Sunday, April 8, 2007

Broadcom Wireless Card

Feisty Download _all.deb and double click it to install. Reboot. Enjoy wireless. Dapper and Edgy Put the CD that you installed Ubuntu with in the CD drive. Download this file to your Desktop (the Firefox default, so if you haven't changed it, that's where it went/will go). Open a terminal (click the Applications button, then Accessories, and then Terminal) Change the current directory to the desktop (copy and paste the following commands exactly into your terminal by right clicking anywhere on the terminal and clicking paste) Code: cd ~/Desktop Extract the compressed file Code: tar -xf bcm4318*.tar.gz Run the script, which will install ndiswrapper on your system, and set it up. Code: sudo ./ndiswrapper_setup Use the internet (you will have to open the System menu at the top of the screen, go to Administration, and then click Networking. Configure the interface eth1 or wlan0, and connect to your wifi network) If you are an Acer user, you will need to use the acerhk driver. If it doesn't work, reboot Here are some compiled logical steps that I retrieved from several posts in this thread and a few other places regarding the identification, maintenance, and installation of wifi hardware and/or firmware: Steps: --------------------------------------------------------------- Conventions: UN = your user name CN = your computer's name. Notes: = side-bar elaboratives to explain a step Warning: = Warnings are just that; you had better read them. Tip: You do not retype your UN@CN, just the code after the $. UN@CN:~$ and UN@CN:~/Desktop$ are place holders merely referencing that you should see a prompt in the terminal's window where UN is your user account's name @ your computer's name, both of which were assigned when you installed and configured your Linux O.S. distro. Warning: Do the steps in order and stick to the procedure, don't add any steps unless you know what it is that you are doing here.sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils-1.8 ndiswrapper-utils-1.1 ndiswrapper-utils ndiswrapper-common --------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- 1.)Open your terminal (obviously). --------------------------------------------------------------- 2.)UN@CN:~$ lspci | grep Broadcom Corporation A.)Press the Return/Enter key You should now see the following output return in your terminal's display: 0000:05:02.0 Network controller:Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02) If this is what your terminal command returns in the display you have nothing to worry about. Proceed to the next step. --------------------------------------------------------------- 4.)UN@CN:~$ echo blacklist bcm43xx | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist A.)Press the Return/Enter key Your terminal will process the command and notify you that the 43xx driver file has been successfully 'blacklisted'. Warning: This will 'blacklist' an older version of the 43 driver series known as 43xx, which is pre-installed with UBUNTU Dapper Drake and possibly other Debian based Linux Distros. The 43xx driver will conflict with some other drivers in the 43xx genre. A lot of problems concerning oddly behaving cards could have something to do with the exclusion of this step, so just do it! It's better to be safe than sorry. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 5.)If you haven't already done so, go ahead and move your 'bcm4318[1].tar.gz' package to your desktop (a.k.a.- shell, be it Gnome ,KDE; etc.) ---------------------------------------------------------------- 6.)UN@CN:~$ cd /home/UN/Desktop A.)Press the Return/Enter key You should now see the following output return in your terminal's display: UN@CN:~/Desktop$ This output is telling you that the Desktop directory is your active directory and all actions will be initiated starting at this point. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Note: It works the same way a browser navigates through a web site. (Investigate this topic on your own as it is beyond the scope of this block of instruction.) The UN@CN:~/Desktop$ is your new base directory that you will be working out of. It stream- lines the process of file access. If you are going to working with a lot of files on your desktop you make the Desktop your base directory and the terminal will assume on your behalf that you will be doing all of your work in the Desktop "directory." This saves you time, in that, you do not have to write out the complete file path to every object on your desktop, just a command of execution and the file that the command will take action(s) upon. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 7.)UN@CN:~/Desktop$ tar -xf bcm4318[1].tar.gz A.)Press the Return/Enter key You should now see the output return in your terminal's display stating that the 'bcm4318[1].tar.gz' package is effectively being decompressed and extracted to the desktop. Once the terminal notifies you that the process of extraction was successfully completed and you see the prompt: UN@CN:~/Desktop$ ...proceed to the next step. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.)UN@CN:~/Desktop$ sudo ./ndiswrapper_setup A.)Press the Return/Enter key You will now witness the installation execution step by step as it is carried out automatically by the terminal. When the terminal returns a message stating that the installation was successfully completed you will be queried again with the terminal prompt: UN@CN:~/Desktop$ ...proceed to the next step. -------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.)System menu on your Desktop toolbar at the top of the screen,then: Administration > Networking, click the wireless connection of the 'Connections' tab and click the 'Properties' button. Click the "Enable This Connection check Box Radio Button", set your ESSID id to the active network name that you will use to access your router for wifi, and set your configuration to DHCP to automatically obtain IP addresses, just like in Windows. Warning: Make sure that your wireless lan is activated, only after inspecting the properties of your wlan connection setup properties, this will prevent wasted time, stupid questions, and people feeling stupid for asking stupid questions because they didn't pay attention to detail. Setting up WEP is simple, but you can consult your router's user/set-up documentation for the exact specifications of performing such a procedure. A.)Click "OK" ...and wait for the process to complete the update to your configuration settings. I have a Linksys 54G Wireless Router myself, and I use the router default for wifi which is "linksys," without the quotations, the ethernet ESSID is "Linksys." --------------------------------------------------------------------- 10.)Click "OK" of your "Network Settings" dialog window. ...and wait for the process to finalize your configuration settings. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 11.) Open your browser and surf to a web page like Google. Click the Google search text entry field, in the upper right corner of Firefox, and press the Retern/Enter key on your key-board and wait for Firefox to open Google's default Home Page. Close your browser and proceed to the next step... --------------------------------------------------------------------- 12.)UN@CN:~/Desktop$ ndiswrapper -l A.)Press the Return/Enter key Your terminal should return the following output in it's display: bcmwl5 driver present, hardware present At the terminal prompt: UN@CN:~/Desktop$ ...proceed to the next step. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 13.)UN@CN:~/Desktop$ sudo -i A.)Press the Return/Enter key B.)Key in your administrator password C.)Press the Return/Enter key 14.)UN@CN:~/Desktop# modprobe ndiswrapper A.)Press the Return/Enter key Now push the wifi network connect/disconnect button on your computer... - it should come on/light up, or turn off as the case may be. If you turned it off, turn it back on now. 15.)UN@CN:~/Desktop# ifdown eth1 A.)Press the Return/Enter key 16.)UN@CN:~/Desktop# ifup eth1 A.)Press the Return/Enter key 17.)UN@CN:~/Desktop# dhclient A.)Press the Return/Enter key 18.)UN@CN:~/Desktop# iwconfig A.)Press the Return/Enter key B.)Verify that the output displays the correct settings for your wifi network. 19.)Close the Terminal utility, and browse/surf as desired.

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