Ndiswrapper with broadcom bcm inbuilt wireless

hi

i just left microsoft xp behind and installed debian testing on my hp
pavilion zx5000 notebook with the help of my friend. this laptop has an
inbuilt wireless card which shows up as (my friend's idea) :

0000:02:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g
Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company: Unknown device 12f4
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr-
Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort-
<TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
Latency: 64
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 18
Region 0: Memory at e8204000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]

i used ndiswrapper to install the windows driver from the cdrom :

/home/kemal# ndiswrapper -i /media/cdrom0/SWSetup/WLAN1/bcmwl5.inf
Installing bcmwl5
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
/home/kemal# /sbin/iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

/home/kemal# ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
bcmwl5 driver present, hardware present

how do i get the interface wlan0 to come up ?

thx.

Kemal Celebi <kemal-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>hi
>
>i just left microsoft xp behind and installed debian testing on my hp
>pavilion zx5000 notebook with the help of my friend. this laptop has an
>inbuilt wireless card which shows up as (my friend's idea) :
>
>0000:02:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g
>Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)

Typical of HP laptops... :-)

>i used ndiswrapper to install the windows driver from the cdrom :
>
>/home/kemal# ndiswrapper -i /media/cdrom0/SWSetup/WLAN1/bcmwl5.inf

okay... that installed ndiswrapper>

>/home/kemal# ndiswrapper -l
>Installed ndis drivers:
>bcmwl5 driver present, hardware present

And this told you it is now available>

>how do i get the interface wlan0 to come up ?

Follow the rest of the instructions??? As someone else
recommends, reading the instructions is always a good idea.
All you are missing is

modprobe ndiswrapper

which you can do manually the first time, just to see if it
works. But then you need that to be done automatically at boot
time. That is specific to your particular distribution, and I
have no idea how debian does it. Regardless, it can't be too
difficult to figure out how a new module is added to the mix
with debian.

But there are a couple other things you might want to think
about as soon as you get it to work (or sooner if the above
modprobe fails).

Note on the web site for docs it says *not* to use the driver
off your CD, but to download a known to work version list at a
specified URL. Generally that is a good idea, though with the
Broadcom/HP mix I don't think you'll have a problem. Otherwise,
these drivers don't change names with different versions, and
there are several slightly different bcmwl5 drivers around. If
I remember right (without looking) there is also a bcmwl5a
driver that worked on my HP laptop too.

If you do have the source code to you linux kernel and have
compiled it (and if you haven't compiled a customized kernel,
you *should*), then you should find the latest version of
ndiswrapper and the latest wireless tools package, and compile
those for use if the one you have is not the same.

--
Floyd L. Davidson <http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) (E-Mail Removed)

Floyd L. Davidson wrote:


>>/home/kemal# ndiswrapper -i /media/cdrom0/SWSetup/WLAN1/bcmwl5.inf
>
> okay... that installed ndiswrapper>
>
>>/home/kemal# ndiswrapper -l
>>Installed ndis drivers:
>>bcmwl5 driver present, hardware present
>
> And this told you it is now available>
>
>>how do i get the interface wlan0 to come up ?
>
> Follow the rest of the instructions??? As someone else
> recommends, reading the instructions is always a good idea.
> All you are missing is
>
> modprobe ndiswrapper

doesn't work.

/home/kemal# modprobe ndiswrapper
modprobe: Can't locate module ndiswrapper

i wonder what i am missing.

> But there are a couple other things you might want to think
> about as soon as you get it to work (or sooner if the above
> modprobe fails).

but ndiswrapper module does not seem to be accessible. that shows that there
is a problem with ndiswrapper installation, not the broadcom driver (at
least so far).

> If you do have the source code to you linux kernel and have
> compiled it (and if you haven't compiled a customized kernel,
> you *should*), then you should find the latest version of
> ndiswrapper and the latest wireless tools package, and compile
> those for use if the one you have is not the same.
>

my friend calls it the first brain operation i will do. i will wait a few
days for that step.

Kemal Celebi <kemal-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>Floyd L. Davidson wrote:
>
>>>/home/kemal# ndiswrapper -i /media/cdrom0/SWSetup/WLAN1/bcmwl5.inf
>>
>> okay... that installed ndiswrapper>
>>
>>>/home/kemal# ndiswrapper -l
>>>Installed ndis drivers:
>>>bcmwl5 driver present, hardware present
>>
>> And this told you it is now available>
>>
>>>how do i get the interface wlan0 to come up ?
>>
>> Follow the rest of the instructions??? As someone else
>> recommends, reading the instructions is always a good idea.
>> All you are missing is
>>
>> modprobe ndiswrapper
>
>doesn't work.

There are a number of possible reasons. The module may not
have been put in a place where modprobe can locate it. Or, more
likely, it was built against a different kernel than the one
you are using.

>/home/kemal# modprobe ndiswrapper
>modprobe: Can't locate module ndiswrapper
>
>i wonder what i am missing.

A module that matches your kernel.

>> But there are a couple other things you might want to think
>> about as soon as you get it to work (or sooner if the above
>> modprobe fails).
>
>but ndiswrapper module does not seem to be accessible. that shows that there
>is a problem with ndiswrapper installation, not the broadcom driver (at
>least so far).

Yes, that is true. Unit you get ndiswrapper to actually load the
driver there is no way to know if the driver is okay or not. (BTW,
I've tried several drivers for Broadcom chips, and have yet to see
a failure. So you probably will not have difficulty finding one
that works.)

>> If you do have the source code to you linux kernel and have
>> compiled it (and if you haven't compiled a customized kernel,
>> you *should*), then you should find the latest version of
>> ndiswrapper and the latest wireless tools package, and compile
>> those for use if the one you have is not the same.
>
>my friend calls it the first brain operation i will do. i will wait a few
>days for that step.

What version of the kernel are you using?

--
Floyd L. Davidson <http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) (E-Mail Removed)