HOW TO: Configure wireless cards with Broadcom chipsets

[NoTiG]

Hey . if anyone gets the error

"failure inserting ndiswrapper" when they try to modprobe ndiswrapper... I had this problem. but fixed it by

sudo cp /lib/modules/2.*/misc/ndiswrapper /lib/modules/2.*/extra/ndiswrapper

[byen]

After months of trying to install Fedora and Mandrake...i finally came here and with your help am up and running. this walkthrough is perfect! thank you.... really! thank you!

[maspro]

Well to get my Wif-fi working on my Acer Ferrari 3200 I did the following and it worked perfectly :
Although I have a laptop with a 64-bit AMD processor, I used the Ubuntu 32-bit version for x86 systems, with the Ndiswrapper v1.1.

- First I plugged in the UTP cable to get internet access (since Wi-fi doesn't work yet ) . If you have all of the below mentioned software, an off-line installation will also work.
- Download the ndiswrapper-source (NOT the .deb file) from http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/
- You will also need an appropriate .inf driver for your Wi-fi, I used bcmwl5.inf.
- If you can't find a suitable driver then take a look here: http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/p...index.php/List
- Then I downloaded build-essential, linux-headers and ndiswrapper utils through Synaptic. Although the ndiswrapper utils that are provided through Synaptic aren't really necessary I think because later on there are replaced by a newer version.

Then I typed the following commands in a terminal-window:

sudo su <your own password>
Copy the ndiswrappersource tar file to /usr/src
cd /usr/src
tar xvzf ndiswrapper*
cd ndiswrapper*
debian/rules binary
cd ..
dpkg -i ndiswrapper*.deb
Switch to your driver's directory with the cd command.
ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
ndiswrapper -l
modprobe ndiswrapper
iwconfig
iwconfig wlan0 essid <fill in your own essid>
iwlist wlan0 scan
iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed
iwconfig wlan0 key restricted <your own wep-key 10 hex digits for 40-bit encryption or 26 hex digits for 128-bit encryption>
iwconfig wlan0 essid <fill in your own essid>
ifconfig wlan0 up (or dhclient wlan0)

- I then disabled my eth0 (the port with the UTP cable) in the Gnome GUI network utility.
- Then use the Gnome GUI network utility to configure your wireless interface.
- Optionally you can download the KWifimanager through Synaptic and also make some configurations there, it also allows you to see if you have any signal strength and if you get an IP-address on your Wi-fi nic.

When all works well I typed the following last command:

ndiswrapper -m

And I added the following line to my /etc/modules: ndiswrapper

Maybe there is some redundant stuff that I did in the above list, but it's works perfectly for me.
So I guess that there are several ways to get your Wi-fi working in Ubuntu!

[CloudNine]

Lo guys,

I'm currently working on a Linux driver for Broadcom chipsets. Currently I've got the bcm94306 chipset (the pci id is 14E4:4320) and it can read the MAC address of the card. However, it's really buggy atm, and not really that generic. Seeing as there's quite a few people struggling with ndiswrapper around here, it could be useful for the Linux commnity My personal motivation for this is to have a computer of completely free software

More details are at my website: http://c9online.l2p.net

Matt

[KrIaXPaTaLa]

Great iniciative

[dhanjel]

Lo guys,

I'm currently working on a Linux driver for Broadcom chipsets. Currently I've got the bcm94306 chipset (the pci id is 14E4:4320) and it can read the MAC address of the card. However, it's really buggy atm, and not really that generic. Seeing as there's quite a few people struggling with ndiswrapper around here, it could be useful for the Linux commnity My personal motivation for this is to have a computer of completely free software

More details are at my website: http://c9online.l2p.net

Matt

Yeah! I'm waiting for your drivers! Can't use linux until then :/

[maspro]

Hieronymus, maspro

You've probably seen the How To that I wrote for Broadcom cards (I managed to get the repository ndiswrapper to work), and I imagine it didn't work for you. I'd like to point my How To to yours so that users who have similar problems aren't left high and dry. You mention AMD64. Are you using AMD64 ubuntu? If so, I imagine that these are the users that need redirection.

The other thread has had around 7,000 hits so far, so Broadcom cards are obviously presenting huge problems. It would be good to be able to present a cast iron solution set between us.

One minor point that might trip up some unwary noobs: I think that, from a fresh ubuntu install, you'd also need to do apt-get install build-essential before compiling ndiswrapper.

The above quote is taken from the following thread: HOWTO: WLan via Ndiswrapper

Thx for your feedback jonny, I think that indeed it's handy to point to this how-to in your thread. The more ways to get a Wi-fi card working under Linux the better!

[r0jaws]

Just wanted to say thanks!!
Probably one of the best walkthroughs I have found and used it to get sorted on my Avertec 3200. After about a week of frustration, this had me up and running in about 20 mins! TVM!!!

[aubreyisland]

alright i just thought id throw out how i got my broadcom (motorola ws810g) going...

first) installed ndiswrapper and the driver bcml...
second) edited /etc/ndis.../bcml.../14...conf to have radiostate = 0
third) used ubuntu GUI to configure netowrk

now its woriking! it reads my AP and all... BUT...

when i finally got it going i wasnt able to browse the internet,
i disabled ipv6 in firefox using about::config

so now internet browsing works, but as for all my other internet apps such as gaim, etc... they're not working. i even disabled ipv6 in /etc/...aliases and disabled the
ipv6 alias in modprobe.conf

any clue why i cant get internet to work on anything other than firefox?
why: need apt-get to update (wont work because of no internet access)
etc . ps my eth0 is down too...

[mosfet]

hi

i tried everythin posted here...... i'm new using linux

when i type this

root@ubuntu:/home # ndiswrapper -i ~/home/mosfet/Desktop/bcmwl5.inf

i get this error

Installing bcmwl5
cp: cannot stat `/root/home/mosfet/Desktop/bcmwl5.inf': No such file or directory

any ideas?
can anyone help me?