Hi I am new to Linux, and am using Ubuntu 8.04 I am having trouble getting wireless to work, and have found plenty of webpages giving instructions, however I cannot get them to work. The main reason (I believe) is that depending on the website I cannot figure out how to download the files, or the times I have been able to download them I have not been able to get the instructions to work. The most recent one I tried was using the newbie information herehttp://http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-general-1/useful-thread-and-information-about-installing-programs.-45094/4/
I can't even get the first command to work and I don't know why. I am entering it in the terminal (also copy paste) I have tried it as is, and with the name of the directory after it. One thing I noticed is that forums and threads addressing ubuntu use "sudo" a lot, and this one uses "$" a fair amount and they seem to be mutually exclusive. am I on the right track? What other tricks should I try?

$ is NOT a command. It's your prompt.

When you open a terminal it's already there - it signifies that you are logged in as a normal (non-root) user.

This is very basic - I'd brush up on your understanding of what commands you're actually entering as you can cause plenty of damage by following blindly what you see on the net.

Post your specs for advice - what machine and what wireless you've got.

I am on a dell Latitude d610 which has a broadcom 4318 wireless chipset (I'm not sure on the exact terminology), but I also have a linksys wusb54gc usb wireless adapter. I am trying to get at least one to work.

I should mention that the computer is actually one destined for the computer graveyard, so while I realize just running random code that I don't know what it does isn't a good idea this one can only end up more functional (and hence why I get to play around on it).

I've posted here how to use your wireless wusb54gc adapter.