bcm4306 ndiswrapper installation guide

maclenin · 02:35 PM

Having just completed a successful migration from fwcutter to ndiswrapper (with gentle compelling from some who will be cited directly and indirectly, below), I thought I'd send along a revised standard version of the ndiswrapper installation process for those of us who consider ourselves relative noobs (such as myself).

NOTE: This guide is based, quite substantially, on this comprehensive howto, so please refer to it for additional detail and post-install configuration and set-up assistance. I will continue to add additional configuration comments to my guide, as necessary.

So, without further ado – here's how I got my bcm4306 wireless card working with ndiswrapper on a Dell Inspiron 600m running Xubuntu 6.10 from a LiveCD:

A. STARTING CONFIGURATION

Dell Inspiron 600m laptop
Broadcom 4306 wireless chipset
Xubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft) on a LiveCD
Ethernet connection

B. PREPARE YOUR SYSTEM FOR DOWNLOAD AND INSTALLATION OF UTILITIES AND WIRELESS DRIVER

1. Open up the terminal (Applications – System – Terminal) and make the following directories:

Code:

mkdir ~/ndiswrapper
mkdir ~/bcm4306

2. Modify the sources.list file to allow for the downloading of additional required utilities...

Code:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

...by uncommenting (removing the # next to) the following entries in the sources.list file...

Code:

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy universe
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy universe

...then saving the file.

3. Remove the "old" bcm43xx driver module (IMPORTANT NOTE: Please skip step 3. and proceed to step 3.a. if you have installed ubuntu on your hard drive and/or are able to reboot to saved settings/configurations):

Code:

sudo modprobe -r bcm43xx

3.a. Blacklist the bcm43xx wireless driver:

Code:

echo 'blacklist bcm43xx' | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

3.b. Comment out (add a # next to) any and all references to eth1:

Code:

sudo nano /etc/iftab
sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

4. Install the build-essential tool set:

Code:

sudo aptitude update 
sudo aptitude install build-essential

5. Identify your kernel version, using...

Code:

uname -r

...which should output something similar to...

Code:

2.6.17-10-generic

...and update your linux headers, using the output from uname -r, as indicated:

Code:

sudo aptitude install linux-headers-2.6.17-10-generic 
sudo ln -s /usr/src/linux-2.6.17-10-generic /lib/modules/2.6.17-10-generic/build

C. DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL UTILITIES AND WIRELESS DRIVER

6. Download ndiswrapper and the wireless driver:

Code:

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper-1.34.tar.gz
wget ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp33001-33500/sp33008.exe

7. Move ndiswrapper and the wireless driver to their working directories:

Code:

mv ndiswrapper-1.34.tar.gz ~/ndiswrapper
mv sp33008.exe ~/bcm4306

8. Unpack and install ndiswrapper:

Code:

cd ~/ndiswrapper
sudo tar -xvzf ndiswrapper-1.34.tar.gz
cd ~/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper-1.34
make distclean
make
sudo make install

9. Install the extraction utitlity:

Code:

cd
sudo aptitude install cabextract

10. Extract the wireless driver:

Code:

cd ~/bcm4306
cabextract sp33008.exe

11. Install the wireless driver using ndiswrapper:

Code:

sudo ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf

12. Copy the .conf file:

Code:

sudo cp /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5/14E4:4324.5.conf /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5/.conf

D. LOAD WIRELESS DRIVER AND CONFIGURE YOUR WIRELESS CARD

13. Load the wireless driver:

Code:

sudo depmod -a
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

13.a. Should you receive the following error after you run the modprobe command...

Code:

FATAL: Error inserting ndiswrapper (/lib/modules/2.6.17-10-
generic/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.ko): Invalid argument

...enter the following...

Code:

sudo aptitude install ndiswrapper-utils-1.8
sudo rm /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper
sudo ln -s /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper-1.8 /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper

...and then repeat step 13., which should run, error free.

