I know how to use ndiswrapper, been using it for almost 2 years now with my desktop. If your wireless NIC is detected or displayed in lspci try to follow these steps.
1: Download ndiswrapper from
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ndiswrapper/ get the latest version.
2: untar/install ndiswrapper (tar.gz)
# su
# tar -xvzf nameoffile.tar.gz
# cd nameoffolder <this is the folder created with the same name as the tar.gz file you unziped.
# make uninstall
# make
# make install
that should get it installed.
3: check if it is installed okay/overview usage.
# ndiswrapper -h
this will give you a list of options and usage. read over them.
4: install the windows driver.
# ndiswrapper -i /path/to/.inf
eg: if your driver bcmwl5.inf was located in /mnt/win/wireless you would type
# ndiswrapper -i /mnt/win/wireless/bcmwl5.inf
5: check if the driver is installed.
# ndiswrapper -l
this will list the drivers installed. if it detects your nic and the driver it will list:
bcmwl5 driver present, hardware present
if it only detects the driver installed and can't find your nic it will list:
bcmwl5 driver present
**NOTE** If it displays driver present, hardware present skip to step 8. If it only displays driver present continue on.
6: assign the driver to you nic.
# lspci
this will list your pci devices, what you are looking for is a number next to your nic on that list. I will paste a section of wolfensteins lspci output and hilite the number you are looking for:
0000:03:07.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation: Unknown device 4318 (rev 02)
once you have that number
# lspci -n
this will list your pci devices but in a different form this will display their PCIID. the PCIID will be in a form XXXX:XXXX. it will be listed to the right of the first number when pci -n is called. (this is a little hard to explain and I cannot copy/paste because I am in windows and could not find anexample -n output online) but it will look something like 4e06:536a2.
once you have this number:
# ndiswrapper -d PCIID driver
eg: ndiswrapper -d 4e06:536a2 bcmwl5
this will assign the driver you installed to the wireless nic.
7: recheck driver/hardware status
# ndiswrapper -l
see if it now lists driver present, hardware present if it does:
8: add to modprobe
# ndiswrapper -m
this will add the alias wlan0 to modprobe.conf to make the device noticable to the system.
if all went well so far.
8: check if the system sees your wireless card
# iwconfig
this will check all the network interfaces the system recognizes or can see for a wireless card.
dont freak out if it says no wireless interface. for eth0 lo or any other because obviously they are not wireless devices. hopefuly this finds your wireless card though and displays it as wlan0 with a bunch of information such as ssid nic channel key ect.
if it found your wireless nic and displays the information:
9: bring your wireless card up
# ifconfig wlan0 up
this will bring up your wireless nic. check it:
# ifconfig wlan0
it should list wlan0 with information such as IP MAC ect (like normal ifconfig output) proceed to the final step 10:
10: get DHCP lease
# dhcpcd wlan0
this will start the DHCP daemon and get your wireless card an ip address, subnet gateway and dns information so you can use it to get on the network/internet.
if all of this went well you should be able to ping
www.google.com or your favorite test website and recieve packets. If this happens congratulations you now have internet with your integrated wireless NIC!!
That wasn't so hard now was it?
I have been using ndiswrapper with my broadcom wireless card in my desktop for 2 years now and have always performed these steps to get wireless working. (I have done a few different installs ove that time too) so I have done these steps from #1 a few times and they have ALWAYS worked.
However they do not work on my MX7515 which is why I believe Linux just doesnt start the NIC or "turn it on" when it boots/is running. Doesn't make sense because PCI doesnt really work that way but I cannot get the little wireless light by the touchpad to light up in Linux. I think that if I got that to turn on the NIC would be on and the system would be able to see it and I could use ndiswrapper to get online with it.
Hopefully it works for you guys! let me know how it goes or ask me if you have any questions. Good Luck!!
