Wireless ---- Thoroughly confused

[eperrone]

Help!

Hello all so I got Ubuntu 8.04 installed and I was going to try and get my wireless working on my laptop. I have a Dell D830 with a Dell 1505 Draft N wireless card.

I have read quite few posts and frankly I am lost. It seems that I need to use the windows driver and the ndiswrapper? Howver I could nto see how to install the ndiswrapper itself. In the help it says that it should be part of the install packages available but I could nbot find there. then I saw on a differentpost that it was built into this version of Ubuntu and I should use the network manager? But in network manager I did not see anything about enabling the adapter in fact it was not listed there all I saw a modem and wired ethernet card. It seems that the documentation is a little scattered.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks first experience with Linux and I would really like to get it going!

[caljohnsmith]

It looks like you are going to have to use ndiswrapper, because the bc43-fwcutter software is the only other option, and it doesn't support your chipset BCM4328 (that's the chip on your Dell 1505 Draft N wireless card). The following are my notes on how I installed my own wireless card using ndiswrapper and should work for you.

So first off, to make sure you have ndiswrapper installed, you can go to System > Admin > Synaptic Package Manager. Do a search for "ndiswrapper", and make sure it shows you have both "ndiswrapper-common" and "ndiswrapper-utils-1.9" installed (otherwise install them). If you have no internet connection they should be available on your Ubuntu install CD, and you can enable using the install CD by going to System > Admin > Software Sources.

Next, you need to "blacklist" any existing Broadcom BCM43xx modules from loading so you can use ndiswrapper, so use the following command:
$ sudo bash -c 'echo blacklist bcm43xx >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist'

To use ndiswrapper, you must have the Windows (preferably Win XP) wireless drivers for your card; what you are looking for is a *.inf file and a *.sys file. If you don't have them you should be able to download them from the card manufacturer.

Now install the Win XP driver with ndiswrapper (make sure that the directory containing the .inf file also contains the .sys driver file):
$ sudo ndiswrapper -i /location_of_your_wireless_driver/yourdriver.inf
(FYI, ndiswrapper will install the driver into the /etc/ndiswrapper directory.)
Check to see if driver was installed successfully, i.e. list the installed devices:
$ sudo ndiswrapper -l
If your wireless driver is listed OK, then install the ndiswrapper module (i.e. the ndiswrapper "driver"):
$ sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
Write configuration for modprobe:
$ sudo ndiswrapper -m

Note that file "ndiswrapper" is created in /etc/modprobe.d/ and inside the file it creates an alias for wlan0 that points to ndiswrapper. Also note /etc/modprobe.d/ files are configuration/options files for modules, but the module themselves are not automatically loaded on boot up. To get modules to load and configure on boot up, they must be added to the /etc/modules file. Therefore, to set ndiswrapper to load on startup, the following command adds "ndiswrapper" to the end of the /etc/modules file:
$ sudo bash -c 'echo ndiswrapper >> /etc/modules'

At this point, restart, and you should be able to use network manager (System > Admin > Network) to configure the wireless connection. After configuring it, you may have to do a "sudo ifup wlan0" to actually connect for the very first time. (I'm assuming your wireless connection is wlan0, but in some cases it can be assigned to eth1 or similar. To find out, use "sudo lshw -C network" and look for "logical name" under your wireless card).

Anyway, those are my notes, so hope that works for you!

[Ayuthia]

I just want to add one more thing to his notes. Before you do the modprobe ndiswrapper, you will need to do following:

lsmod|greb ssb

If you see b43:

ssb                    36228  1 b43
pcmcia                 38688  2 b43,ssb

You will need to do the following:

sudo modprobe -r b43

If you see b44:

sudo modprobe -r b44

and finally:

sudo modprobe -r ssb

It might be possible that you have b43 and b44. If you have b44, you will need to do the following after modprobe ndiswrapper:

sudo modprobe b44

The b43 driver is the Linux native Broadcom wireless module and b44 is the Linux native Broadcom wired module. The ssb module is needed for either one of them to work.

