Moblin HP Mini 1035nr Wireless Drivers

For those with an HP Mini 1035nr, you have a Broadcom chip, and because Moblin was started by Intel staff, it appears support for that chip is non-existent.

But! Never fear! Apparently the Dell Mini 9 also uses this chipset, and luckily this kind person (who apparently also has a Mac) has placed instructions for how to install the wireless drivers for his Mini 9 on his website.

Just follow them closely and you’ll be all set!

[Updated Nov 15 to include the new links on slaine.org’s tutorial]

In case his site ever goes down, I have a copy of them here…

1) Activate the moblin toolbar and select the applications icon
2) Choose the Accessories section and select Terminal
3) Install the various tools you’ll need

sudo yum install rpmdevtools

4) Install the compilers and other tools,

sudo yum groupinstall "Development Tools"

5) Install the kernel-netbook-devel package.

sudo yum install kernel-netbook-devel

6) Now we’re ready to build and install the new broadcom drivers

wget http://slaine.org/files/moblinv2/wl-kmod-5.10.91.9.3-1.moblin.src.rpm

(This build will download the broadcom driver archive directly from their site)

rpmbuild –rebuild –target=i586 wl-kmod-5.10.91.9.3-1.moblin.src.rpm

7) Install the resulting rpm,

sudo rpm -ivh ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/i586/wl-kmod-5.10.91.9.3-1.moblin.src.rpm

13 Comments

  1. hologramchat on November 1, 2009 at 9:08 pm

    Thanks for helping with this, to avoid pluggin in, i’m going to try putting worldcom thing on a usb stick and do it that way

  2. andyfitz on November 2, 2009 at 11:31 pm

    sudo rpmbuild –rebuild wl-kmod-5.10.91.9-3.moblin.1.src.rpm –target=i586
    Installing wl-kmod-5.10.91.9-3.moblin.1.src.rpm
    warning: user glen does not exist – using root
    warning: group glen does not exist – using root
    warning: user glen does not exist – using root
    warning: group glen does not exist – using root
    warning: user glen does not exist – using root
    warning: group glen does not exist – using root
    warning: user glen does not exist – using root
    warning: group glen does not exist – using root
    warning: user glen does not exist – using root
    warning: group glen does not exist – using root
    Building target platforms: i586
    Building for target i586
    Executing(%prep): /bin/sh -e /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.DrVPPZ
    + umask 022
    + cd /home/kudelabs/rpmbuild/BUILD
    + LANG=C
    + export LANG
    + unset DISPLAY
    + cd /home/kudelabs/rpmbuild/SOURCES
    ++ basename http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/hybrid-portsrc-x86_32-v5_10_91_9.tar.gz
    + file1=hybrid-portsrc-x86_32-v5_10_91_9.tar.gz
    + ‘[‘ ‘!’ -f hybrid-portsrc-x86_32-v5_10_91_9.tar.gz ‘]’
    + wget –timeout=5 http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/hybrid-portsrc-x86_32-v5_10_91_9.tar.gz
    –2009-11-03 19:30:49– http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/hybrid-portsrc-x86_32-v5_10_91_9.tar.gz
    Resolving http://www.broadcom.com... 208.70.88.55
    Connecting to http://www.broadcom.com|208.70.88.55|:80… connected.
    HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 404 Not Found
    2009-11-03 19:30:50 ERROR 404: Not Found.

    error: Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.DrVPPZ (%prep)

    RPM build errors:
    user glen does not exist – using root
    group glen does not exist – using root
    user glen does not exist – using root
    group glen does not exist – using root
    user glen does not exist – using root
    group glen does not exist – using root
    user glen does not exist – using root
    group glen does not exist – using root
    user glen does not exist – using root
    group glen does not exist – using root
    Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.DrVPPZ (%prep)

  3. Razouille on November 5, 2009 at 5:41 pm
    • Jordan on November 6, 2009 at 5:37 pm

      Thanks Razouille!

  4. Zeik on November 14, 2009 at 5:51 am

    What is to be done with this updated driver? It can’t be used in the rpmbuild process.. So what changes to make it work?

    • Jordan on November 15, 2009 at 3:46 pm

      The build script needs to be updated and I don’t have any control over that – I’ll try to get a hold of the author to see if it can be updated.

  5. Jordan on November 15, 2009 at 3:53 pm

    I’ve updated the links to match those used on the source’s website, though I’m not positive if it will solve that problem or not. Please comment here to let me know – if it does not I’ll forward your results along to the author (who is available at or on the #moblin irc channel most weekdays according to his blog).

  6. Andrew on November 19, 2009 at 1:57 pm

    Still not working for me. Though it is a different issue i think. The command ‘ sudo yum groupinstall “Development Tools” ‘ says “No packages in any requested group available to install or update”.

    If I continue with the rest, I get “error: failed to stat /home/user/–rebuild: No such file or directory” when using the command ‘ rpmbuild –rebuild –target=i586 wl-kmod-5.10.91.9.3-1.moblin.src.rpm ‘ .

    I am using Moblin 2.1 on a Vostro A90

  7. ArKay on November 22, 2009 at 10:11 am

    Don’t copy and paste the Development Tools command, it seems that the quotes aren’t correct, type it yourself.

    HTH.

  8. Banz on January 1, 2010 at 11:24 pm

    thanks Arkay!!! now, i can use wifi on my Dell mini 9 wtih Moblin.

  9. Chris on February 16, 2010 at 10:24 pm

    I’m sure this works, but the Hp mini I have is the 1010nr which does not have an ethernet port, only a wireless adapter. So this method does not work for me. Any suggestions?

  10. Tyler on July 28, 2010 at 6:20 am

    I’m getting the “glen” error when I try to do this now.
    I sent slaine a PM on the #moblin channel, but no reply as of yet.
    Was wondering if you could tweet him for me as I don’t have twitter.
    Thanks.

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