Ubuntu Headache 2

August 14, 2006 2:16 PM

Can anyone help me get my Broadcom 4306 Wireless card working in Ubuntu?

So I'm back. Last time the AskMetafilter group helped me out enormously. This time I'm having a new issue. I can't get my wireless card to work. I've tried a few different tutorials and keep having problems. I've the good folks over at the UbuntuForums but haven't had any luck. And so I come to you humbled by the mystery of the Linux experience and your awesome collective knowledge.

First I tried this tutorial. I hit a few snags. First, when entering this command:

sudo ndiswrapper -i ~/Desktop/bcmwl5.inf

I get this result:

Installing bcmw15
couldn't copy /home/aburd/Desktop/bcmw15.inf at /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper line 135

Also, I have no clue how to enter this command:

sudo ndiswrapper -m
for conffile in /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5/*.conf; do
sudo sed --in-place 's/RadioState|1/RadioState|0/g' $conffile
done

I have tried every variation I can think of and I think I'm just doing something wrong.

Next, with the recomendation of the ubuntuforums guy, I tried this tutorial. I ran into another problem here. The driver will install but when I try this command:

sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

I get this error:

FATAL: Error inserting ndiswrapper (/lib/modules/2.6.15-26-amd64-generic/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper.ko): Invalid argument

I am completely confused as to what I am doing wrong and would love someone to help me out with this. Thanks for reading this.

posted by aburd to Computers & Internet (13 answers total)

Best answer: In bcmwl5, you mistyped the "el" as a "one".
posted by evariste at 2:30 PM on August 14, 2006

Or vice versa.
posted by evariste at 2:30 PM on August 14, 2006

Yeah, I think it's supposed to be "el". The error you're getting complains about a filename with a one in it.
posted by evariste at 2:32 PM on August 14, 2006

Response by poster: So is this:

sudo ndiswrapper -m

a seperate command from this:

for conffile in /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5/*.conf; do
sudo sed --in-place 's/RadioState|1/RadioState|0/g' $conffile
done

It gives me syntax errors when I try to enter them all at once. And you were right. As you can see, the imanidiot tag was correctly used.
posted by aburd at 2:40 PM on August 14, 2006

Response by poster: Here is the code that pops up. I enter:

sudo ndiswrapper -m

And get:

Adding "alias wlan0 ndiswrapper" to /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper

So I'm assuming that works well. Then I enter:

sudo sed --in-place 's/RadioState|1/RadioState|0/g' $conffile

And I get:

sed: no input files

Also, if I enter:

sudo ndiswrapper -m for conffile /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5/*.conf; do sudo sed --in-place 's/RadioState|1/RadioState|0/g' $conffile

I get:

bash: syntax error near unexpected token `do'
posted by aburd at 2:50 PM on August 14, 2006

Response by poster: Actually this:

sudo ndiswrapper -m for conffile /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5/*.conf

Works fine, I guess it is the second part that I am confused about. The sudo sed --in-pace 's/RadioState|1/RadioState|0/g' $conffile I get the:

sed: no input files Problem.

Thanks again.
posted by aburd at 3:15 PM on August 14, 2006

aburd-

ndiswrapper -m

just sets up ndiswrapper to start when your machine boots up.

for conffile in /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5/*.conf; do
sudo sed --in-place 's/RadioState|1/RadioState|0/g' $conffile
done

...is a shell script. You're supposed to type it in and hit enter after each line. bash will give you a continuation prompt that looks like this: >

That means "keep typing, I'm listening". When you type the "done" and hit enter, it will run it.
posted by evariste at 3:25 PM on August 14, 2006

sed: no input files

means you entered the script wrong. $conffile is a variable that's being filled in the loop from the line above it. But sed is whining that it has no input files to work on. You see?
posted by evariste at 3:28 PM on August 14, 2006

Response by poster: Thank you so much. So is it shoving my driver into the variable of "$conffile"? And thanks for explaining how the different bits of code operate and such. Aside from "sudo" and a few other commands, I feel like I am typing magic phrases into the terminal with some unknown meaning.

Also, that ran exactly as you said. Now suddenly I have no options other than "Ethernet connection" under Network Settings. Any idea how to get the option of WiFi back onto that menu? Thanks again for all of your time and help.
posted by aburd at 4:10 PM on August 14, 2006

Thank you so much. So is it shoving my driver into the variable of "$conffile"? And thanks for explaining how the different bits of code operate and such. Aside from "sudo" and a few other commands, I feel like I am typing magic phrases into the terminal with some unknown meaning.

Well, what it's doing is going through your /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5 folder, looking for files that end in ".conf". Then it runs sed against each of them (sed=stream editor. It's being used for search & replace here) to replace the string

RadioState|1

with

RadioState|0

wherever it appears.

I'm not sure why your wireless card vanished from your network settings, nor how to get it back (I'm on a Mac right now and have never tried to set up a wireless driver with ndiswrapper on Ubuntu before). Sorry-you've run into the limit of my ability to help.

Do you know how to use IRC? The Ubuntu IRC channel on freenode is a great place to get live help, faster than the forums. I bet they'll have you squared away in no time.
posted by evariste at 5:23 PM on August 14, 2006

Response by poster: Awesome, I'm going to check there now! Thank you again!
posted by aburd at 5:47 PM on August 14, 2006

Good luck!
posted by evariste at 7:49 PM on August 14, 2006

This is just about the only thing that has stopped me from a complete change to Linux on my Dell laptop. I always almost get my wireless (also a Broadcom 43xx card) working, then I run into something totally mysterious that makes it simply quit, or I get it partly working but never seem to be able to make the final connection. I'm trying to work with it on the Knoppix 4 live CD, so as not to have to rebuild Windows yet again...I can actually see the WAP, but can't go to the Internet yet.
posted by lhauser at 8:57 PM on August 14, 2006