need wireless driver for bcm4306 to work with ubuntu

Have you tried looking in "System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers"? I believe you're experiencing issues because there's proprietary firmware needed for that card, and the dialog I'm mentioning should recognise the card and allow you to download and install the appropriate firmware.

Hi Tom, thanks for the quick response.

When I checked in the Hardware Drivers it was empty and stated that no drivers were found. Now I have the CD that came with the wireless card and when I explore the contents of the CD there are 3 files. Drivers, Files and AUTORUN.inf

Double clicking on AUTORUN.inf has no effect at all. But inside the drivers folder there is bcm43xx.cat, bcmwl5.inf and bcmwl5.sys.

If the AUTORUN.inf doesn't do anything then is there a way for the OS to automatically grab the required drivers from the CD?

Just found the setup.exe file in the Files folder but unable to open it by double clicking or right click>open.

Basically I can't seem to open any files on the CD. The manual for the card says that normally it should autorun when the CD in incerted, but should it not then locate the file F5D7010W_UTILITY.exe and double click on it. But as I have said double clicking on it does nothing.

The files on the CD are all Windows-specific and won't work on Ubuntu. You don't need the CD. Did you try looking in Ubuntu's "System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers" menu?

Hi Tom, yes it was empty. It says that 'No proprietary drivers are in use on this system'.

Do I need to go somewhere to install them?

Thank you for your response.

Sorry, just saw your posting above that said it was empty... In that case there must be another way of doing that, will look into it...

First of all, let's just check your current setup. Can you post the contents of "/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist" and also the output of the following commands:

lsmod
ifconfig
iwconfig

Seems like this thread might be useful on the Ubuntu forums:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=735444

ubuntuadmin@ubuntuadmin-laptop:~$ /etcmodprobe.d/blacklist
bash: /etcmodprobe.d/blacklist: No such file or directory

ubuntuadmin@ubuntuadmin-laptop:~$ lsmod
Module Size Used by
isofs 36388 1
udf 88612 0
nls_iso8859_1 4992 1
nls_cp437 6656 1
vfat 14464 1
fat 54556 1 vfat
usb_storage 73664 1
libusual 19108 1 usb_storage
ipv6 267780 8
af_packet 23812 2
savage 33920 2
drm 82580 3 savage
rfcomm 41744 2
l2cap 25728 13 rfcomm
bluetooth 61156 4 rfcomm,l2cap
tun 12672 0
vboxdrv 77504 0
ppdev 10372 0
powernow_k7 9000 0
cpufreq_powersave 2688 0
cpufreq_stats 7104 0
cpufreq_conservative 8712 0
cpufreq_ondemand 9740 1
freq_table 5536 3 powernow_k7,cpufreq_stats,cpufreq_ondemand
cpufreq_userspace 5284 0
dock 11280 0
sbs 15112 0
sbshc 7680 1 sbs
container 5632 0
video 19856 0
output 4736 1 video
iptable_filter 3840 0
ip_tables 14820 1 iptable_filter
x_tables 16132 1 ip_tables
ndiswrapper 192920 0
sbp2 24072 0
lp 12324 0
arc4 2944 2
ecb 4480 2
blkcipher 8324 1 ecb
b43legacy 127904 0
mac80211 165652 1 b43legacy
cfg80211 15112 1 mac80211
joydev 13120 0
ssb 32260 1 b43legacy
pcmcia 40876 0
snd_via82xx 29464 3
snd_via82xx_modem 16264 0
gameport 16008 1 snd_via82xx
snd_ac97_codec 101028 2 snd_via82xx,snd_via82xx_modem
snd_pcm_oss 42144 0
snd_mixer_oss 17920 1 snd_pcm_oss
ac97_bus 3072 1 snd_ac97_codec
evdev 13056 5
snd_mpu401_uart 9728 1 snd_via82xx
snd_pcm 78596 4 snd_via82xx,snd_via82xx_modem,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_dummy 4868 0
snd_seq_oss 35584 0
snd_seq_midi 9376 0
serio_raw 7940 0
snd_rawmidi 25760 2 snd_mpu401_uart,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 8320 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
psmouse 40336 0
battery 14212 0
via_ircc 27796 0
ac 6916 0
snd_seq 54224 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer 24836 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 9612 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
button 9232 0
irda 203068 1 via_ircc
vt8231 17164 0
crc_ccitt 3072 1 irda
snd 56996 19 snd_via82xx,snd_via82xx_modem,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_pcm,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
i2c_viapro 9876 0
shpchp 34452 0
pci_hotplug 30880 1 shpchp
via_agp 11136 1
agpgart 34760 2 drm,via_agp
yenta_socket 27276 2
rsrc_nonstatic 13696 1 yenta_socket
pcmcia_core 40596 3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
snd_page_alloc 11400 3 snd_via82xx,snd_via82xx_modem,snd_pcm
i2c_core 24832 1 i2c_viapro
parport_pc 36260 1
parport 37832 3 ppdev,lp,parport_pc
soundcore 8800 1 snd
pcspkr 4224 0
ext3 136712 1
jbd 48404 1 ext3
mbcache 9600 1 ext3
sg 36880 0
sr_mod 17956 1
cdrom 37408 1 sr_mod
sd_mod 30720 5
ata_generic 8324 0
pata_acpi 8320 0
uhci_hcd 27024 0
pata_via 13316 3
via_rhine 26632 0
mii 6400 1 via_rhine
ohci1394 33584 0
usbcore 146028 5 usb_storage,libusual,ndiswrapper,uhci_hcd
libata 159344 3 ata_generic,pata_acpi,pata_via
scsi_mod 151436 6 usb_storage,sbp2,sg,sr_mod,sd_mod,libata
ieee1394 93752 2 sbp2,ohci1394
thermal 16796 0
processor 36872 3 powernow_k7,thermal
fan 5636 0
fbcon 42912 0
tileblit 3456 1 fbcon
font 9472 1 fbcon
bitblit 6784 1 fbcon
softcursor 3072 1 bitblit
fuse 50580 3

ubuntuadmin@ubuntuadmin-laptop:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:""
          Mode:Managed Channel:0 Access Point: Not-Associated
          Tx-Power=0 dBm
          Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off 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:0

ubuntuadmin@ubuntuadmin-laptop:~$

I was unable to bold the commands that I typed into Terminal so I left a double space between the outputed data so you can locate each one you requested.

Was looking for "cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist" not "cat /etcmodprobe.d/blacklist" (the "cat" command just prints the contents of a file. But in any case, I don't think it matters. You have a "wlan0" device means you should be good to go. There should be an icon in the task bar for managing your network connections - just click on it and you should see a list of available wireless networks. From "lsmod" it looks like it's using the "b43legacy" module as your driver, just FYI.

From the command line you should be able to do: iwlist wlan0 scan and see a list of networks. NetworkManager - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WifiDocs/NetworkManager - is what you'd typically use to connect to wireless networks, but you can also do this via the command line using iwconfig or using "System -> Administration -> Network".

Hi Tom, this is very strange.

I have done everything in the http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=735444 thread and I can see the wireless connection in the Network Setting. Also when I type lspci in Terminal it can see the network controller. But for the life of me I can't figure out why none of the lights on the Network card are showing. I have taken it out many times now but it seems that the laptop is either not seeing it or for some reason there is no power going to it.

Success!!! Rebooted the laptop this morning and it can now access the net wirelessly.

Thank you so much Tom. You were fantastic.

Richard

Great, glad you were able to get it working!

Please don't hijack a previous question (this one has already been marked as solved). If you're having issues, please file a separate question.