I have found that getting the Broadcom wireless to work has always been an issue, and requires installing special files. The distro I use is OpenSUSE, which I find works with older Dell laptops. In the last oldie I set up, I swapped out the Broadcom NIC for an Intel one (they can be found on Ebay for about $10). Howard Tuesday, July 22, 2014, 2:08:13 PM, Andrew Galloway wrote: > I have a Broadcom wifi adapter in my old laptop and I have > successfully install LXLE. You may want to give that distro a look. > > http://lxle.net/ > > Andrew >>>> Brian Barber <brianjbarber [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com> 2014-07-22 1:59 PM >>> > Good afternoon, everyone. I have an older, not-exactly stock Dell Inspiron > 1501 (AMD 64-bit CPU, 4G RAM and a 120G SSD) that I want to use for general > purpose computing and for ingesting a bunch of video from older VHS and > MiniDV tapes. I have a USB RCA adapter and a FireWire PCExpress card to > help with this. > Believe it or not, I cannot successfully install Ubuntu (various > versions) on it. It not only does not recognize the Broadcom wifi adapter, > it has some deep-seated hatred of it. I get kernel panics whenever the OS > tries to load modules for it, and I have made numerous attempts to fix this > with no joy. Google inspiron 1501linux wireless and see that I'm not alone > (and I'm a pretty seasoned Linux guy.) I must have tried everything > suggested in the first five pages of search results. > Is there anyone on the list who can suggest a good disto to try anew. I > have used Debian-based distros for a loooong time, but I am wide open to > trying anything Debian-based, or not. The laptop is bare metal now. > Perhaps there is something nifty out there that is worth a shot. BTW, I > would rather not go the Slackware/Gentoo BIY route. > Thanks, > Brian > _______________________________________________ > Linux mailing list > Linux [ at ] lists [ dot ] oclug [ dot ] on [ dot ] ca > http://oclug.on.ca/mailman/listinfo/linux > _______________________________________________ > Linux mailing list > Linux [ at ] lists [ dot ] oclug [ dot ] on [ dot ] ca > http://oclug.on.ca/mailman/listinfo/linux > ----- > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 2014.0.4716 / Virus Database: 3986/7903 - Release Date: 07/22/14 -- ZedNet Technologies visit us at http://www.zed.net