HOWTO: Broadcom 4318 Wireless Cards

[compwiz18]

Nope, I usually just have a MAC address filter. But for getting this up and running I have turned all encryption off. (Don't hack my net)

Thanks for the good try, any other ideas?

According to the log file, your wireless card is fully operational. You may want to try a different network manager, such as wicd (in my sig) or wifi-radar.

disclamer: wicd is my project

[alangston]

I am completely new to Ubuntu and the whole Linux experience,but this thread has really helped. I was a little discouraged and worried when I installed Ubuntu on my Acer Ferrari 4000 laptop and the wireless didn't work... but it's all working now. (All that is left for me to do is find a way to get the bluetooth mouse to work...)

[rsvirani]

Hey guys. I used this method and it worked fine for me. However, I couldn't always connect to all the networks. At home, it worked fine connecting to a linksys G router. However, after the recent update of a crap load of packages via synaptic, I cant connect at home anymore. It just times out like other networks. Do you guys have any suggestions on how to begin troubleshooting or tracking down which package updates might have disturbed my otherwise functional 4318 via ndiswrapper in Feisty? I finally tweaked the crap out of my install and dont want to reinstall. Thanks.

[oscar44]

I tried ths method, and I can see my signal strength and also the other wifi networks around me, but i cant seem to get an ip from dhcp.
when i manually assign static, I still cant ping with wpa_gui, i cant ping out, still cant get to internet.

[bootiec84]

Thnx Compwiz, I figured it out at 5am last night. Oddly enough it connected once I enabled WEP encryption. I don't know why, but i think i had made it too easy for the manager to connect and it was looking for some sort of encryption. SO...i switched over to wifi-radar and all is well now! It works like a charm and i don't have to retype my WEP code every time i boot.

For anyone who is still have having trouble w/ feisty on an AMD64, there are a few good posts on pg 118 of this thread.

[Retroware.de]

I love you guy, your tutorial worked! It was so easy and fast, thank you very much.

[bruceq]

Finally! Thank you very kindly. Four versions of Ubuntu and my wireless finally works!

[compwiz18]

Hey guys. I used this method and it worked fine for me. However, I couldn't always connect to all the networks. At home, it worked fine connecting to a linksys G router. However, after the recent update of a crap load of packages via synaptic, I cant connect at home anymore. It just times out like other networks. Do you guys have any suggestions on how to begin troubleshooting or tracking down which package updates might have disturbed my otherwise functional 4318 via ndiswrapper in Feisty? I finally tweaked the crap out of my install and dont want to reinstall. Thanks.

Do you have a list of what packages were updated/installed? A list can be found in Synaptic under Packages? -> History (I think it's called Packages - I know it is the menu it the top left corner of the package manager)

[poobslag]

I am running a desktop with a 64-bit AMD motherboard and a Broadcom 4318 wireless card. I am trying to connect to a wireless network with WPA-encryption. After following some other tutorials I got my wireless card working properly, but the network connection would drop out intermittently.

I followed this tutorial hoping to switch to "ndiswrapper", which is apparently more stable. However, after following this tutorial, I am unable to connect to the internet at all, even using a wired connection.

After the failure, I followed some of the Troubleshooting tips at the beginning of this thread. Doing a sudo ndiswrapper -a 14e4:4319 bcmwl5 resulted in Error: no versions of ndiswrapper found!, which seemed unusual. All of the lines in /etc/network/interfaces were uncommented, and none of them had the word "interface" in them.

I've attached the output from the script. Any input as to the source of this problem or how i could fix it would be greatly appreciated. If nothing else, it would be nice if i could get my wired connection working again, so i could at least download drivers to fix the wireless issue later. Thanks.

