Wireless BCM4318 AirForce Card

[piracyrocks]

Ok, so there are other tutorials out there for the other 43xx cards, but from my experience, none of them have worked with the specific 4318 card. This way i will explain below is the only way i have gotten my 4318 card to work with 6.06

Step 1: Disabling bcm43xx
Ok, so first thing we need to do is make it so that the pre-installed driver, bcm43xx, doesn't attach to the hardware on bootup. The way we do this is by blacklisting it. In a terminal window type:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

in the window that pops up, find a new line and type: blacklist bcm43xx

After this, reboot and make sure that when you go to System > Administration > Networking there isnt a listing for your wireless connection

Step 2: Get ndiswrapper

Make sure you have the universe repositories enabled. (google it if you dont know how) and go to a terminal and type the following:

sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils

this might prompt you for your password and ask you to continue and such, its very easy, just go through it.

Step 3: Use ndiswrapper to configure the drivers

Get the drivers you need, i suggest these ones, and make sure u have the .inf and .sys files of the driver. If you use the ones i suggested they will be bcmwl5.sys and bcmwl5.inf

Once you have the driver, put them on the desktop and then go to a terminal and type:

sudo ndiswrapper -i ~/Desktop/bcmwl5.inf

this will install the driver

then, in the same terminal window, type:

sudo ndiswrapper -m

now restart and you will be able to connect to wireless networks. If you have a wep encryption on your wireless network, go on to step 4 below.

Step 4: Installing Network Manager

Network manager will allow you to connect to those wep encrpypted networks.

Simply go to a terminal window and type:

sudo apt-get install network-manager-gnome

Let that install by typing your password and whatnot, then restart and you will be good to go, just click on it up in the corner and select your wireless network.

Still not working?
If you still cannot connect to a wireless network try running the following commands in terminal

modprobe ndiswrapper

and

echo ndiswrapper >> /etc/modules

**Thanks esavato**

Lemme know if anyone experiences any problems with this, however, i have this exact card and did this exact procedure from a fresh install and it worked flawlessly. If anyone needs person to person help just catch me on aim at r0nchetti.

[esavato]

This was an elegant and simple guide that worked great for me. I did have to run the following commands to get this to work properly on my system. THANKS

modprobe ndiswrapper

echo ndiswrapper >> /etc/modules

[Slicedbread]

It should also be noted that if that does no work try

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper

and then changing "alias wlan0 ndiswrapper" to "alias eth1 ndiswrapper"

[maddbaron]

doesnt work 4 me. everything was installed i have a network manager but wireless doesnt work.

any ideas?

[maddbaron]

here is my desktop i downloaded the filmware and extract it to desktop. i did your solution last nite and i have the gnome manager but the wireless doesnt work.

would it be too much trouble to write out step by step i have to do based on this screen shot?

[scenestar]

Originally Posted by maddbaron here is my desktop i downloaded the filmware and extract it to desktop. i did your solution last nite and i have the gnome manager but the wireless doesnt work. would it be too much trouble to write out step by step i have to do based on this screen shot?

you need to use a shell script to connect or modify your inet.d scripts.

[maddbaron]

is there a walk thru link or web page i can look at to do so please?

I am a newbie.

[scenestar]

is there a walk thru link or web page i can look at to do so please?

Yes there is.

[piracyrocks]

make sure u are trying this off of a clean install of ubuntu, even though u black list bcm43xx.

if you are not trying this from a clean install then there might be other things you are messing up

[johnthejack]

I've followed these instructions but when I enter modprobe ndiswrapper I get "FATAL: Error inserting ndiswrapper (/lib/modules/2.6.15-23-386/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.ko): Operation not permitted".
I tried again but as sudo and get the same reply. I haven't a clue what this means as I installed Ubuntu for the first time this weekend. Could someone help, please? Thanks.