HOWTO: Broadcom 4318 Wireless Cards

[aldegaz]

Ok, no problem, thanks again for the help.

ndiswrapper -l

Installed ndis drivers:
bcmwl5 driver present, hardware present

sudo ifconfig

ath0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:13:F7:29:2E:A6
inet addr:192.168.15.105 Bcast:192.168.15.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::213:f7ff:fe29:2ea6/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:1541 errors:1368 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:1368
TX packets:1400 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:200
RX bytes:889523 (868.6 KiB) TX bytes:226508 (221.1 KiB)
Interrupt:169 Memory:def00000-def10000

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:03:25:2B:E8:C5
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:193

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:14:A5:47:05:26
inet6 addr: fe80::214:a5ff:fe47:526/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING 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:177 Memory:e00f6000-e00f8000

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:7 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:7 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:372 (372.0 b) TX bytes:372 (372.0 b)

lspci | grep Broadcom\Corporation

0000:01:06.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
0000:01:09.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

dmesg | grep ndiswrapper

[17179592.936000] ndiswrapper version 1.8 loaded (preempt=yes,smp=no)
[17179593.008000] ndiswrapper: driver bcmwl5 (Broadcom,02/11/2005, 3.100.64.0) loaded
[17179593.016000] ndiswrapper: using irq 177
[17179594.024000] wlan0: ndiswrapper ethernet device 00:14:a5:47:05:26 using driver bcmwl5, 14E4:4318.5.conf

And lastly dmesg | grep bcm43xx didnt gave me any results

[Max Roswell]

Well, a few days later, everything's still working. I heartily endorse this script!

Two questions:

1. I know that one glitch is that network manager always shows 100% signal strength. Is there an alternate command or something I can use to find my actual signal strength?

2. I find myself strangely tempted to just press the wireless button on my machine, just to see what it does, but it was so much trouble getting this working, that I'm scared to, in case it screws wireless up permanently. Am I being needlessly dumb here?

Again, thanks Compwiz. You get my vote for Forum Guru of the Year.

[futureman]

This how to did not work for me, I'm getting rather frustrated with this. I'm running Ubuntu Dapper for AMD64, i guess my main problem with it is that the script did not work at all, after running it ndiswrapper wasn't even installed, much less any drivers. I would post the output from running the script but have no way of getting it out of linux unless i wrote it all by hand (i'm in xp right now). It did say something about the ndiswrapper package being for i386 not amd64, and there was an error with the network manager install, can't remember exactley what, it's past my bedtime.

Here's some other noob questions i had about it

1. Are these instructions for the tar with network manager or without?

2. in the lspci info, the "0000:05:02.0" doesn't have to match exactley does it?

3. Does it matter if the wireless connection in Administration > Networking is eth1/0 or wlan0, i read somewhere it has to be wlan0, mine is eth1.

4. WEP, if my router uses no security i don't need to touch this right?

Ok, i've been working on this all night and should be asleep, so excuse errors or extra stupid comments.

[futureman]

oh yes, i also have no connect/disconnect buttons on my adapter, just an antenna, i guess i skip that step?

[Max Roswell]

3. Does it matter if the wireless connection in Administration > Networking is eth1/0 or wlan0, i read somewhere it has to be wlan0, mine is eth1.

I don't think it matters. Mine is eth1, and it's working fine. Wish I could answer your other questions.

[compwiz18]

3. Does it matter if the wireless connection in Administration > Networking is eth1/0 or wlan0, i read somewhere it has to be wlan0, mine is eth1.

It can be either.

[aldegaz]

yay! I hope you dont forget me this time... (thanks again)

[compwiz18]

@futureman:

This how to did not work for me, I'm getting rather frustrated with this. I'm running Ubuntu Dapper for AMD64, i guess my main problem with it is that the script did not work at all, after running it ndiswrapper wasn't even installed, much less any drivers. I would post the output from running the script but have no way of getting it out of linux unless i wrote it all by hand (i'm in xp right now). It did say something about the ndiswrapper package being for i386 not amd64, and there was an error with the network manager install, can't remember exactley what, it's past my bedtime.

can you run apt-get --version and uname -a and post the outputs here? This will help determine the problem, I believe.


-----IGNORE-----
OK. So you downloaded the AMD64 version of Dapper? Then you need the AMD64 version of the script, which can be found here (includes network manager). If you installed the i386 version, it probably won't work.
---END IGNORE---

1. Are these instructions for the tar with network manager or without?

They work for both.

2. in the lspci info, the "0000:05:02.0" doesn't have to match exactley does it?

Nope, as long as you see bcm4318 in there somewhere.

3. Does it matter if the wireless connection in Administration > Networking is eth1/0 or wlan0, i read somewhere it has to be wlan0, mine is eth1.

Nope, doesn't matter a bit. Mine has been both.

4. WEP, if my router uses no security i don't need to touch this right?

Nope, don't touch it.

oh yes, i also have no connect/disconnect buttons on my adapter, just an antenna, i guess i skip that step?

Yep.

Ok, i've been working on this all night and should be asleep, so excuse errors or extra stupid comments.

Hope it starts working, I know they can be a royal pain.

[compwiz18]

@Max Roswell:

1. I know that one glitch is that network manager always shows 100% signal strength. Is there an alternate command or something I can use to find my actual signal strength?

Well, I'm not positive, but if you run iwlist [NAME_OF_INTERFACE] scan (swap [NAME_OF_INTERFACE] with the name of your wireless card) and find the Signal level: ?? part, look at the number where my question marks are. Like I said, I'm not sure though.

2. I find myself strangely tempted to just press the wireless button on my machine, just to see what it does, but it was so much trouble getting this working, that I'm scared to, in case it screws wireless up permanently. Am I being needlessly dumb here?

BUTTONS!!! Yes, I pressed it. And it still works Just be careful, you may have to restart the computer if you press it to find the networks again. And if you do, make sure you turn it back on, cause the computer ain't gonna.

[compwiz18]

@aldegaz: It does work for revision 2 cards. When I run lspci | grep Broadcom\ Corporation, I get:

0000:05:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

the same as you. Is this your first attempt at setting the card up, or have you tried other methods? (forgive me if you already told me this)

Also, when I run dmesg | grep ndiswrapper, I get nothing. Can you run cat /etc/network/interfaces and post the output, please?

Hope this helps...