Wireless broadcom 4318 chipset not working in ubuntu
 

Hello from the dark continent,


I have just installed ubuntu 6.10 on my HP Pavilion dv5000, and cannot get the wireless to work
Here is what I did.

I first used the directions from ubuntuguide.org and it didn't work. So, I downloaded 'windows wireless drivers' package with automatix which helped me to install the the bcmlw5 drivers.
Then I typed the following commands in the shell

cd ~/Desktop (or wherever you downloaded the file)
tar -xf bcm4318*.tar.gz
sudo ./ndiswrapper_setup


After this I downloaded wireless assistant. I could scan and see my network and my neighbors, butI couldn't connect.

Can you geeks please tell me what I did wrong? I know that I am probably annoying you guys with this since there might be like gzillion howtos that are perfect for this. I am just lost


Thanks again.

Hi.

I also had a problem with BCM4318 chipset but I finally made it work here is the solution.

1. install ndiswrapper and make a kernel module
2. copy this script in /etc/network/if-pre-up.d/ with a filename like bcm_ndis and chmod it 0766

#!/bin/sh -e

rmmod bcm43xx
rmmod ndiswrapper
modprobe ndiswrapper
ifconfig eth2 up # eth1 or eth2
iwconfig eth2 essid <wireless access point name>

exit 0

or put it somewhere to start at system startup.

3. edit /etc/network/interface

auto eth1 # eth1 or eth2
iface eth1 inet dhcp # eth1 or eth2
wireless-essid <wireless access point name>
wireless-key <wireless key>
wireless-ap <wireless access point MAC address>

4. restart computer
5. goto kcontrol > network > wireless settings ; type in your <wireless access point name> and press active profile button
6. now you should see the connect device with kwifimanager than start wlassistant and connect. It usually connects on the 5. or the 6. trys.

Unfortunatly you have to do step 5. 6. at every startup. :(

Thank you for replying so quick. I really appreciate that. I tried the steps and it didn't work.
I have a couple of quick questions? how do I make a kernel module? and if it is possible can you show me how
you edited your /etc/network/interfaces file?

Thank you again for your help

Download the source package from http://sourceforge.net/projects/ndiswrapper/ and run: make && sudo make install

This is my /etc/network/interface file:

auto eth2
iface eth2 inet dhcp
wireless-essid SMC
wireless-key 123456789e
wireless-ap AB:CD:EF:00:12:34

This is for WEP configuration but it is possible to use WPA somehow but I don't know because I don't needed so far.


1. lsmod |grep bcm43xx (Be sure that bcm43xx is not loaded because it does not like ndiswrapper)
2. rmmod bcm43xx
3. rmmod ndiswrapper
4. ndiswrapper -l (check that windows driver is loaded)
5. modprobe ndiswrapper
6. type dmesg |tail -n 20 you should see something like this:

ndiswrapper version 1.37 loaded (preempt=no,smp=yes)
ndiswrapper: driver bcmwl5 (Broadcom,12/22/2004, 3.100.46.0) loaded
PCI: Enabling device 0000:02:07.0 (0000 -> 0002)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:07.0[A] -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 193
ndiswrapper: using IRQ 193
wlan0: ethernet device AA:BB:CC:DD:12:34 using NDIS driver: bcmwl5, version: 0x3642e00, NDIS version: 0x501, vendor: '', 14E4:4318.5.conf
wlan0: encryption modes supported: WEP; TKIP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK; AES/CCMP with WPA, WPA2, WPA2PSK
usbcore: registered new driver ndiswrapper
ndiswrapper: changing interface name from 'wlan0' to 'eth2'


Don't give up I spend 6 hours to make it work correctly :D

Hey Errotan You are the man,
I finally got it to work by just downloading the source package and passing the make install command
maybe we should write a specific howto for this problem with more details.
AIM me or email me if you think that it is a good idea

Thank you so much

I'm running Kubuntu 6.06, with my Broadcom 4318-based wifi card, but many of the same priniciples apply. If lsmod shows that the bcm43xx kernel module is loaded, then it is probably being loaded every time you boot your machine. If you are using ndiswrapper, the most effective way to make bcm43xx go away permanently is to blacklist it.

In Kubuntu the blacklist files are in the /etc/modprobe.d and there is probably a file already there named "blacklist". You can add an entry to that file such as :
The typical instructions for ndiswrapper also require issuing:
before doing a modprobe which actually sets up the correct module entry. Once I did the blacklist thing, my 4318 card just lit up. I then used Kwlan (use the Gnome equivalent) and wpa_supplicant to get WPA working.

There are probably other ways of making a Broadcom card work with the appropriate Windoze driver, but ndiswrapper works well with the right steps.