Getting Ubuntu to work with my BCM 4303 card

[Cristatus]

I am currently trying to get my desktop to run Ubuntu. It runs ok so far, except that I need internet on the machine. I have a Linksys WMP 11 with a Broadcom BCM4303 chipset.

I have installed ndiswrapper to let me able to use my wireless card, but initially that made my "Network settings" lose my card. I assume that's OK, because when I tried out SuSE (about 2 years ago) i had to use some commands in the terminal to make the card scan for wireless networks, which I do no remember right now.

Anyways, I have now found the card in "Network Settings" but when I scan for wireless networks with "iwlist [interface] scanning" I get no results. I know there is a connection available (in fact, there should be at least two APs visible) because I'm also scanning from my laptop, which is sitting right next to th desktop.

My questions are as follows:
1. I have a WEP key that I know the HEX values of. Will I be able to use this key? Or will have to turn of WEP?
2. My network is set up with static IPs. Does that change any of my settings in ndiswrapper?
3. Why don't any networks show up in when I am scanning?

Thanks in advance.

(C)

PS: if you require any information, please don't hesitate to ask.

 

[drag]

Well generally speaking you should be able configure it all through the network-manager applet that should be on your desktop. It should display any aviable networks and all that.

If your using command line stuff like iwlist then you need to make sure that the interface is 'up' before doing the scanning. If it's down you won't get anything. You can do that with the 'ifconfig wa0 up' or whatever the device name is.

Disabling WEP is a good idea for now, until at least you got it working.

The Broadcom 802.11g devices should be supported by Linux without needing the ndiswrapper BS. You just need to grab the firmware image to get them to work. But yours is a 'b'-only thing, right? That isn't supported, or at least it's only partially supported. I don't know. But you will want to check and make sure that the bcm43xx driver isn't being loaded as it may conflict with your ndiswrapper stuff.

As a alternative you can probably find a more linux-friendly card for 20-30 bucks and get 'G' going...

 

[TheVrolok]

drag pretty much covered it. You also may want to search the ubuntuforums (at ubuntuforums.org). There are NUMEROUS posts abou getting various broadcom cards to work. That's originally how I learned to get mine working.

 

[Cristatus]

drag:

I'm not going to disable WEP because I have at least another 5 computers that connect to the network, and it's going to be a pain to configure them all to change the settings, and then change them back. Of course, I will do this if it is really necessary, but is there no other way around this?

Also, I don't know what I did between the time of posting this and now but the card doesn't show up in the Network configurations anymore. Just before this it did the same thing, and I got it to show up again, but it's gone again. Luckily I could move the desktop around, so it's placed near the router now, and works with a wired connection, but I still want the wireless going because it's not quite that close that it doesn't require a huge amount of cabling.

So anyways, how do I get the card to show up again?

TheVrolok:
I've tried posting at ubuntuforums, but they're so busy that you can hardly get any feedback, unless you get KevDog (I think that's his name) to notice your thread, because he seems to be the most experienced with these things.

Anyways, thanks.

 

[Skiddex]

check out Wicd, great ubuntu app for wireless. much better than network manager