Log of echo Script version: 0.1.2 
Sat Jun  2 12:01:28 2007

Script version: 0.1.2

Sat Jun  2 12:01:28 2007
----------------
Log of lspci 
Sat Jun  2 12:01:28 2007

00:00.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge (rev a2)
00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 0 (rev a2)
00:00.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 1 (rev a2)
00:00.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 5 (rev a2)
00:00.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 4 (rev a2)
00:00.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge (rev a2)
00:00.6 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 3 (rev a2)
00:00.7 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 2 (rev a2)
00:02.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)
00:03.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)
00:04.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1)
00:09.0 Memory controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 Memory Controller (rev a4)
00:0a.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 ISA Bridge (rev a4)
00:0a.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation CK804 SMBus (rev a2)
00:0b.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller (rev a2)
00:0b.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller (rev a4)
00:0d.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 AC'97 Audio Controller (rev a2)
00:0f.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 IDE (rev f3)
00:10.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA Controller (rev f3)
00:11.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK804 Serial ATA Controller (rev f3)
00:12.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCI Bridge (rev a2)
00:13.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 Ethernet Controller (rev a3)
00:16.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:17.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation CK804 PCIE Bridge (rev a3)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15)
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 7900 GT (rev a1)
04:08.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
04:0b.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB22/A IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)

Sat Jun  2 12:01:29 2007
----------------
Log of echo /etc/issue MD5 sum: 3087e29b00a0ad846c075b46e50a0342 
Sat Jun  2 12:01:29 2007

/etc/issue MD5 sum: 3087e29b00a0ad846c075b46e50a0342

Sat Jun  2 12:01:29 2007
----------------
Log of cat /etc/issue 
Sat Jun  2 12:01:29 2007

