Ubuntu Wireless Issues

livestrong23 · 04-30-2008, 04:34 AM

I installed Ubuntu 8 on my Compaq laptop (presario v2000 CTO). After the installation, I noticed that my wireless networking is not working.

I checked the network manager, where I tried connecting to my wireless network. But no matter what, it simply doesn't connect. In the "manual configuration", I saw the wireless network in the "roaming mode", but it simply doesn't connect to the network. However my other computers do and I am sure it has nothing to do with the wireless router itself.

I did some googling, in fact almost all night of googling. Many websites mentioned that ndiswrapper solves these kind of driver issues. But I have been trying to access the ndiswrapper website for last hour or so, and I guess the website is down. I am not sure about the exact package to download by apt-get. I tried to install the "Ndiswrapper driver installation tool" using "Add/Remove applications", but it just freezes everytime I try to select that particular application.

I have heard really good things about Ubuntu, and I have tried testing it few times on my VMWare, but this installation hasn't left a good impression and hasn't been a good experience for me so far. I am not sure what to do. I didn't know that a simple wireless driver can be such a pain in the neck while installing Ubuntu.

Any help will be very much appreciated.

P.S.

Code:

lshw -C network gives me this following output:
  *-network:0
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 10
       serial: 00:16:36:0c:01:82
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=8139too driverversion=0.9.28 ip=192.168.1.117 latency=64 maxlatency=64 mingnt=32 module=8139too multicast=yes
  *-network:1
       description: Network controller
       product: BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:05:02.0
       version: 02
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master
       configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=64 module=ssb
  *-network DISABLED
       description: Wireless interface
       physical id: 1
       logical name: wlan0
       serial: 00:14:a5:60:cc:ac
       capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11g

Hangdog42 · 04-30-2008, 07:39 AM

Quote:

product: BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller

OK, that is your wireless card and you've got two options you can pursue to get this working:

1) The native linux b43 driver (which is almost certainly installed already). The unfortunate bit about this driver is that it requires you to install a separate set of firmware files that almost certainly weren't installed for licensing reasons. The other unfortunate bit is that this particular chipset may have some issues with the b43 driver.

2) The other option is ndiswrapper. This requires you to have the Windows drivers for your card available and you have to blacklist b43 to prevent it from conflicting with ndiswrapper. Neither of these issues is very difficult to solve.

Quote:

I have heard really good things about Ubuntu, and I have tried testing it few times on my VMWare, but this installation hasn't left a good impression and hasn't been a good experience for me so far. I am not sure what to do. I didn't know that a simple wireless driver can be such a pain in the neck while installing Ubuntu.

I'd like to clear up one misconception you've got here. This problem isn't the fault of Ubuntu, or any other Linux distro. Broadcom, the maker of your wireless chipset, refuses to either write their own driver for Linux or to release the specs on their chipsets so that someone else can write a driver. The b43 driver is the result of a dedicated team reverse-engineering Broadcom's stuff after Linksys had to release an extremely minimal set of specs for one of their routers using Broadcom chips. Contrast this situation with Intel, who does write drivers for Linux. All I had to do was install a firmware package and my Intel drivers were up and running. Linux support for wireless can be maddening but that is largely because a few manufacturers just don't cooperate.