14. Make certain your wireless card is identified as wlan0 using:

Code:

iwconfig

14.a. Should your wireless card not be identified as wlan0, please return to steps 3.a. and 3.b. (NOTE: Restart your computer (then return to step 14.) if you've had to make any modifications.)

15. Proceed to Application – System – Networking to configure your wireless connection (via the desktop, or proceed to 15.a.).

15.a. Edit the network file to configure your wireless connection...

Code:

sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

...by making certain your wlan0 record is similar to:

Code:

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wireless-essid your_essid

16. Make the ndiswrapper driver permanent:

Code:

sudo ndiswrapper -m

17. Inspect the /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper file...

Code:

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper

...to make certain it contains nothing other than:

Code:

alias wlan0 ndiswrapper

18. For WEP and WAP assistance, please refer to Step 6 (unto the end) of my primary source.

That should do it!

E. CREDITS

Ndiswrapper installation and further configuration notes and nuances
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...29?action=show
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=328272&page=2

Ndiswrapper fatal error resolution
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthre...=325518&page=2

teaker1s

LavaHot · 11:53 PM

You are a god, sir. It works perfectly, if not a little slow, but the wired connection was about as slow for some reason. It even works with 128-bit WEP! Now if somebody could create a script to do this, if I ever have to install again it'll save me 30 minutes and some neck pain. Such a script should be included in the distro. Many, Many thanks from the bottom of my heart!

maclenin

Thanks for the kind commentary - glad it worked for you!

Re: WEP configuration - I assume you found this in the latter portions (Step 6) of the "ÜBERGUIDE"....

LavaHot · 03:25 AM

actually no, i used the network client to set it up. I do have one problem though, I always have to do this

Code:

sudo modprobe -r bcm43xx
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

on bootup, other wise the interface doesn't mount correctly.
And recently I've had to set the essid in the console to connect to the correct AP. I don't have to reset the WEP key though.
I'm also still stuck as eth1 for some reason.

jmrichky

I have followed this and several other procedure guides with no success. I got no errors while completing this guide and followed it step-by-step. I am running Edgy 2.6.19.2 on a AMD64 laptop.
The wireless connection is activated and shows up in the "Networking" utility. The wireless radio button on my laptop does not light up when pressed. I know that more information will be needed but I know what commands to run. I will reply with the output of any commands that are needed.

maclenin

Can you post the output of these commands...

lshw -C network

iwconfig

uname -r (which should be 2.6.19.2)

...and we'll see from there....

aseedb

Quote:

Originally Posted by maclenin

Can you post the output of these commands...

lshw -C network

iwconfig

uname -r (which should be 2.6.19.2)

...and we'll see from there....

Hi, I also followed the procedure without any error. However, I cannot connect tu my wireless network. Here is the result of the 2 commands listed above. I hope someone can help me...

$lshw -C network
WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
*-network:0
description: Ethernet interface
product: BCM4401 100Base-T
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 1
bus info: pci@02:01.0
logical name: eth0
version: 01
serial: 00:0f:1f:18:6a:bf
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=b44 ip=192.168.0.101 multicast=yes
resources: iomemory:faffe000-faffffff irq:177
*-network:1
description: Wireless interface
product: BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@02:02.0
logical name: wlan0
version: 02
serial: 00:90:4b:16:3c:59
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ndiswrapper multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11g
resources: iomemory:faffc000-faffdfff irq:193

$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

sit0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID

ff/any
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:25 dBm
RTS thr:2347 B Fragment thr:2346 B
Power Management

ff
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

maclenin · 07:59 PM

Did you follow the instructions (to jmrichky) that came after the one you reference? Give them a whirl, if you haven't....

aseedb

Quote:

Originally Posted by maclenin

Did you follow the instructions (to jmrichky) that came after the one you reference? Give them a whirl, of you haven't....

no indeed, I'm a newbie and had not seen that... I'll have a lot to try before bothering you again. Thank you for your help.

