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yea we are getting a bit of track.
i should re-iterate that upon further testing only the fossapup was connecting and remembering my profile .xenial64 for some reason is now not.
Okay i will pursue this beast and perform the suggested information tools.I concur that if this laptop were not 64bit capable then indeed the 64bit os would not boot.
focalpup which incidentally has a 5-series kernel connects just fine..so this leads me to believe that the kernel is not the issue. 
I found and downloaded kernel 4.4.95 which is what my xenialpup32 uses and tried changing the kernel on bionic and that caused a kernel panic on reboot.
If the problem is in Bionicpup64 8.0 a 64bit OS.
You can not put a Xenialpup32 kernel in it. It is a 32bit kernel not a 64bit kernel.
For changing kernels use this:
viewtopic.php?f=157&t=3228
The things you do not tell us, are usually the clue to fixing the problem.
When I was a kid, I wanted to be older.
This is not what I expected 
@bigpup
Looks like i downloaded the wrong version.(32bit).. 
Although i am not certain the kernel is the issue but i am more than happy to try again.
.....and that's why I originally mentioned k4.9.58. This is what Xenial64 uses, OOTB.
Now I think about it, I should have recognised it when you mentioned k4.4.95. That's Xenial32's default one, of course; I had to swap down to the k4.1.30 'huge kernel' when I re-installed it 18 months ago, 'cos it wasn't recognising my webcam.....
(Since then, it's run as sweet as a nut for me on this new hardware....)
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Do what I said above; just download the Xenial64 ISO, mount it, and strip out the vmlinuz and zdrv; swap 'em over, and make sure to re-name the zdrv as I told you. That's the important bit.
It's the simplest way to obtain what you need in an immediately usable format. If you've still got a copy, no need to re-download, of course.
Mike. 
hello mike and thank you.
i shall certainly try that.
Sorry for slight off topic here but how would i go about installing several pups to my usb flashdrive.the flashdrive is 1tb in storage and i would like to install a few pups on there.i love this distro and it's many flavours and i would like to casually sample the fruits in an easy manner rather than swapping and chopping all the time.
thanks again. 
If this drive is only going to have versions of Puppy on it.
I use this program to do multiple installs of Puppy to a drive.
viewtopic.php?f=105&t=337
http://www.fishprogs.software/puppy/fru ... index.html
I use it this way:
viewtopic.php?p=1887#p1887
This procedure applies to any type drive that is only going to have Puppy Linux on it.
It will require you to be running a Puppy version from a different drive, so you can do a completely new setup of the drive.
Removing partitions, making partitions, and formatting is going to delete everything on the drive.
But starting out with a freshly setup drive with correct partitions and format is going to make a much better working drive for Puppy Linux.
The things you do not tell us, are usually the clue to fixing the problem.
When I was a kid, I wanted to be older.
This is not what I expected
i have used gparted before.Now i created a "primary" partition for bootloader etc.Now if i create more partitions do i format as fat32 or ext3.?...extended or primary.?
I think I have the solution for you!
In bionicpup I have the same problem as yours -- same firmware missing.
I tried ozsouth's .pet but still not working. I added another file but that did not work, either.
The way I solved the issue originally was to replace the b43 firmware with the full set, which is available somewhere on the forum. I just now made a package with only the complete b43 firmware. Its ucode5.fw file is different.
Just install that .pet without changing kernels or anything else. Then try any of the network managers. I tested with network_wizard.
BTW, my "lspci -nn" Network entry is:
Code: Select all
root# lspci -nn | grep 'etwork'
01:09.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4320] (rev 03)Richard
firmware-b43_complete.pet I just remembered that the bionicpup64 quickpet icon and its "updates" option installs a large set of b43 firmware files.
But that is of no help if you cannot get online some other way so as to let quickpet download the updates.
Thanks richard.
However my situation has just got a bit worse.The built in uefi installer is now refusing to flash my usb drive with a puppy iso and just displays a red message with the word "gettext" and i have absolutely no idea what this means.
I have reformatted the usb flash drive and tried about everything but the installer will not install an iso anymore.
I am under the assumption that now my usb flash drive is kaput.
You really should have started a new topic about this:
the built in uefi installer is now refusing to flash my usb drive with a puppy iso and just displays a red message with the word "gettext"
Now we are going to start talking about a totally different issue from what started this topic.
So, how about making it easy for us all and start a new topic on this issue 
Thanks!
No limit on number of topics you can make. 
The things you do not tell us, are usually the clue to fixing the problem.
When I was a kid, I wanted to be older.
This is not what I expected
Going back to the original subject matter of this thread, the Broadcom wifi, these are my observations, for anyone that's interested. Thankfully just one of my laptops has this wifi, and I've found that Debian based distros don't have a problem with it. I've ran MX Linux, Emmabuntus (and something else that I can't remember) without any wifi issues, straight "out of the box". I'm currently typing this running Buster Pup from a USB stick on the offending laptop. I've also ran Manjaro on it without any wifi problems. However, whenever I try an Ubuntu based distro generally it won't have it, and produces lots of headaches.
Another point which the OP mentioned, was suitability of his machine for running 64 bit. Following some completely unrelated problems I was having with another machine I ended up doing a lot of research. I discovered that years ago, before 64 bit became the norm, a lot of PC's were produced which although equipped with 64 bit processors, were never actually intended to run 64 bit systems, and came with 32 bit Windows installed. Worst offenders were little netbooks.
Hope that's of some interest and/or help to someone, somewhere.