Hi Guys,

I installed Ubuntu 7.10 and everything installed great. Now my dell wireless 1450 card has a green light on and ubuntu detects my network, but when I go to put in the passphrase/web key it doesn't do anything. Ubuntu just loads for a few seconds then returns with wanting me to put in a passphrase/web key. Does anybody know why this is?

Doing some research I saw people were using ndiswrapper, but it seems like they were using that just to get their wireless card recognized by ubuntu, were I believe mine already is since it can detect my network, but i could be wrong. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43

From what I can tell the chip is supported for 802.11 B & G wireless, but 802.11 A is NOT supported.

Even though Ubuntu may have detected your wireless card automatically, I think YOU still need to use the bcm43xx-fwcutter tool to extract the proprietary firmware from the windows drivers for your wireless adapter and copy those firmware files into the correct location..

Ok I downloaded everthing and moved the driver into /lib/firmware.

Now the newb question. Because I'm new to linux how do I go about installing the bcm43xx-fwcutter tool. I downloaded it from another pc and dropped the tar file onto my Ubuntu desktop. I'm lost on where to go from there. Again any help would be appreciated and thanks for you help already farslayer.

Another dumb question. When I go to untar the tar file where should I untar it. Should I just do it in root or dev or does it not matter?

Thanks

After a lot of trial and error I got the bcm43xx-fwcutter installed in /usr I then went to /lib/firmware where i stored the driver.

I then executed the command:
sudo /usr/bcm43-fwcutter/bcm43xx-fwcutter wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o

and it extracted the firmware, no errors all looked good. I then went and clicked on my network typed int the passphrase/webkey and nothing. Same problem as before just spins and then shows the same screen to enter a passphrase. Am I suppose to do something after I install the firmware? I'm just lost.

you need to copy the extracted firmware files to the appropriate directory..

the command you executed does not look the same as the one on the page you downloaded the fwcutter tool from.. it looks like the command in the example extracts the firmware files to a specific directory...

sudo bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o

OK I went and did that command but nothing happened, here is the output of it:

********************************************************************
adam@adam-desktop:cd /usr/bcm43xx-fwcutter-006
adam@adam-desktop:sudo bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta-3.130.20.o
[sudo] password for adam:
Cannot open input file wl_apsta-3.130.20.o
adam@adam-desktop:cd /lib/firmware
adam@adam-desktop:/lib/firmware$ ls

[00m [01;34m2.6.22-14-generic [00m [00mbcm43xx_initval04.fw [00m [00mbcm43xx_initval08.fw [00m [00mbcm43xx_microcode2.fw [00m [00mbcm43xx_pcm5.fw [00m
[00mbcm43xx_initval01.fw [00m [00mbcm43xx_initval05.fw [00m [00mbcm43xx_initval09.fw [00m [00mbcm43xx_microcode4.fw [00m [01;32mwl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o [00m
[00mbcm43xx_initval02.fw00m [00mbcm43xx_initval06.fw [00m [00mbcm43xx_initval10.fw [00m [00mbcm43xx_microcode5.fw [00m
[00mbcm43xx_initval03.fw00m [00mbcm43xx_initval07.fw [00m [00mbcm43xx_microcode11.fw [00m [00mbcm43xx_pcm4.fw [00m
[m ]0;

adam@adam-desktop:/lib/firmware$ sudo /user/bcm43xx-fwcutter/bcm43xx-fwcutter -w wl_apsta-3.130.20.o
sudo: /usr/bcm43xx-fwcutter/bcm43xx-fwcutter: command not found

adam@adam-desktop: /lib/firmware
adam@adam-desktop:/lib/firmware$ sudo /usr/bcm43xx-fwcutter-006/bcm43xx-fwcutter -w wl_apsta-3.130.20.o


Usage: /usr/bcm43xx-fwcutter-006/bcm43xx-fwcutter [OPTION] [driver.sys]
-l|--list List supported driver versions
-i|--identify Only identify the driver file (don't extract)
-w|--target-dir DIR Extract and write firmware to DIR
-a|--alt-iv Extract alternative initvals (only 3.10.x.x)
-p|--postfix ".FOO" Postfix for firmware filenames (.FOO.fw)
-v|--version Print bcm43xx-fwcutter version
-h|--help Print this help

Example: /usr/bcm43xx-fwcutter-006/bcm43xx-fwcutter bcmwl5.sys
to extract the firmware blobs from bcmwl5.sys


********************************************************

The files did extract the first time but yes they might be in the wrong area. I don't know.

Here is some more information about my wireless card. The system is detecting it but it just won't log onto the internet when I type in my pass key.


adam@adam-desktop:~/Desktop$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Retry min limit:7 RTS thrff 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:0adam@adam-desktop:~/Desktop$ iwllist wlan0 scan
wlan0 No scan results

Thanks farslayer for all your help. I was able to come finally get the card running. Again thank you for your time and help.

Hi guys,

I've been having a similar problem and so I followed the directions laid out earlier in this thread. I put the driver file into /lib/firmware and ran the 'sudo bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o' It extracted a bunch of files into that directory...but doesn't seem to have changed anything. Any idea what I'm missing? Thanks!

you could take a look at this how-to and walk through the steps after the firmware section.. see if the light comes on so to speak

http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/...WPA_Encryption