January 17th, 2007	#1
maclenin Ubuntu Extra Shot Join Date: Dec 2006 Beans: 396	bcm4306 ndiswrapper installation guide Having just completed a successful migration from fwcutter to ndiswrapper (with gentle compelling from some who will be cited directly and indirectly, below), I thought I'd send along a revised standard version of the ndiswrapper installation process for those of us who consider ourselves relative noobs (such as myself). NOTE: This guide is based, quite substantially, on this comprehensive howto, so please refer to it for additional detail and post-install configuration and set-up assistance. I will continue to add additional configuration comments to my guide, as necessary. So, without further ado – here's how I got my bcm4306 wireless card working with ndiswrapper on a Dell Inspiron 600m running Xubuntu 6.10 from a LiveCD: A. STARTING CONFIGURATION Dell Inspiron 600m laptop Broadcom 4306 wireless chipset Xubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft) on a LiveCD Ethernet connection B. PREPARE YOUR SYSTEM FOR DOWNLOAD AND INSTALLATION OF UTILITIES AND WIRELESS DRIVER 1. Open up the terminal (Applications – System – Terminal) and make the following directories: Code: mkdir ~/ndiswrapper mkdir ~/bcm4306 2. Modify the sources.list file to allow for the downloading of additional required utilities... Code: sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list ...by uncommenting (removing the # next to) the following entries in the sources.list file... Code: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy universe deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy universe ...then saving the file. 3. Remove the "old" bcm43xx driver module (IMPORTANT NOTE: Please skip step 3. and proceed to step 3.a. if you have installed ubuntu on your hard drive and/or are able to reboot to saved settings/configurations): Code: sudo modprobe -r bcm43xx 3.a. Blacklist the bcm43xx wireless driver: Code: echo 'blacklist bcm43xx' \| sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist 3.b. Comment out (add a # next to) any and all references to eth1: Code: sudo nano /etc/iftab sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces 4. Install the build-essential tool set: Code: sudo aptitude update sudo aptitude install build-essential 5. Identify your kernel version, using... Code: uname -r ...which should output something similar to... Code: 2.6.17-10-generic ...and update your linux headers, using the output from uname -r, as indicated: Code: sudo aptitude install linux-headers-2.6.17-10-generic sudo ln -s /usr/src/linux-2.6.17-10-generic /lib/modules/2.6.17-10-generic/build C. DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL UTILITIES AND WIRELESS DRIVER 6. Download ndiswrapper and the wireless driver: Code: wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper-1.34.tar.gz wget ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp33001-33500/sp33008.exe 7. Move ndiswrapper and the wireless driver to their working directories: Code: mv ndiswrapper-1.34.tar.gz ~/ndiswrapper mv sp33008.exe ~/bcm4306 8. Unpack and install ndiswrapper: Code: cd ~/ndiswrapper sudo tar -xvzf ndiswrapper-1.34.tar.gz cd ~/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper-1.34 make distclean make sudo make install 9. Install the extraction utitlity: Code: cd sudo aptitude install cabextract 10. Extract the wireless driver: Code: cd ~/bcm4306 cabextract sp33008.exe 11. Install the wireless driver using ndiswrapper: Code: sudo ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf 12. Copy the .conf file: Code: sudo cp /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5/14E4:4324.5.conf /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5/.conf D. LOAD WIRELESS DRIVER AND CONFIGURE YOUR WIRELESS CARD 13. Load the wireless driver: Code: sudo depmod -a sudo modprobe ndiswrapper 13.a. Should you receive the following error after you run the modprobe command... Code: FATAL: Error inserting ndiswrapper (/lib/modules/2.6.17-10- generic/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.ko): Invalid argument ...enter the following... Code: sudo aptitude install ndiswrapper-utils-1.8 sudo rm /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper sudo ln -s /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper-1.8 /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper ...and then repeat step 13., which should run, error free. 14. Make certain your wireless card is identified as wlan0 using: Code: iwconfig 14.a. Should your wireless card not be identified as wlan0, please return to steps 3.a. and 3.b. (NOTE: Restart your computer (then return to step 14.) if you've had to make any modifications.) 15. Proceed to Application – System – Networking to configure your wireless connection (via the desktop, or proceed to 15.a.). 15.a. Edit the network file to configure your wireless connection... Code: sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces ...by making certain your wlan0 record is similar to: Code: auto wlan0 iface wlan0 inet dhcp wireless-essid your_essid 16. Make the ndiswrapper driver permanent: Code: sudo ndiswrapper -m 17. Inspect the /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper file... Code: sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper ...to make certain it contains nothing other than: Code: alias wlan0 ndiswrapper 18. For WEP and WAP assistance, please refer to Step 6 (unto the end) of my primary source. That should do it! E. CREDITS Ndiswrapper installation and further configuration notes and nuances https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...29?action=show http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=328272&page=2 Ndiswrapper fatal error resolution http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthre...=325518&page=2 Last edited by maclenin; May 14th, 2008 at 02:35 PM.. Reason: minor cosmetic mod

