I am trying to install the Broadcom wireless driver BCM4311 on my Acer Extensa 5420. I have consulted several help forums and tried several suggested ways of doing it. They all seem to require using b43-fwcutter, and my Ubuntu 10.10 installation always refuses to fetch it from the installation disk. The most straight-forward approach I have tried is as follows:
1. From the console, I type: sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter
2. The command works for a while, then responds by asking me put the disc labelled " Ubuntu 10.10_Maverick Meerkat_ - Release i386 (20101007)" into the CD-ROM drive and press ENTER.
3. I insert the installation disc containing the installation program that I downloaded from the Ubuntu web site into the drive and press ENTER, but just get the same request again.

The file on the installation disc is named "Ubuntu-10.10-desktop-i386.iso", and the disk does not have a label. I have tried renaming the installation file with the intention of burning a new disc that would be recognized, but the name being requested is not a valid file name for Windows (so I can't do it on a Windows machine), and it also seems to be inappropriate for Ubuntu (it has spaces and may be too long). I also tried keeping the same file name and burning a disc with the requested label, but the burning software would not accept such a long label.

Is there some other way for me to get the installation disk recognized? Or another way to get the wireless card operating?

You can take the Ubuntu install disk out of the equation and go directly to the Ubuntu repository for b43-fwcutter. Look at your /etc/apt/sources.list. At the top of the file, there is an entry telling apt to search the install cd, followed by a listing of apt repositories. As root, edit that file by adding a # at the beginning of that line to comment out that line. Apt will then ignore it and go to the repositories looking for fw-cutter.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install b43-cutter

should then work to install the package.

The label isn't the name of the disk; it's in a file in the .iso. When you put the disk in the drive, apt will attempt to open and decompress the .iso and look for the file which contains the label information. Renaming the file won't work. Downloading and burning another cd might work. But, as I explain above, it isn't necessary. It's just convenient to be able to install from the cd instead of over the internet.

Downloading and burning a new installation file solved the problem. Looking into the sources list was instructive for me, but did not help because I don't have internet access on that machine.

Thanks for your help.