I am running Ubuntu, new 8.04 version on an HP 8300 series AMD64 laptop and having trouble getting the wireless (Broadcom 4318) to run.

Downloaded ndiswrapper but can't seem to unpack/install it. Don't know if it is a problem with me -- typing the wrong instructions under terminal (most likely), but I sure could use some help.

When I downloaded it, it shows as a folder with all the files. Ditto for Adobe and a few other programs I am having trouble installing.

Can anyone give me some help?

Thanks in advance.

There are installation instructions for NDISwrapper here. If you're trying to follow these and have problems, you need to post exactly what the problems are (including error messages where appropriate).

For that specific card, if it really is Broadcom 4318, it should work with the b43 kernel module that comes along Ubuntu 8.04. To use it you need to use a program called "b43-fwcutter" to chop certain pieces ("firmware files") off a Windows driver and place them to a directory where the driver can find them. Luckily for you this is all automated - if you launch the Restricted Drivers Manager tool from under the System menu, if should detect your Broadcom wireless card and allow you to easily enable it, provided that you have another internet connection available so it can automatically obtain the needed files for you - so just "loan" a wired connection from somewhere for a moment if you can, run Restricted Drivers Manager, select to enable your wireless card, accept/apply changes and the system should get the necessary files, use fwcutter on them and have the driver work like magic.

Oh, and don't use ndiswrapper. It's ok if you don't have any other options, but the b43 kernel module really works, so there is no sense in making things more complicated by installing ndiswrapper (after that you'd need to use it to install the Windows drivers, then blacklist b43 module and so on). Using b43 module you only need to get the "firmware files" for it, which can be done manually or trough Restricted Drivers Manager application like explained above.

The manual method is almost as easy, though: somehow obtain b43-fwcutter package for your Ubuntu, install it, download Windows drivers, run the installed fwcutter tool on them (you'll get some firmware files as a result) and copy the created files into /lib/firmware/kernel-version/. After that the driver ought to work, so just connect (you might need to remove it and re-load it, or just reboot).