Ubuntu 7.04 \n \l


Sat Jun  2 12:01:29 2007
----------------
Log of ps -e 
Sat Jun  2 12:01:29 2007

  PID TTY          TIME CMD
    1 ?        00:00:01 init
    2 ?        00:00:00 migration/0
    3 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/0
    4 ?        00:00:00 watchdog/0
    5 ?        00:00:00 migration/1
    6 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/1
    7 ?        00:00:00 watchdog/1
    8 ?        00:00:02 events/0
    9 ?        00:00:01 events/1
   10 ?        00:00:00 khelper
   11 ?        00:00:00 kthread
   34 ?        00:00:00 kblockd/0
   35 ?        00:00:00 kblockd/1
   36 ?        00:00:00 kacpid
   37 ?        00:00:00 kacpi_notify
  160 ?        00:00:00 kseriod
  194 ?        00:00:00 pdflush
  195 ?        00:00:00 pdflush
  196 ?        00:00:00 kswapd0
  197 ?        00:00:00 aio/0
  198 ?        00:00:00 aio/1
 2063 ?        00:00:00 ksuspend_usbd
 2065 ?        00:00:00 khubd
 2150 ?        00:00:00 khpsbpkt
 2202 ?        00:00:00 ata/0
 2203 ?        00:00:00 ata/1
 2204 ?        00:00:00 ata_aux
 2252 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_0
 2253 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_1
 2254 ?        00:00:00 knodemgrd_0
 2298 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_2
 2299 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_3
 2492 ?        00:00:00 kjournald
 2687 ?        00:00:00 udevd
 3748 ?        00:00:00 kpsmoused
 4366 ?        00:00:00 wpa_supplicant
 4522 tty4     00:00:00 getty
 4523 tty5     00:00:00 getty
 4525 tty2     00:00:00 getty
 4528 tty3     00:00:00 getty
 4529 tty1     00:00:00 getty
 4530 tty6     00:00:00 getty
 4789 ?        00:00:00 acpid
 4890 ?        00:00:00 syslogd
 4945 ?        00:00:00 dd
 4947 ?        00:00:00 klogd
 4968 ?        00:00:00 dbus-daemon
 4984 ?        00:00:02 hald
 4985 ?        00:00:00 hald-runner
 4991 ?        00:00:00 hald-addon-acpi
 4992 ?        00:00:00 hald-addon-cpuf
 5003 ?        00:00:00 hald-addon-keyb
 5006 ?        00:00:00 hald-addon-keyb
 5015 ?        00:00:00 hald-addon-keyb
 5018 ?        00:00:00 hald-addon-keyb
 5027 ?        00:00:00 hald-addon-stor
 5047 ?        00:00:00 dhcdbd
 5062 ?        00:00:02 NetworkManager
 5081 ?        00:00:00 avahi-daemon
 5082 ?        00:00:00 avahi-daemon
 5106 ?        00:00:00 NetworkManagerD
 5119 ?        00:00:00 system-tools-ba
 5120 ?        00:00:00 dbus-daemon
 5185 ?        00:00:00 gdm
 5186 ?        00:00:00 gdm
 5189 tty7     00:00:16 Xorg
 5260 ?        00:00:00 hpiod
 5263 ?        00:00:00 python
 5316 ?        00:00:00 kondemand/0
 5317 ?        00:00:00 kondemand/1
 5351 ?        00:00:00 hcid
 5371 ?        00:00:00 krfcommd
 5406 ?        00:00:00 atd
 5420 ?        00:00:00 cron
 5520 ?        00:00:00 x-session-manag
 5558 ?        00:00:00 ssh-agent
 5561 ?        00:00:00 dbus-launch
 5562 ?        00:00:00 dbus-daemon
 5564 ?        00:00:00 gconfd-2
 5567 ?        00:00:00 gnome-keyring-d
 5569 ?        00:00:00 gnome-settings-
 5582 ?        00:00:00 sh
 5583 ?        00:00:00 esd
 5587 ?        00:00:05 metacity
 5592 ?        00:00:02 gnome-panel
 5596 ?        00:00:01 nautilus
 5599 ?        00:00:00 bonobo-activati
 5601 ?        00:00:00 gnome-vfs-daemo
 5602 ?        00:00:00 gnome-volume-ma
 5617 ?        00:00:00 update-notifier
 5619 ?        00:00:00 evolution-alarm
 5625 ?        00:00:00 nm-applet
 5626 ?        00:00:00 gnome-cups-icon
 5627 ?        00:00:00 gnome-power-man
 5637 ?        00:00:00 evolution-excha
 5650 ?        00:00:00 evolution-data-
 5654 ?        00:00:00 trashapplet
 5666 ?        00:00:00 mapping-daemon
 5702 ?        00:00:00 mixer_applet2
 5749 ?        00:00:00 avahi-autoipd
 5750 ?        00:00:00 avahi-autoipd
 5775 ?        00:00:00 avahi-autoipd
 5776 ?        00:00:00 avahi-autoipd
 5783 ?        00:00:00 dhclient3
 5838 ?        00:00:00 notification-da
 5862 ?        00:00:01 gnome-screensav
 5865 ?        00:00:00 dhclient3
 5919 ?        00:00:01 gedit
 6031 ?        00:00:26 firefox-bin
 6428 ?        00:00:00 wpa_supplicant
 6448 ?        00:00:00 dhclient
 6522 ?        00:00:00 gnome-terminal
 6525 ?        00:00:00 gnome-pty-helpe
 6526 pts/0    00:00:00 bash
 6614 ?        00:00:01 gksu
 6615 ?        00:00:01 network-admin
 6619 ?        00:00:00 gconfd-2
 6649 ?        00:00:00 sh
 6650 ?        00:00:00 esd
 6746 ?        00:00:00 cupsd
 6968 ?        00:00:00 gnome-terminal
 6970 ?        00:00:00 gnome-pty-helpe
 6971 pts/1    00:00:00 bash
 7328 pts/1    00:00:00 sh
 7352 pts/1    00:00:00 logsave
 7353 pts/1    00:00:00 ps

Sat Jun  2 12:01:29 2007
----------------
Log of echo Feisty release detected. 
Sat Jun  2 12:01:29 2007

Feisty release detected.

