Wireless card working in earlier Puppy, but not later one.

[OldRonin]

This is about 2 Puppy distributions I've been using on my Dell Latitude e5500 laptop.
Running an older one, bionicpup32-8 , I make a wireless connection to my WiFi easily. I think I used Frisbee to set that up.
But with the newer Ubuntu-based JammyPup32 (22.04), none of the network connection tools work to get setup. The hardware profiler knows that my laptop wireless card is there, PSI returns:
0c:00.0 Network controller
• Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller
• VendorID=14e4 DeviceID=432b Rev=01
• Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
• Kernel modules: ssb

... From my limited knowledge of how things are supposed to work, my guess is that the Broadcom wireless drivers are compiled properly to work with the bionic pup, but are not thus compiled to work with the newer Jammy Pup. Please propose a solution that gets me online wirelessly with the newer Jammy version. In some ways it's nicer to use.

[fernan]

I have a problem too with my Broadcom BCM4312 wireless adapter. It uses the b43 module in Bionicpup32, but it doesn't work with any newer Puppy, even manually loading the b43 module.

My solution was to install Bionicpup32 and use my computer.

You could try to blacklist the ssb module, and load the b43 module, or you could give preference to the b43 over the ssb module using the Boot Manager app.

[ozsouth]

Those cards need the wl driver, which has to be compiled for the kernel being used. jammypup32 (22.04-240208) is not usrmerge, so my 5.10.189 32bit kernel (in forum Kernels section) has a driver (in forum Drivers section).

[mikeslr]

Edit: Ignore the following. While true in the sense that an appropriate driver located in /usr/lib/modules will be used by both 'usrmerge' and 'non-usrmerge' Puppys, I read this thread before my first cup of coffee. Didn't realize the issue was that Jammy did not contain the appropriate driver.

@oz, compiling may not be necessary if the recipe* here is easier. viewtopic.php?p=112771#p112771. Although that post involved firmware, the same consideration should apply to drivers. 'usrmerge' restricts where libs can be located. AFAIK, any Puppy will find drivers located in /usr/lib/modules.

-=-=-=-

• I did it manually. But someone with scripting skills could automate it.

[ozsouth]

Was not able to compile wl in Jammypup32. Code was either too old or 64bit only, despite several attempts.

[fernan]

Another problem I see in my working Bionicpup32 install, the connection speed is unusually slow.

I'm not sure if that's the limit of the wireless card, or a problem with the driver. I'm tempted to try a windows driver using ndiswrapper, but I don't know how to do it.

The download speed never went faster than 3 Mbps, usually around 2 or 2.5Mbps, while my connection (and the newer computer where I'm typing this) is able to download up to 88Mbps.

[mikeslr]

Did you try swapping in ozsouth's 32bit pae 5.10.189 kernel from here, viewtopic.php?p=97420&sid=299d72c82a025 ... dd8#p97420 ?
Needs firmware. See the above post, or if you still have the ISO of Bionic that didn't have a wifi problem copy it from there to a safe place, then after creating a SaveFile/Folder copy it to the appropriate location. Save, Reboot.

Or just swap in the the original bionic's fdrv_upupbb_19.03.sfs giving it the appropriate name.

Ask if you need further instructions.

Drivers must be compiled against the kernel under which they are to be used.

Manufacturers are in business to make money. Those creating wifi adapters target hardware likely to be in use. 64-bit computers have been around for over 20 years; no one still manufactures pure-32bit computers. 32-bit operating systems are being phased out. Even volunteers acting without a profit motive value their time and devote it to projects likely to be most useful. Such disinterest in 'ancient' technology may even impact instructions for compiling drivers: there is little reason to test the recipes provided.

Ancient technology: You may have heard that 1 year in the life of a dog corresponds to 7 years in that of a Human. Computer technology advances far more rapidly. One Human year corresponds to about 17 years of computer development. The Dell Latitude e5500 was first manufactured in 2009. That's 255 'Computer years' ago.

The Dell Latitude e5500 came with a Core 2 Duo 2.26GHz CPU and (I believe) 2GB DDR2 RAM upgradable to 4 GB. https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Latitude-Co ... B0192YT2A8. More than adequate to run a 64-bit Puppy. And for which compiling a wifi driver may not be a problem. And the e550 has 4 USB-ports. 'Though it would be annoying, you could plug a wifi-dongle into one of those ports.

Maybe it's time to consider putting 32-bit Puppys to pasture with this computer.