think of the buying power we represent as a whole (and that some of us are doing buying decisions for IT departments for Fortune 500 companies) I think they may be more interested in helping us out.
As both an end user and business professional I felt very dissatisfied with how Dell has handled the issue of providing Linux drivers for the Inspiron 5100 laptops, and all newer models.
For all the other dispaired people, who have the 1180 Truemobile-MiniPCI Card:
I got a (compared a to new mini-pci card) cheap solution. I got a WMP11 PCI-Card
by Linksys. Make sure you don't get model version 2.7, as it also has the Broadcom
chipset. The WMP11 (regular) PCI Card is nothing but an adaptor from MiniPCI to
normal PCI. So unsolder the casing and voilà, there is a prism2-based wlan-card which
perfectly works under linux.
And now go and sell the old broadcom card on ebay to some windows-user. I got 56 bucks for
the "old" card and only paid $45 for a brand new WMP11 pci-card.
The only problem was finding an antenna jack for the prism2-based card, which I
eventually even had to solder to the new card.
I hope this little piece of information will help out some other linux-collegues of mine
:-)
andermic52
2 Posts
0
December 8th, 2002 19:00
mooniac
1 Message
0
January 7th, 2003 21:00
JohnPirie
1 Message
0
January 12th, 2003 20:00
PDexter
3 Posts
0
January 23rd, 2003 00:00
Well I got a message back from Broadcom and it's bad news............
John,
After researching with our engineers and Dell it appears that there are no
plans to offer Linux drivers for the TrueMobile line of products, also just
as an FYI, Broadcom Corporation does not provide silicon solutions for the
1180.
Sorry we could not be of more help. You will have to escalate within Dell
if you want to pursue other alternatives..
Joe
-----Original Message-----
From: datasheet_request@broadcom.com
[mailto:datasheet_request@broadcom.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2003 8:23 PM
To: Lynn Couillard
Subject: Data Sheet Information Request
Part #: Dell Wireless
Application: I have a Dell 1180 wireless network card and it\'s my
understanding you supply them to Dell.
I\'m very interested in a Linux driver for it, and from the looks of the
message boards so are others.
What steps need to happen for you to write the driver?
Thanks.
scumbucket
9 Posts
0
January 24th, 2003 12:00
amiklas
1 Message
0
February 1st, 2003 02:00
Like many of you, I've also noticed the lack of Linux support for the BCM4301 chipset.
If you are interested, you might want to sign this petition:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/BCM4301/petition.html
Basically, we are trying to convince Broadcom that releasing a Linux driver or the chipset's spec can only help in the further adoption of their product. If you agree, please take a minute to sign the petition.
-- Andrew
robx91316
1 Message
0
March 12th, 2003 21:00
I'm incredibly frustrated by this. I use Linux primarily, and this stops me from being productive on my brand new laptop.
PDexter
3 Posts
0
March 13th, 2003 02:00
I finally gave up and ordered an Orinoco gold card. $60 from buy.com.
Talking with friends and checking out their web site it looks like it's fully Linux compatible.
http://www.proxim.com/products/all/orinoco/client/pccard/index.html
Don't have it yet but I'll post my experience with it.
Too bad Dell sells you a $2,000 item that you have to spend another $60 to get going.
meyerm
6 Posts
0
March 18th, 2003 12:00
did you already get your new card? Does it work
Thanks,
Marcel
britty
1 Message
0
March 19th, 2003 18:00
MichaelCretired
2 Intern
•
1.3K Posts
0
March 21st, 2003 12:00
PDexter,
Because we do not install the version of software you are attempting to install, we do not have any support information to assist in it's installation, usage or troubleshooting. However, here are some excellent websites that we have sent numerous folks to for these type questions and you can find your answers here:
http://anchor.cs.binghamton.edu/~mobileip/ http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop/ http://www.linux.org/hardware/laptop.htmlbgracy
1 Message
0
March 26th, 2003 13:00
MichealC,
The problem with going to these sites is that Broadcom has not made drivers available for Linux. Most people that are on this forum have probably already been to these sites anyway. Nobody on any of these sites has gotten the 1180/BCM4301 to work with Linux. This is why people are posting on the Dell forums to try and figure out if Dell is going to support this. I don't know if you looked at those sites before you suggested them but you may want to at least try to find some of the information that people are asking for next time before directing them to the sites.
I do thank you however for responding to this matter. It shows me that you are looking at these forums so you can tell that people are a little upset about this card.
On some of these sites that you suggested there are links to a petition site that shows how many customers are upset with the recent change to the broadcom chip. I am one of these people and am not sure why dell would go from one of the best/most supported chipsets to one that is supported very little.
Thank you for your time
okuegow
2 Posts
0
March 26th, 2003 16:00
Before buying the 8200, we looked at the dell-site, and it told us that it has a 11_5_0 card in it and that it DOES run under linux, which is true, since it has the orinoco chipset. But the card we got was an 1180. Bad luck. So we called customer care.
The dell phone-support wasn't helpful at all (to be honest, the five different guys on the phone didn't have the slightest clue what I was talking about). No replacement or any other kind of compromise, just the hint: "Uh, you can find about any driver on the internet! Believe me, if you keep looking long enough, you'll see!"
So, unfortunately, our experiences with information on the dell-website and the quality of customer support we so bad, that we decided NOT to buy any more dell notebooks. Ever.
Sorry guys, I don't really want to pick on dell, this is just my experience. You could have sold about 50 more of your (otherwise fine) i8200.
Message Edited by okuegow on 03-26-2003 12:58 PM
Adiemus
3 Posts
0
March 30th, 2003 06:00
MichaelC,
I work for the Quality Assurance department for my company and I deal with Tech Support and Development on a regular basis. So I understand where Tech Support personnel are coming from, what their point of view is in relation to others. In my company Tech Support is told that if an end user is using software that was not provided or installed by us, that it is not supported. So I understand where you're coming from and the reason for your generic answer to these types of posts. Although I appreciate that you provide some web site links to help people, please understand the following:
I realize that you, as a representative of Tech Support for Dell, cannot provide us with definitive answers to our questions in regards to software that was not installed or supplied by Dell (or "X" as you seem to call it). However, I do expect that you do your part to help us by escalating issues such as these up the management chain. Obviously home users as ourselves are not as important as other Fortune 500 companies. However, when managers think of the buying power we represent as a whole (and that some of us are doing buying decisions for IT departments for Fortune 500 companies) I think they may be more interested in helping us out.
As both an end user and business professional I felt very dissatisfied with how Dell has handled the issue of providing Linux drivers for the Inspiron 5100 laptops, and all newer models.
okuegow
2 Posts
0
March 31st, 2003 17:00
I got a (compared a to new mini-pci card) cheap solution. I got a WMP11 PCI-Card
by Linksys. Make sure you don't get model version 2.7, as it also has the Broadcom
chipset. The WMP11 (regular) PCI Card is nothing but an adaptor from MiniPCI to
normal PCI. So unsolder the casing and voilà, there is a prism2-based wlan-card which
perfectly works under linux.
And now go and sell the old broadcom card on ebay to some windows-user. I got 56 bucks for
the "old" card and only paid $45 for a brand new WMP11 pci-card.
The only problem was finding an antenna jack for the prism2-based card, which I
eventually even had to solder to the new card.
I hope this little piece of information will help out some other linux-collegues of mine
:-)
Olli
Message Edited by okuegow on 03-31-2003 01:23 PM