Ubuntu

Kubuntu 7.10 Acer with bcm4318 (Gutsy Gibbon blind as a bat!)

Asked by Robert Easter

After too many tries, I am still not up on this install for that manufactured nightmare called Broadcom. Here is the latest (Any clues?):

obert@pelagius:~$ sudo apt-get install bcm43xx-fwcutter
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  bcm43xx-fwcutter
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/25.8kB of archives.
After unpacking 119kB of additional disk space will be used.
WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!
  bcm43xx-fwcutter
Install these packages without verification [y/N]? n
E: Some packages could not be authenticated
robert@pelagius:~$ wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
--19:48:33-- http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
           => `wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o'
Resolving downloads.openwrt.org... 195.56.146.238
Connecting to downloads.openwrt.org|195.56.146.238|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 652,866 (638K) [application/x-object]

100%[====================================>] 652,866 176.77K/s ETA 00:00

19:48:48 (166.16 KB/s) - `wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o' saved [652866/652866]

robert@pelagius:~$ sudo bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
sudo: bcm43xx-fwcutter: command not found
robert@pelagius:~$ sudo apt-get install bcm43xx-fwcutter
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  bcm43xx-fwcutter
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/25.8kB of archives.
After unpacking 119kB of additional disk space will be used.
WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!
  bcm43xx-fwcutter
Install these packages without verification [y/N]? y
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously deselected package bcm43xx-fwcutter.
(Reading database ... 95808 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking bcm43xx-fwcutter (from .../bcm43xx-fwcutter_1%3a006-3_i386.deb) ...
Setting up bcm43xx-fwcutter (1:006-3) ...

robert@pelagius:~$ sudo bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o

  filename : wl_apsta.o
  version : 3.130.20.0
  MD5 : e08665c5c5b66beb9c3b2dd54aa80cb3
  microcodes : 2 4 5 11
  pcms : 4 5

  microcode : 2
  revision : 0x0127
  patchlevel : 0x000e
  date : 2005-04-18
  time : 02:36:27

  microcode : 4
  revision : 0x0127
  patchlevel : 0x000e
  date : 2005-04-18
  time : 02:36:27

  microcode : 5
  revision : 0x0127
  patchlevel : 0x000e
  date : 2005-04-18
  time : 02:36:27

  microcode : 11
  revision : 0x0127
  patchlevel : 0x000e
  date : 2005-04-18
  time : 02:36:27

extracting bcm43xx_microcode2.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_microcode4.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_microcode5.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_microcode11.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_pcm4.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_pcm5.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_initval01.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_initval02.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_initval03.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_initval04.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_initval05.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_initval06.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_initval07.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_initval08.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_initval09.fw ...
extracting bcm43xx_initval10.fw ...
robert@pelagius:~$ sudo modprobe bcm43xx
robert@pelagius:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 IEEE 802.11b/g ESSID:off/any Nickname:"Broadcom 4318"
          Mode:Managed Frequency=2.472 GHz Access Point: Invalid
          Bit Rate=1 Mb/s Tx-Power=17 dBm
          RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
          Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=-256 dBm Noise level=-256 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

robert@pelagius:~$ iwlist scan
lo Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth1 No scan results

robert@pelagius:~$

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marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra) said : 		#1

To install your Broadcom 4318 use the ndiswrapper package the ndiswrapper package utility

sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils*

Get the Broadcom 4318 Windows Xp drivers from
http://www.acerpanam.com/flex/acerdrivers/bin/drivers.html
put them into a directory, for example "driver", extract it, then install it
sudo ndiswrapper -i INF

The Windows drivers now are installed we must modify /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
and we must add
blacklist bcm43xx

Open the /etc/modules
sudo gedit /etc/modules
and add this row
ndiswrapper

Make a backup copy of your /etc/network/interfaces
sudo cp /etc/network/interfaces /etc/network/interfaces.old

and edit the file /etc/network/interfaces:
sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces

remove all and put only this 2 lines:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

Reboot the pc.
HTH

Revision history for this message
Robert Easter (easter-robert) said : 		#2

Thanks, HTH, Before doing this, as I have heard some things about that wrapper that give me the impression that I would rather use the other way, is there some reason why there does not seem to be any info out there on how to make the fwcutter route work on my machine? As it stands now, the diagnostics are not even enabled on my copy of 7.10 to be able to get help troubleshooting it! Does anyone now how to enable the rest of the kernel for this?

Revision history for this message
marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra) said : 		#3

Diagnostics on your system are the /var/log/... files to monitor them in real time open a terminal and type:

tail -f /var/log/messages

tail -f /var/log/syslog

press CTRL+c when you want stop to monitor the output

another file to get system message is the command:
dmesg

HTH

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