Okay, I'm completely lost.

I've gone through all the steps of installing NdisWrapper on Ubuntu 8.04 but it isn't for some reason creating the WLAN0 alias at all. Everything seems to be correct; ndiswrapper -l gives the driver correctly, bound to the correct piece of hardware and showing as connected and active. If I go into Administration -> Windows Wireless Drivers there is the bcmwl6 driver, and it says "Hardware Present: Yes" but if I press Network Settings... nothing.

ifconfig displays:

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1b:24:be:dc:cb
inet addr:192.168.1.102 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::21b:24ff:febe:dccb/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:15768 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:9183 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:23264022 (22.1 MB) TX bytes:785128 (766.7 KB)
Interrupt:252

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:232 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:232 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:11804 (11.5 KB) TX bytes:11804 (11.5 KB)

(which is also correct, there is a wired ethernet onboard this laptop, and it is using DHCP through the address 192.168.1.102)

iwconfig displays:

lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

ndiswrapper -l displays:

bcmwl6 : driver installed
device (14E4:4311) present (alternate driver: bcm43xx)


So I'm stuck on how to get it to recognize and configure the driver. Anyone got any ideas?

What is the output of the lsmod command?

Lsmod responds:

Module Size Used by
rfcomm 47392 2
l2cap 28800 13 rfcomm
bluetooth 67748 4 rfcomm,l2cap
ppdev 11400 0
powernow_k8 16608 1
cpufreq_conservative 10632 0
cpufreq_stats 8416 0
cpufreq_powersave 3200 0
cpufreq_ondemand 11152 1
cpufreq_userspace 6180 0
freq_table 6464 3 powernow_k8,cpufreq_stats,cpufreq_ondemand
container 6656 0
dock 12960 0
sbs 17808 0
sbshc 8960 1 sbs
iptable_filter 4608 0
ip_tables 24104 1 iptable_filter
x_tables 23560 1 ip_tables
ipv6 311720 10
sbp2 27272 0
parport_pc 41128 0
lp 14916 0
parport 44300 3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp
joydev 15488 0
af_packet 27272 2
uvcvideo 62084 0
compat_ioctl32 11136 1 uvcvideo
videodev 30720 1 uvcvideo
v4l1_compat 15492 2 uvcvideo,videodev
v4l2_common 21888 3 uvcvideo,compat_ioctl32,videodev
evdev 14976 7
ndiswrapper 244736 0
snd_hda_intel 440408 2
snd_pcm_oss 47648 0
snd_mixer_oss 20224 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 92168 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss
snd_page_alloc 13200 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
snd_hwdep 12552 1 snd_hda_intel
psmouse 46236 0
video 23444 8
output 5632 1 video
sdhci 21508 0
serio_raw 9092 0
snd_seq_dummy 5764 0
ricoh_mmc 5120 0
mmc_core 59272 1 sdhci
snd_seq_oss 38912 0
snd_seq_midi 10688 0
wmi_acer 11076 0
snd_rawmidi 29856 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 10112 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
battery 16776 0
nvidia 8858052 26
snd_seq 63232 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer 27912 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 10644 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
ac 8328 0
button 10912 0
snd 70856 15 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_hwdep,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_ seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
i2c_core 28544 1 nvidia
shpchp 38172 0
pci_hotplug 34608 1 shpchp
soundcore 10400 1 snd
k8temp 7680 0
pcspkr 4992 0
ext3 149264 1
jbd 57000 1 ext3
mbcache 11392 1 ext3
loop 21508 2
sr_mod 20132 0
cdrom 41512 1 sr_mod
sg 41880 0
sd_mod 33280 2
pata_amd 16772 0
ata_generic 9988 0
ssb 37252 0
ohci1394 36532 0
forcedeth 55564 0
ahci 33028 1
ieee1394 106968 2 sbp2,ohci1394
pata_acpi 9856 0
libata 176304 4 pata_amd,ata_generic,ahci,pata_acpi
scsi_mod 178488 5 sbp2,sr_mod,sg,sd_mod,libata
ohci_hcd 27524 0
ehci_hcd 41996 0
usbcore 169904 5 uvcvideo,ndiswrapper,ohci_hcd,ehci_hcd
thermal 19744 0
processor 41448 3 powernow_k8,thermal
fan 6792 0
fbcon 46336 0
tileblit 4096 1 fbcon
font 10112 1 fbcon
bitblit 7424 1 fbcon
softcursor 3712 1 bitblit
fuse 56112 5

Did you run "ndiswrapper -m" to create the /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper file. This should provide the alias.
lsmod | grep ndis
should show if the ndiswrapper is loaded. If not "sudo /sbin/modprobe ndiswrapper" should load it. Then run:
iwlist wlan0 scan" and see any APs are listed. If they are, then the device is working and the next step is to configure wpa-psk encryption.

note: Check with the ndiswrapper documentation. I'm working on memory for the -m option as I use the bcm43xx driver instead of ndiswrapper.

I had run ndiswrapper -m and had no error message.

Trying the second part of your answer gave:

edward@edward-laptop:/etc/network$ lsmod | grep ndis
ndiswrapper 244736 0
usbcore 169904 5 uvcvideo,ndiswrapper,ohci_hcd,ehci_hcd

edward@edward-laptop:/etc/network$ sudo /sbin/modprobe ndiswrapper

edward@edward-laptop:/etc/network$ iwlist wlan0 scan
wlan0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

I should add here that on my router there is no encryption installed, it instead is completely open but only allows network cards with recognised MAC addresses to connect, and it works fine under Windows so I don't see any reason the adapter in the notebook would change MAC addresses.

Please post the output of /sbin/ifconfig and check if there is a /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper file. Also check "grep wlan0" /etc/modprobe.conf and "grep ndiswrapper /etc/modprobe.conf".

One other thing to check is that you don't have a button that disables wireless. ( Dooh! )