wlan issues with Ubuntu

raichle · 04-24-2007, 09:12 PM

Hi,

I am trying to get a dell 1370 wlan adapter to work with feisty fawn. I did some research and saw that this was generally a difficult process and followed all of the directions out there to fix this but i am having no luck, Here are the details:

root@avenger://# lspci | grep -i broadcom
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
02:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

It's "eth1" right now.

here is where I think the problem is:

root@avenger://# sudo ndiswrapper -l
bcmwl5 : invalid driver!
bcmwl5a : driver installed
device (14E4:431 present (alternate driver: bcm43xx)

It seems as though the correct driver (bcmwl5) is there but invalid and the alternative driver (bcmwl5a) is being ignored....

I added this line to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist:

blacklist bcm43xx

Any suggestions? I am rather new to Linux so please keep it simple

Thanks!

justo · 04-25-2007, 03:21 AM

Some expert will come along and tell you the procedure I suppose. But I always keep my Linux simple because I only want to replace Windows not become a Linux programmer.So here is how I would do that.I use live disk to try on each computer to see which one fits the hardware and everything works before I load the disk to the hard drive.If it does get everything going then I load it.It turned out on my Toshiba laptop the PC Linux 2007 TR2 fit and everything worked.So I loaded that.

raichle · 04-25-2007, 11:56 AM

well... unfortunately I don't have a bunch of laptops. I only have this one which is the one I want to run it on...

justo · 04-25-2007, 02:25 PM

Ok. You can have maybe five live CDs but only one laptop.Try the CDs ( live ) on that one laptop.One may work all the hardware without any effort on your behalf. That way you get a Linux that works on your laptop without going in to a major study in Linux command line insert..But if you want to do it with the load you have now then it is up to you.I just read up there where you asked for a simple solution. All Linux versions have a forum to get the information on the version you have.

raichle · 04-25-2007, 02:40 PM

by simple I meant including the commands to fix the problem...

This is a common problem with broadcom based wlan cards that affects all linux distros as I have found by google'ing it. I have posted in Ubuntu forums but thought since I generally use this forum that I might get some productive advice here...

here is the solution that somewhat worked for me:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=201902

However, now it is not loading ndiswrapper by default although running

ndiswrapper -m shows that

root@avenger:/home/raichlea# ndiswrapper -m
module configuration already contains alias directive

It will work now but I have to run:

modprobe -r ndiswrapper
modproble ndiswrapper

everytime I start to get this running. I am looking for a way around this. Also, although it is working, I still see this:

root@avenger:/home/raichlea# ndiswrapper -l
bcmwl5 : driver installed
device (14E4:4318) present (alternate driver: bcm43xx)

It shouldn't be working but it is so if I don't have to I won't mess with it. however, I would like to figure out how to make ndiswrapper load properly at startup if anyone can tell me how.

Thanks !

04-24-2007, 09:12 PM	#1 (permalink)
raichle Registered User Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 105 OS: xp	wlan issues with Ubuntu Hi, I am trying to get a dell 1370 wlan adapter to work with feisty fawn. I did some research and saw that this was generally a difficult process and followed all of the directions out there to fix this but i am having no luck, Here are the details: root@avenger://# lspci \| grep -i broadcom 02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02) 02:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02) It's "eth1" right now. here is where I think the problem is: root@avenger://# sudo ndiswrapper -l bcmwl5 : invalid driver! bcmwl5a : driver installed device (14E4:431 present (alternate driver: bcm43xx) It seems as though the correct driver (bcmwl5) is there but invalid and the alternative driver (bcmwl5a) is being ignored.... I added this line to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist: blacklist bcm43xx Any suggestions? I am rather new to Linux so please keep it simple Thanks!

04-25-2007, 03:21 AM	#2 (permalink)
justo Registered User Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: TEXAS Posts: 203 OS: VISTA/XP/WIN2K/PC LINUX/MCN LINUX THERMALTAKE XASER2.Several home mades.	Re: wlan issues with Ubuntu Some expert will come along and tell you the procedure I suppose. But I always keep my Linux simple because I only want to replace Windows not become a Linux programmer.So here is how I would do that.I use live disk to try on each computer to see which one fits the hardware and everything works before I load the disk to the hard drive.If it does get everything going then I load it.It turned out on my Toshiba laptop the PC Linux 2007 TR2 fit and everything worked.So I loaded that.

04-25-2007, 11:56 AM	#3 (permalink)
raichle Registered User Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 105 OS: xp	Re: wlan issues with Ubuntu well... unfortunately I don't have a bunch of laptops. I only have this one which is the one I want to run it on...

04-25-2007, 02:25 PM	#4 (permalink)
justo Registered User Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: TEXAS Posts: 203 OS: VISTA/XP/WIN2K/PC LINUX/MCN LINUX THERMALTAKE XASER2.Several home mades.	Re: wlan issues with Ubuntu Ok. You can have maybe five live CDs but only one laptop.Try the CDs ( live ) on that one laptop.One may work all the hardware without any effort on your behalf. That way you get a Linux that works on your laptop without going in to a major study in Linux command line insert..But if you want to do it with the load you have now then it is up to you.I just read up there where you asked for a simple solution. All Linux versions have a forum to get the information on the version you have.

04-25-2007, 02:40 PM	#5 (permalink)
raichle Registered User Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 105 OS: xp	Re: wlan issues with Ubuntu by simple I meant including the commands to fix the problem... This is a common problem with broadcom based wlan cards that affects all linux distros as I have found by google'ing it. I have posted in Ubuntu forums but thought since I generally use this forum that I might get some productive advice here... here is the solution that somewhat worked for me: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=201902 However, now it is not loading ndiswrapper by default although running ndiswrapper -m shows that root@avenger:/home/raichlea# ndiswrapper -m module configuration already contains alias directive It will work now but I have to run: modprobe -r ndiswrapper modproble ndiswrapper everytime I start to get this running. I am looking for a way around this. Also, although it is working, I still see this: root@avenger:/home/raichlea# ndiswrapper -l bcmwl5 : driver installed device (14E4:4318) present (alternate driver: bcm43xx) It shouldn't be working but it is so if I don't have to I won't mess with it. however, I would like to figure out how to make ndiswrapper load properly at startup if anyone can tell me how. Thanks !