Installing Java and Wireless Card

TheGimp · 12-18-2005, 07:20 PM

Hi New Ubunto here i was wondering one of 2 things

1st Can someone walk me through oh how to install java stuff on here i go to chat rooms and other places and have no java plugins can someone help me?

2nd I have a gateway laptop i am running the new amd64 version on and i cannot get it to find my brodcom wirless card i know there supposed to be hard to get to work but pls help me!!!

Thank you,
Ubuntu Newbie

m_yates · 12-18-2005, 11:11 PM

First, you should edit /etc/apt/sources.list to enable "universe" and "multiverse" repositories. Then do:

Code:

apt-get update

You can find the java packages with:

Code:

apt-cache search j2re

You will see there is a package for Blackdown java as well as a java plugin for mozilla. You can install those two packages with:

Code:

sudo apt-get install <package name>

m_yates · 12-18-2005, 11:18 PM

For wireless, I use ndiswrapper. You will need to check if your card is supported. There is also an Ubuntu guide there: http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/

You can do everything from packages available in Ubuntu. I got mine working by installing the kernel headers:

Code:

sudo apt-get install kernel-header-$(uname -r)

and ndiswrapper source:

Code:

sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-source

Then unpack the source and compile the module:

Code:

cd /usr/src
sudo tar -jxf ndiswrapper-source.tar.bz2
cd modules/ndiswrapper 
sudo make install 
sudo ndiswrapper -i YOURWIFI.INF

Where YOURWIFI.INF is the inf file for your wireless card.

I also edited /etc/network/interfaces for the wlan0 and put ndiswrapper in /etc/modules to load at boot up.

XavierP · 12-19-2005, 01:02 PM

TheGimp - I have changed your thread title to make it more meaningful and descriptive of your problem.

ollywompus · 12-20-2005, 01:50 AM

I wanted to add to this in that when I've tried to install ndiswrapper and drivers, if I've done something out of order it gives me more problems than not. So here's my own quick how-to (not to take away from the above at all):

Code:

sudo -s

Code:

apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils

Code:

ndiswrapper -i <<yourdriver.inf>>

Code:

ndiswrapper -l

At this point, you should get something returned that shows your 'driver present, hardware present'... for example, mine returns:

Code:

bcmwl5  driver present, hardware present

Then do the following (and seriously, do it in order, it helps)

Code:

ndiswrapper -m

Code:

modprobe ndiswrapper

At this point, you should be pretty close to up and running. Check iwconfig to see if your interface is there (for example, wlan0 on my system).

Code:

iwconfig

This will return a list of network interfaces, and a bunch of properties for each... just make sure that your wireless card is showing. Then:

Code:

iwconfig wlan0 essid ESSID key XXXXXXXXXX

Replace 'wlan0' with whatever your card is, replace ESSID with your SSID, and replace the XXXXXXXX with your wep/wpa key (if you are using encryption).

Now if you run iwconfig wlan0 you should see your essid listed, and your wep key, in the data returned. Do a simple:

Code:

dhclient wlan0

And you should be up and on the 'net!

Now to write your interfaces config file so that this happens on bootup.

Code:

vim /etc/network/interfaces

You can replace vim with your editor of choice. Now add the following lines into the config file after the 'primary network interface' portion:

Code:

iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wireless_essid ESSID
wireless_mode managed
wireless_keymode restricted
wireless_key XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
auto wlan0

Now, you will have to tailor this for yourself, for examaple change the ESSID to whatever yours is, change the dhcp to static if you are using a static IP, change the wireless_mode to auto if that is what you are doing, etc.

Hope that helps, not as short as I thought it would be!

But this is the best process I've developed, so that if I follow these steps in order when I've installed ndiswrapper (on a variety of ubuntu, edubuntu, kubuntu, xubuntu systems) it gets up and running every time.

-olly