January 17th, 2007	#2
teaker1s Tall Cafè Ubuntu Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: ENGLAND Beans: 2,544 Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope (testing)	Re: bcm4306 ndiswrapper installation guide __________________ Signature links below appear on all my posts-these are general help for anyone First place to look if new at ubuntu broadcom wireless ndiswrapper the easy way ubuntu packages without internet access politeness costs nothing, so when requesting help it pays to be polite

January 17th, 2007	#3
LavaHot 5 Cups of Ubuntu Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Reno, NV Beans: 22 Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon	Re: bcm4306 ndiswrapper installation guide You are a god, sir. It works perfectly, if not a little slow, but the wired connection was about as slow for some reason. It even works with 128-bit WEP! Now if somebody could create a script to do this, if I ever have to install again it'll save me 30 minutes and some neck pain. Such a script should be included in the distro. Many, Many thanks from the bottom of my heart! Last edited by LavaHot; January 17th, 2007 at 11:53 PM.. Reason: Additional info

January 18th, 2007	#4
maclenin Ubuntu Extra Shot Join Date: Dec 2006 Beans: 396	Re: bcm4306 ndiswrapper installation guide Thanks for the kind commentary - glad it worked for you! Re: WEP configuration - I assume you found this in the latter portions (Step 6) of the "ÜBERGUIDE"....

January 19th, 2007	#5
LavaHot 5 Cups of Ubuntu Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Reno, NV Beans: 22 Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon	Re: bcm4306 ndiswrapper installation guide actually no, i used the network client to set it up. I do have one problem though, I always have to do this Code: sudo modprobe -r bcm43xx sudo modprobe ndiswrapper on bootup, other wise the interface doesn't mount correctly. And recently I've had to set the essid in the console to connect to the correct AP. I don't have to reset the WEP key though. I'm also still stuck as eth1 for some reason. Last edited by LavaHot; January 19th, 2007 at 03:25 AM..

January 18th, 2007	#6
jmrichky Spilled the Beans Join Date: Jan 2007 Beans: 14	Re: bcm4306 ndiswrapper installation guide I have followed this and several other procedure guides with no success. I got no errors while completing this guide and followed it step-by-step. I am running Edgy 2.6.19.2 on a AMD64 laptop. The wireless connection is activated and shows up in the "Networking" utility. The wireless radio button on my laptop does not light up when pressed. I know that more information will be needed but I know what commands to run. I will reply with the output of any commands that are needed.

March 4th, 2007	#9
maclenin Ubuntu Extra Shot Join Date: Dec 2006 Beans: 396	Re: bcm4306 ndiswrapper installation guide Did you follow the instructions (to jmrichky) that came after the one you reference? Give them a whirl, if you haven't.... Last edited by maclenin; March 5th, 2007 at 07:59 PM..

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