linux.gotfoo.org

I loaded up the PCLinuxOS 2007 LiveCD last night and during the setup (of the LiveCD) it asks how you’d like to connect to the network either Ethernet, modem or wireless. On a total whim I choose Wireless. It then asked me to select the Windows driver which I luckily had on a USB drive. Unfortunately PCLinux could not yet see the external USB drive but it could see my Windows NTFS partition. So on another total whim I browsed the Windows partition looking for the Broadcom drivers I had downloaded from Gateway a while back. I found the file that I was looking for (bcmwl5a.inf) which has worked in the past with Xubuntu and my laptop and clicked OK. It did some stuff and then displayed a list of wireless networks. I must point out that I was not connected to a network in another way so at this point the wireless card is working. So I choose my wireless network and entered my security key and bang I’ve got a 54Mbps connection to the internet.

The only downside to this happy story is that PCLinuxOS kept freezing up for a few seconds at a time and it would not launch some applications.

But I am still impressed to get wireless working with a LiveCD.