Sat Jun  2 12:01:29 2007
----------------
Log of rmmod ndiswrapper 
Sat Jun  2 12:01:29 2007

ERROR: Module ndiswrapper does not exist in /proc/modules
rmmod died with exit status 1

Sat Jun  2 12:01:29 2007
----------------
Log of rmmod bcm43xx 
Sat Jun  2 12:01:29 2007


Sat Jun  2 12:01:29 2007
----------------
Log of echo Feisty 
Sat Jun  2 12:01:29 2007

Feisty

Sat Jun  2 12:01:29 2007
----------------
Log of apt-get --assume-yes install ndiswrapper-common ndiswrapper-utils-1.9 
Sat Jun  2 12:01:29 2007

Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
Reading state information...
ndiswrapper-common is already the newest version.
Suggested packages:
  ndiswrapper-source
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  ndiswrapper-utils-1.9
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 32.7kB of archives.
After unpacking 127kB of additional disk space will be used.
Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com feisty/main ndiswrapper-utils-1.9 1.38-1ubuntu1
  Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Failed to fetch http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/n/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper-utils-1.9_1.38-1ubuntu1_amd64.deb  Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
E: Unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with --fix-missing?
apt-get died with exit status 100

Sat Jun  2 12:03:22 2007
----------------
Log of ndiswrapper -e bcmwl5 
Sat Jun  2 12:03:22 2007

Error: no versions of ndiswrapper found!
ndiswrapper died with exit status 1

Sat Jun  2 12:03:22 2007
----------------
Log of ndiswrapper -e bcmwl5a 
Sat Jun  2 12:03:22 2007

Error: no versions of ndiswrapper found!
ndiswrapper died with exit status 1

Sat Jun  2 12:03:22 2007
----------------
Log of ndiswrapper -l 
Sat Jun  2 12:03:22 2007

Error: no versions of ndiswrapper found!
ndiswrapper died with exit status 1

Sat Jun  2 12:03:22 2007
----------------
Log of echo You appear to have a 64bit system...installing the 64bit drivers... 
Sat Jun  2 12:03:22 2007

You appear to have a 64bit system...installing the 64bit drivers...

Sat Jun  2 12:03:22 2007
----------------
Log of tar -xf drivers-64.tar.gz 
Sat Jun  2 12:03:22 2007


Sat Jun  2 12:03:22 2007
----------------
Log of ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf 
Sat Jun  2 12:03:22 2007

Error: no versions of ndiswrapper found!
ndiswrapper died with exit status 1

Sat Jun  2 12:03:22 2007
----------------
Log of modprobe ndiswrapper 
Sat Jun  2 12:03:22 2007


Sat Jun  2 12:03:22 2007
----------------
Log of iwconfig 
Sat Jun  2 12:03:22 2007

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

eth1      no wireless extensions.


Sat Jun  2 12:03:22 2007
----------------
Log of ifconfig 
Sat Jun  2 12:03:22 2007

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:17:31:15:0E:1F  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:21 

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:17:31:15:00:73  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:19 

eth0:avah Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:17:31:15:0E:1F  
          inet addr:169.254.1.140  Bcast:169.254.255.255  Mask:255.255.0.0
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          Interrupt:21 

eth1:avah Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:17:31:15:00:73  
          inet addr:169.254.2.248  Bcast:169.254.255.255  Mask:255.255.0.0
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          Interrupt:19 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:49 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:49 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:5294 (5.1 KiB)  TX bytes:5294 (5.1 KiB)


Sat Jun  2 12:03:22 2007
----------------
Log of iwlist scan 
Sat Jun  2 12:03:22 2007

lo        Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0      Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth1      Interface doesn't support scanning.


Sat Jun  2 12:03:22 2007
----------------

[Supertonic]

Hey guys- First off I just want to say I'm a brand new Ubuntu user, and I want to thank the community for all the helpful knowledge contained on this forum.

