I'm trying to type the directory of the bcmwl tar.gz package I downloaded (located in home/william/downloads) I'm trying to compile the driver so i can get wifi working on my macbook pro 8.1, using ubuntu 11.04.I'm pretty much trying to follow these directions from a website:

Most of the time, you will need to use the terminal to compile source, so use an xterm/console/terminal and go into the directory that has been made by the package, eg:

$ cd /directory_that_the_tar_file_is_in
$ ls -l

Total 302
-rwxr--r-- 1 user group 2907 May 21 17:15 mytarfile.tar
-rwxr--r-- 1 user group 0015 May 21 17:15 newdir/

$ cd newdir/
I get stuck in the step that says: $ cd /directory_that_the_tar_file_is_in
What am i supposed to do?Sorry, I know this is a newbie question.

Try this:
then:
then:
Then look for README and INSTALL files in that directory.

If you don't know which directory you are in when you start,

could be more reliable (~ being a shortcut for your home directory). Of course, you could always use

to check which directory you are actually in, when you star, and adjust the path accordingly.

Another tip, if you are more used to using something like Konqueror as a file manager (I imagine the equivalents under gnome, XFCE, ... do the same trick) is that if you double click into the .tar.gz file, Konqueror wil open up the archive 'transparently', and so you will be able to drill down to the README and INSTALL files and read the details without actually opening up the tar archive (and potentially leaving all sorts of miscellaneous little files scattered about the place, if you are really not that interested, once you have actually read the details).

Thanks alot guys.I found out how to get to the file.but how do I compile it?Also, what is compiling?Thanks once again.