If you had to do those steps above, you will not really need to do the /etc/modules portion because of my link instructions below.

These steps are now for kernels 2.6.24 (which is what 8.04 is using) and greater. The steps I provided will help you get started with ndiswrapper. Once you reboot, the b43/b44/ssb modules will prevent ndiswrapper from working again. Here is a link to get ndiswrapper working on reboot:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...eisty_No-Fluff
Go to the Hardy Bug Fix->Making It Permanent->Modifying /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper->Version 0.3.

The information that caljohnsmith and I provided is quite a bit of information. What I recommend is that you try to get up to the ndiswrapper -m portion first. If you run into any problems, just post what steps you have done and we can help you through the rest.

[Hatticus]

It looks like you are going to have to use ndiswrapper, because the bc43-fwcutter software is the only other option, and it doesn't support your chipset BCM4328 (that's the chip on your Dell 1505 Draft N wireless card). The following are my notes on how I installed my own wireless card using ndiswrapper and should work for you.

So first off, to make sure you have ndiswrapper installed, you can go to System > Admin > Synaptic Package Manager. Do a search for "ndiswrapper", and make sure it shows you have both "ndiswrapper-common" and "ndiswrapper-utils-1.9" installed (otherwise install them). If you have no internet connection they should be available on your Ubuntu install CD, and you can enable using the install CD by going to System > Admin > Software Sources.

I'm having a similar issue, but when I tried this (following a How To I found) ndiswrapper did not appear in the Package Manager. Where do I go from here?

[Ayuthia]

I'm having a similar issue, but when I tried this (following a How To I found) ndiswrapper did not appear in the Package Manager. Where do I go from here?

By any chance, have you done an update in Synaptic or done 'sudo apt-get update'? If so, can you post your /etc/apt/sources.list?

[Hatticus]

By any chance, have you done an update in Synaptic or done 'sudo apt-get update'? If so, can you post your /etc/apt/sources.list?

I don't think so (I'm a complete Linux noob) I tried 'sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-common' but it said something like E: cannot find ndiswrapper-common.

I have not done a full install, Ubuntu is dual booting alongside XP. Am at work at the moment so will post the /etc/apt/sources.list when I get home

[Ayuthia]

You can't just go home "sick"???? Just kidding!

When you get home, try doing

sudo apt-get update

When you added the CD as a source, the system has not done an update to see what your CD has.

If that doesn't work, then post your /etc/apt/sources.list. Do you have a wired internet connection in Ubuntu? If not, then posting this information might not be so fun. What we are looking for is something like this:

deb cdrom:[Kubuntu 8.04 _Hardy Heron_ - Alpha amd64 (20080201)]/ hardy main restricted

It won't be exactly like this because I am using Kubuntu and installed mine while Hardy was in the alpha status.

[Hatticus]

You can't just go home "sick"???? Just kidding!

When you get home, try doing

sudo apt-get update

When you added the CD as a source, the system has not done an update to see what your CD has.

If that doesn't work, then post your /etc/apt/sources.list. Do you have a wired internet connection in Ubuntu? If not, then posting this information might not be so fun. What we are looking for is something like this:

deb cdrom:[Kubuntu 8.04 _Hardy Heron_ - Alpha amd64 (20080201)]/ hardy main restricted

It won't be exactly like this because I am using Kubuntu and installed mine while Hardy was in the alpha status.

By CD I assume you mean LiveCD? Will try all this when Im home - yay for being nearly the weekend!

[Ayuthia]

By CD I assume you mean LiveCD? Will try all this when Im home - yay for being nearly the weekend!

Yes, I meant LiveCD.

[Hatticus]

Yes, I meant LiveCD.

Haha, I thought so, but as this is my first foray into the world of Linux I'm happy to be uber-careful!