Need wireless connection with WPC54GS v1.1 and/or WPC54G version 3.1 card
 

I'm setting up a laptop in Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) and trying to get a wireless card to work. I'm using a minimal GNOME installation (with packages like xorg, gdm, gnome-core, fast-user-switch-applet, wifi-radar, and network-manager-gnome added in) because this laptop has only a 500 MHz processor and 256 MB of RAM.

My personal wireless card (a Linksys WUSB54GC) works right out of the box in Ubuntu.

However, I haven't been able to get either of the group's wireless cards to work with this laptop and Ubuntu. One is a WPC54GS v1.1, and the other is a WPC54G version 3.1. I need to get at least one of these two wireless cards working and preferably both. (I get the feeling that once I get one working, I won't have much difficulty getting the other to work as well.)

I used ndisgtk (System -> Windows Wireless Drivers) with the Lsbcmnds.inf file (from the zip file containing the drivers for the WPC54G v3.1 that I downloaded from the Linksys web site and then extracted into part of my user directory), but that didn't work. The ndis messages that show up in /var/log/syslog are:
Nov 7 10:51:50 dhcppc1 kernel: [ 1340.619462] ndiswrapper version 1.52 loaded (smp=yes, preempt=no)
Nov 7 10:51:51 dhcppc1 kernel: [ 1340.654610] usbcore: registered new interface driver ndiswrapper
Nov 7 10:52:17 dhcppc1 loadndisdriver: loadndisdriver: load_driver(325): too many .sys files for driver lsbcmnds
Nov 7 10:52:17 dhcppc1 loadndisdriver: loadndisdriver: load_driver(358): couldn't load driver lsbcmnds
Nov 7 10:52:18 dhcppc1 kernel: [ 1352.840797] ndiswrapper (load_wrap_driver:112): couldn't load driver lsbcmnds; check system log for messages from 'loadndisdriver'

I tried to do the same thing for the WPC54GS v1.1, but I couldn't find the unzip the zip file I downloaded from the Linksys web site.

With the WPC54GS v1.1 connected, the output of lspci is:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03)
00:03.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1225 (rev 01)
00:03.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1225 (rev 01)
00:07.0 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Neomagic Corporation NM2360 [MagicMedia 256ZX]
01:00.1 Multimedia audio controller: Neomagic Corporation NM2360 [MagicMedia 256ZX Audio]
06:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)

With the WPC54GS v1.1 connected, the output of iwconfig is:
lo no wireless extensions.

With the WPC54G version 3.1 connected, the output of lspci is:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03)
00:03.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1225 (rev 01)
00:03.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1225 (rev 01)
00:07.0 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Neomagic Corporation NM2360 [MagicMedia 256ZX]
01:00.1 Multimedia audio controller: Neomagic Corporation NM2360 [MagicMedia 256ZX Audio]
06:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

With the WPC54G version 3.1 connected, the output of iwconfig is:
lo no wireless extensions.

With the wireless card that actually works (can actually see networks in wifi-radar and has no difficulty connecting to my local library's wireless network), the output of lspci is:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03)
00:03.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1225 (rev 01)
00:03.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1225 (rev 01)
00:07.0 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01)
00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Neomagic Corporation NM2360 [MagicMedia 256ZX]
01:00.1 Multimedia audio controller: Neomagic Corporation NM2360 [MagicMedia 256ZX Audio]
06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

With this wireless card connected, the output of iwconfig is:
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan1 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2346 B
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

Given all this, what do I need to do to get the WPC54GS v1.1 and/or the WPC54G version 3.1 card working?

.. Because it has a Realtek chipset:
Which uses the 8139too kernel driver (if you do a lsmod you'll see it listed) and is trouble-free.

The WPC54GS v1.1 has a Broadcomm chipset:
The WPC54G version 3.1 also has a Broadcomm chipset:
Support for Broadcom has been difficult (but I believe it is getting better)

Do a search here on LQ for the chipsets that are causing you problems, there will be answers.

Or see here: http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43