Hi,
I have recently installed openSUSE 12.3 on a freshly bought laptop (Acer Aspire V5).
The main problem was that the wireless (according to lspci, 'Broadcom Corporation BCM43228 802.11a/b/g/n') did not work at all. I tried /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware, and also the offline version described in the forum. The script completed with the message 'b43legacy firmware successfully installed.'. I rebooted, but there is still no wireless in YaST, and a naive 'ifup wlan0' failed.
Then, I decided to postpone the problem and try to get the system up to date by eth0, hoping that the troubles would evaporate. The update took two days, and only then I started to suspect that I had installed the 64bit version of 12.3. Trying to confirm this, I found that there is no kernelversion command, but /etc/SuSE-release says 'openSUSE 12.3 (x86_64)' which probably proves the fact. Needless to say, a fresh firmware install after the update brought the same negative result as before.
I have to explain that this all happens in rural India where I am currently travelling. The vendor who sold the laptop to me downloaded the install DVD on my request, because he has the fastest internet connection around; nevertheless, it took 5 days to complete. I had explained to him that I want 32bit, but I failed to check it in the short time when I had access to his USB DVD drive for installing. During installation, I was too much in a hurry to notice.
Now I fear that the troubles with the wireless are much aggravated by the 64bit nature of the operating system (there are some other incommodities, too: The KDE desktop behaves strangely and I cannot make the Compose key work, which is really annoying). Moreover, I expect that installation of software from various sources will be more complicated, and the 64bit will prove a permanent burden in the future.
Is there any advice what to do? If I could make the wireless work, I might be able to download the 32bit install DVD in the course of the next weeks, and try a reinstall if I can get a USB DVD drive somewhere, or I find out how to make a memory stick bootable. But is there any realistic chance to have the BCM43228 run on a 64bit system? If so, how shall I proceed?
As a highly suboptimum alternative, I have an 11.4 installation DVD (I *hope* it's 32bit). Would that be an option, if anything else fails?
I have recently installed openSUSE 12.3 on a freshly bought laptop (Acer Aspire V5).
The main problem was that the wireless (according to lspci, 'Broadcom Corporation BCM43228 802.11a/b/g/n') did not work at all. I tried /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware, and also the offline version described in the forum. The script completed with the message 'b43legacy firmware successfully installed.'. I rebooted, but there is still no wireless in YaST, and a naive 'ifup wlan0' failed.
Then, I decided to postpone the problem and try to get the system up to date by eth0, hoping that the troubles would evaporate. The update took two days, and only then I started to suspect that I had installed the 64bit version of 12.3. Trying to confirm this, I found that there is no kernelversion command, but /etc/SuSE-release says 'openSUSE 12.3 (x86_64)' which probably proves the fact. Needless to say, a fresh firmware install after the update brought the same negative result as before.
I have to explain that this all happens in rural India where I am currently travelling. The vendor who sold the laptop to me downloaded the install DVD on my request, because he has the fastest internet connection around; nevertheless, it took 5 days to complete. I had explained to him that I want 32bit, but I failed to check it in the short time when I had access to his USB DVD drive for installing. During installation, I was too much in a hurry to notice.
Now I fear that the troubles with the wireless are much aggravated by the 64bit nature of the operating system (there are some other incommodities, too: The KDE desktop behaves strangely and I cannot make the Compose key work, which is really annoying). Moreover, I expect that installation of software from various sources will be more complicated, and the 64bit will prove a permanent burden in the future.
Is there any advice what to do? If I could make the wireless work, I might be able to download the 32bit install DVD in the course of the next weeks, and try a reinstall if I can get a USB DVD drive somewhere, or I find out how to make a memory stick bootable. But is there any realistic chance to have the BCM43228 run on a 64bit system? If so, how shall I proceed?
As a highly suboptimum alternative, I have an 11.4 installation DVD (I *hope* it's 32bit). Would that be an option, if anything else fails?