Wireless works with Ubuntu 8.10, but not with Kubuntu 8.10

[Willy Hamra]

2008/10/31 Eric (Kubuntu) <eric-kubuntu at skoozdag.com>:
> Hey everyone.  Congrats on the release of 8.10.
>
> I have a laptop that has a Broadcom wireless card in it, which has
> always been somewhat of a pain to get wireless working right on it.
> Until Ubuntu 8.04 that is.  Since then, piece of cake.
>
> I did a fresh install last night, because I wanted to try out Kubuntu
> this time around.  Install went fine.  I tossed the firmware for the
> broadcom stuff in /lib/firmware and viola, the light on my Laptop
> indicating the wireless was on came on.  Except...  No luck.  I messed
> with it for hours and I never could connect to my wireless network.
>
> So, this morning I decided to give Ubuntu 8.10 a try.  Same process, I
> installed it, and tossed the firmware into /lib/firmware.  POOF!
> Wireless worked fine under Ubuntu 8.10.
>
> Same laptop, same install process, same firmware, same wireless network
> ... Works fine in Ubuntu, but no worky in Kubuntu.
>
> I'd really like to give Kubuntu a try, I'm kinda excited about the KDE4
> stuff, it looks pretty neat... I've been a Gnome guy for a long time,
> but I want to at least give KDE4 a shot since its come so far.
>
> Anyway...  Without wireless, the laptop is no good to me, so Kubuntu is
> off of it until I can get figure this out.
>
> BTW, its a Broadcom 4318 chipset.  Obviously I know it works in Linux,
> since it works in Ubuntu, just not Kubuntu.
>
> Any thoughts?  Suggestions?  Where to start?
>
>
> Thanks!
> --Eric

this is really weird.
do you mind having 2 desktop environments? the laptop have ubuntu
(gnome) now, and wireless is working right? try to install using your
favourite package manager, the package "kubuntu-desktop", the simplest
way is to run from konsole:

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

this will install KDE4 alongside GNOME, effectively giving you
kubuntu, but on the same setup that is successfully configuring
wireless. and then at the login screen, you can choose if you want to
log into GNOME or KDE.
hope this helps


-- 
Willy K. Hamra
Manager of Hamra Information Systems
Co. Manager of Zeina Computers and Billy Net.