I just installed a dual boot WinXP/Ubuntu (Feisty Fawn) about a week ago on my HP Pavilion dv5030 laptop. Since then, I had been trying to configure my broadcom 4318 wireless card. I would like to report with great overbearing joy I am finally writing this on my couch, away from the wireless router without the constriction of a LAN cable!

I must let you all know at this point that I am running a 64-bit install of Feisty

I would like to share my efforts and processes that allowed me to come to my final, fully functional wireless (WPA) connection.

First, I went and picked up a copy of Beginning Ubuntu Linux by Keir Thomas. This provided some helpful information, and continues to do so. The only thing is that the book was written for 6.10 which I believe is Edgy? Everything is still quite similar in Feisty as I have come to find.

After opening a terminal, run the command:

lspci | grep Broadcom\ Corporation

My wireless card was recognized as
Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller

So it was recognized, but the native drivers were obviously not working because there was no success of connecting to my Linksys WRT54G router.

With the advice in Keir Thomas' book I began the process by identifying the wireless network hardware and sourcing drivers. That can be accomplished by going to System>Preferences>Hardware Information.

Scroll down to "WLAN Interface" In the right panel click the "Advanced" tab and look for the entry net physical_device It should show something to the effect of:
strlist /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_14e4_4318

The "14e4_4318" is important because in the driver .inf file (when opened with a text editor) should correspond to your version of Broadcom card, which in this case is 14e4_4318.

Onwards to the process of blacklisting the existing native drivers. This is accomplished by opening a terminal and issuing the following commands:

gksu gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

This will open up the blacklist config file. At the bottom I added the following:

blacklist bcm43xx

Save this file.
After a reboot, the wireless device is no longer recognized in the network manager.

Onto installing ndiswrapper so you can install the WinXP drivers for the Broadcom device. This is where things got a little hairy for myself because: 1. I'm new to Linux, and 2. I didn't know that nidswrapper did not come installed on Feisty, which I guess it doesn't normally.

So, after connecting to my wired network (which connects to the internet just fine, as it should for almost everyone) I ran Synaptics Package manager, and installed:
ndiswrapper-common
ndiswrapper-source
ndiswrapper-utils-1.9

I would also recommend running update manager at this time as well, and get all necessary updates to your system if it is a fresh install. After all this updating, reboot.

Now to download the necessary drivers to make the Broadcom device not only be recognized, but function as well.
After much trial and error in installing drivers, I came upon this guide that pointed me to the correct driver that works. You can download it here: ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/note...bit/80211g.zip
Please keep in mind this is the 64-bit driver

Now for the extraction and installation of the 4318 driver
After you have downloaded the .zip file, Select open with Archive Manager. At this point you should create a folder on the desktop titled "Driver" Drag the .inf and the .sys file into this new folder on the desktop. In this case the files should be "bcmwl5.inf" and "bcmwl564.sys"

At this point just to be safe, if there are any existing drivers somehow installed with ndiswrapper we should remove them. Open a terminal and use these commands:
Put yourself in the correct folder:

cd /etc/ndiswrapper

then in this case, if there is any driver installed it will most likely be titled "bcmwl5" So issue this command to remove it:

sudo ndiswrapper -e bcmwl5

Now to install the driver you just downloaded:

In the same terminal type:

cd /home/<yourusername>/Desktop/Driver

This will put you into the folder in which you extracted the .inf driver file.
Next type:

sudo ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf

Yay!
Ok now to make sure ndiswrapper loads this driver each time you boot up Ubuntu. Issue the command:

sudo ndiswrapper -m

then open the modules configuration file:

gksu gedit /etc/modules

At the bottom of the list add:

ndiswrapper

Make sure you save the file. After this, reboot your box, and omg like weeeeeeeeeee! You should be able to use the wireless utility in the upper right corner and connect to whatever wireless network is detected. WPA is working fine for me as I'm sure WEP would as well.

Hope this helps anyone out there. Keep in mind I am pretty novice when it comes to Linux, and this is my first attempt to give back to the community, so enjoy!