Thinkpads Forum

Hi guys,
So I bought my 600x thanks to your excellent advice and it's beautiful, faster and in better condition than my old 600. I installed Fluxbuntu on here with no issues. But because I only have internet on my Macintosh desktop (where I'm writing this from), I have quickly run into two very confusing—and related—problems.

1) The Wireless Card, a Linksys WPC54GS with a Broadcom 4318 driver. There is boatloads of information out there but a lot of it seems to assume that a) you have a working internet connection on the computer you're installing this on and that b) you have a completely up-to-date BIOS. Obviously, I have neither. Where do I dl the appropriate Wireless drivers for this card and how do I transfer them from a Macintosh to my Thinkpad's CD-ROM drive? I have a CD from Linksys but it's only meant for Windows. Is the driver that I want on this? This guide below assumes you have a working internet connection. Also, why should I go for the ndiswrapper driver(s?) over the windows drivers? Are both compatibile with my Ubuntu system?
http://ph.ubuntuforums.com/showthread.p ... ost1140976

2) The BIOS. I'm having a lot of problems since I installed Fluxbuntu with the computer shutting down or hibernating. I'm pretty sure my BIOS is out of date. Where do I dl the appropriate files for a BIOS upgrade and how do I then transfer them onto my TP? I've seen a lot of posts for people that have a working internet connection on their computer but didn't see one for this situation.

Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance! [/url]

Can you not buy a PCMCIA network card to get internet? Those can be had for $10 at most computer places.

As for the BIOS update, you can go here for the download:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... SHY-3TLQ2L

You will need a floppy drive and a working battery to update the BIOS, however, I have read in the forums about making a CD for the update. Although I have never tried it, I have a floppy, so have always done it according to the instructions on Lenovos site.

I thought the wireless card I bought was a PCMCIA card! NewEgg lists it as a PCMCIA card and they had it on special so that's why I bought it. Am I wrong?? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... pk=wpc54gs
It's actually recognized by my computer when I type "iwconfig" but it always says "Access Point: Invalid." I've googled this ad nauseum and typed in the correct SSID but it doesn't seem to do anything. Do you (or does anyone) have experience setting these up on a 600x? My hunch is that an old BIOS is getting in the way.

As for the BIOS update, I'm aware of that link. And I do have a floppy drive and a diskette. But the issue is I don't know what to do from there!:) Their instructions are based on the user having windows, which I don't. Here's what I did do in the past, which didn't work:
1) dl the spsdit55.exe file from the link you mentioned. Burn it to a cd.
2) Put that cd in my TP. Copy it to the floppy diskette.
3) Boot up the computer using a "boot disk"
4) "Run" spsdit55.exe from the dos command.
5) Pull my hair out.

What can I do to fix this? Thanks!

You really picked a lousy WiFi card for Linux. Broadcom has spotty support, and requires using NDiswrapper, a firmware cutter, or a native kernel driver that is limited. All of these methods are hard enough as is, and just plain nasty without some type of internet connection. I'd scrap the broadcom card and get an Atheros based card. They have great support using Madwifi drivers. Here's the last PCMCIA card I used - SMCWCB-G

To address the BIOS update issue:

The SPSDIT55.EXE program needs to be executed from a PC's hard drive since it will then format a floppy (in the A: drive) and write the files necessary to perform the BIOS update onto the floppy. That floppy is then bootable and will automatically launch the update process when you boot the 600X with that disk. You can't simply copy the SPSDIT55.EXE file onto a floppy by itself and have it work. You should be able to take that .EXE file and load it onto any PC which has a floppy A: drive and is running at least DOS and then create the BIOS update floppy.

Thanks everybody. This clears a lot up.

HarryC: I'm gonna return my wifi card to Newegg. And I just went ahead and bought the one you pointed out. (thankfully, newegg has a liberal return policy.)

Ray: Thanks for the clarification on the BIOS. I actually don't know anyone that's running Windows (I live in a bubble!:)) so I'm going to go to Kinko's and use one of their Windows PCs to run the spsdit55.exe program and create the floppy disk.

I'll report back on both fronts.