Get wireless card working. How to change default in GRUB.
 

hello all, im new to linux and I can't figure out anything without asking questions.

So, #1: Ive installed linux with the latest ubuntu on a partition on my hard drive.

I have NO IDEA how to get the wireless card working. How do I do this?

02:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

is my card.


#2 That GRUB interface starts up my comp. The default is Ubuntu followed by a couple more options followed by windows. Windows is the last option and i want it to be the first/default option. How do I do this?

You guys are gonna have to talk to me like im 6. I'm not familiar with any of the linux terminology. Ive attempted to read a bit, and am learning but still is greek.

Hi,

to get your wireless working you probably will have to install proprietary hardware drivers first. Go to System->Administration->Hardware Drivers. If it displays any drivers for your wireless, install them.

Your suggestion didn't work.

There are no divers listed. It says "There are no proprietary drivers in use on this system" at the top of the window.

Open a terminal and type the following:
Follow the prompts.

Your suggestion didn't work.

When I typed in the command, here's what I got:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package b43-fwcutter

What do you have in your sources.list? Could you post it here please, you may need to enable some extra repositories.

Is this what your talking about?

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev d3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 03)
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)

If not, what is the command for that or how do I find the sources?

The command you need is
Then copy/paste it here.

You will probably need to enable extra repositories. The instructions here will help: http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:K...a_Repositories

Here's what I got...

#deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 9.10 _Karmic Koala_ - Release i386 (20091028.5)]/ karmic main restricted
# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to
# newer versions of the distribution.

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic main restricted
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic main restricted

## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-updates main restricted
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-updates main restricted

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any
## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic universe
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic universe
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-updates universe
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-updates universe

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic multiverse
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-updates multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-updates multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'backports'
## repository.
## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
# deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-backports main restricted universe multiverse
# deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-backports main restricted universe multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository.
## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the
## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.
# deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu karmic partner
# deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu karmic partner

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic-security universe
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic-security universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic-security multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic-security multiverse

open and read the file /boot/grub/menu.lst
theres a line that says "default 0"
change it to match your windows line
so say u have:

ubuntu
another ubuntu
then a line that says Other OS
and the windows option here

then u should change the default to 3

remember u need root privileges

Your suggestion didn't work.

There is no menu.lst file in my grub folder. I navigated there using the "finder". All of the folders you listed were present. But as I said, there was no menu.lst file.

:o finder
what files do you have there?

Theres a hundred of them. Is there a way to list them in the terminal? Then I can copy and paste them.

user1@admin:~$ grub --version
The program 'grub' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt-get install grub
grub: command not found
user1@admin:~$

Change to
(Bolded to show the change)
Then do Let us know if it works.

Hi,

you probably have grub2 installed and that means that the setup is differrent than with grub. E. g., as you already noticed you do not have a menu.lst. Instead you have a grub.cfg. Manual configuration, however, is done by modifying /etc/default/grub. Change the DEFAULT value there, e.g.

Ok, this is where my experience is limited. Are you asking that I find the file:

etc/apt/sources.list

and go in and add text to those files indicating what you said to change?

Or is all of this done at the terminal with commands...please advise.

Thanks for your help BTW.

This is incredibly confusing. Is all this stuff what I type in the terminal? Or can I somehow change it in a file.

Ill try and see what I can learn from the grub.cgf file.

No, you do not type this into the terminal. This are contents of the textfile /etc/default/grub. What you type into the terminal is
Enter your password and you will be able to modify the textfile. A '#' marks a comment, that means the rest of the line will be ignored. Now change the 'DEFAULT=' setting as you like.

Linux is for the birds.

I found the grub.cfg file. I found the default "0" part. I changed it to 4, what I think is my windows spot. And it won't let me save it. It won't let me save another copy and overwrite.

So, Im not sure how Im supposed to "login" as the administrator or whatever.

EDIT: Ok, i went back in to the terminal, gave that command you mentioned. Was able to edit and save. Now its telling me "If you change this file, run "update-grub" to update /boot/grub/grub.cfg"

I went back to the terminal, and input "update-grub" for which it replied, "You must run this as root"

will do the trick.

P.S.:
grub.cfg is an auto-generated file and is not supposed to be manually edited. However, if you do it anyway the changes are not permanent and will be lost the next time update-grub is run.

Open a terminal and put in those commands. You can also enable the extra repositories by using your package manager.

So, to edit the file, open a terminal and do Once we have your wireless card and grub issues sorted, I would strongly advise you bookmark and read the help pages at Ubuntu. They are well written pages and will walk you through most things.

What distro of linux are you using??

Possibly look into using NDISWRAPPER.

NDISWRAPPER emulates windows drivers to work in linux

The B43 drivers work excellently for me. Why use the extra layer if you don't need to? Ndiswrapper, like Wine, was always intended as a stop gap until more programs and drivers were produced that worked natively.