NetBSD on Dell Inspiron 5150

[kdu]

I am contemplating putting NetBSD on my laptop (which currently has Windows on it). It seems all the hardware will work except I can't find any info on support for the Broadcom BCM4401 wireless card. Anyone have any insights?

[s0xxx]

Is that a wifi or ethernet? 'Cause from man bce:

DESCRIPTION
     The bce provides support for the Broadcom BCM4401 10/100 Ethernet card.
     Other cards from the 440x series may also be supported.

[BSDfan666]

BCM4401 is Ethernet, it should be supported by bfe(4) or bce(4).

All the documents I can find for the "Inspiron 5150" show no integrated Wireless chipset at all.. perhaps you have a MiniPCI or PCMCIA card?

You won't truly know if things will work or not until you actually try installing and booting FreeBSD, or at least provide us with a little more info.

Hope that helps.

[kdu]

Of course I'm trying NetBSD, not FreeBSD. It's a Dell branded Broadcom card. The ethernet will be easy. I know this wireless card is a battle in Linux, so I fear the worst.

[BSDfan666]

For some reason I thought this was the FreeBSD section, not entirely sure why.

Still, try booting NetBSD and obtaining a dmesg.. at least then we'll be able to identify this mysterious "Broadcom" wireless device you claim is in the system.

NetBSD has the bwi(4) driver, this supports several such chipsets.. not all of them though, of course.

Sorry for the confusion, if you are currently using Windows or Linux.. obtaining a dump of the PCI bus (vendor/product) numbers might also be useful.

Hope that helps..

EDIT: Apparently NetBSD <= 5.0 does not appear to have the bwi driver, you could consider using OpenBSD or FreeBSD.. both have arguably more Wireless drivers.

[kdu]

Its mot like this beast is portable. I call it Battlestar Laptopica. I can try NetBSD and get a dmesg and see what's what. Thanks for your help!