Looking to install Ubuntu or alternative.

[T_Yamamoto]

But the problem is that Linux drivers for my WiFi card doesn't exist the WiFi card is around 6 years old tol

 

[lxskllr]

What is the exact card with model and revision number?

 

[Ken g6]

If you're sure there are no Linux drivers for your card:

How to Install a Wireless Card in Linux Using Windows Drivers

 

[TSDible]

Is this a laptop?

You can also consider swapping the wireless card... it is cheap and easy to do in most cases.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

This is a desktop

Buffalo Wireless-G WLI2-PCI-G545

 

[lxskllr]

That appears to be an antique. Have you tried booting to a live session, and playing with it? I'm finding almost nothing on the web.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

That appears to be an antique. Have you tried booting to a live session, and playing with it? I'm finding almost nothing on the web.

It is an antique. And I dunno what that means

 

[lxskllr]

It is an antique. And I dunno what that means

Download a live CD/USB, boot to it, and try to get the wireless going in a live session. A live session is temporary, and any changes made to the GNU/Linux system will be lost on reboot. Alternatively, you could do a real install to a USB drive if you have one that's big enough.

If the rest of your computer is about as old as the wireless, I'd try Xubuntu as a start. Regular Ubuntu might be a little heavy. What are the rest of the system specs?

 

[ControlD]

How do you know that there are no Linux drivers for your card? Looking at the user reviews of that card on Newegg there are a few people reporting that it works fine with older versions of Ubuntu (7.04). Perhaps support has been removed out of the box in newer versions.

Here is a thread showing how to get the card working in 10.10 server. Getting the card working in newer versions should follow similar steps.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1620150

Here is the Ubuntu documentation for the chipset that your card uses (Broadcom 4306). There is an open source driver available for the chipset.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx

In general with older hardware don't look for the brand name, look for the chip or chipset that the hardware uses. Chances are there will be a driver out there.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Download a live CD/USB, boot to it, and try to get the wireless going in a live session. A live session is temporary, and any changes made to the GNU/Linux system will be lost on reboot. Alternatively, you could do a real install to a USB drive if you have one that's big enough.

If the rest of your computer is about as old as the wireless, I'd try Xubuntu as a start. Regular Ubuntu might be a little heavy. What are the rest of the system specs?

My bastard pc specs are as follows (upgraded using parts generously gifted
By the people in my SIG)

E4300
3.5gb ram
9800gt 512mb
250gb+160gb(Ubuntu will be on this one)
Whatever power supply.

How do you know that there are no Linux drivers for your card? Looking at the user reviews of that card on Newegg there are a few people reporting that it works fine with older versions of Ubuntu (7.04). Perhaps support has been removed out of the box in newer versions.

Here is a thread showing how to get the card working in 10.10 server. Getting the card working in newer versions should follow similar steps.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1620150

Here is the Ubuntu documentation for the chipset that your card uses (Broadcom 4306). There is an open source driver available for the chipset.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx

In general with older hardware don't look for the brand name, look for the chip or chipset that the hardware uses. Chances are there will be a driver out there.

Alright. I'll do this tomorrow and look into it.

 

[lxskllr]

That's a pretty good machine. Ubuntu should run fine. I still prefer Xubuntu, but that's personal preference. If you have the bandwidth, download these and load them onto a 1gb minimum thumb drive using unetbootin. You can do that in Windows. After loading one on a drive, boot to it, and try it out. Core operation will be the same between them, but the desktops are fairly different, and give them a different feel. You could also burn them to CDs/DVDs(size dependent), but optical discs suck.

Ubuntu
Xubuntu
Kubuntu
Mint Cinnamon edition

 

[bbhaag]

Why is Broadcom such a pain in the ass for Linux based systems?

My Acer laptop uses' one and it took hours of googling to find out how to bypass it just to get Peppermint(an Ubuntu variant) to install. I had the same problem with Xubuntu to. Even a live session wouldn't work with either distro.
I finally got Peppermint installed then I had to edit the grub on reboot so the system wouldn't hang. After that I had to go into the terminal and type some special command(sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer) just to load the drivers for the damn wifi adapter.

Seriously what is the hang up with Ubuntu and Broadcom wifi? I'd really like to know because it's a headache for first time users who are curious about Linux distros.

 

[lxskllr]

Seriously what is the hang up with Ubuntu and Broadcom wifi? I'd really like to know because it's a headache for first time users who are curious about Linux distros.

It's a Broadcom issue, not Ubuntu. I think they've been doing better recently, but their older chipsets were closed with zero support. Intel and Atheros are the ones you want for an easy experience.

 

[dawp]

maybe try fedora? when I had trouble getting my wireless adapter to work in opensuse I tried fedora and it worked just fine, it's a linksys wusb600n v2.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

I hate how some of these ways tell me to get a hard line connection but the room with the router is on the other side of the house -_- I'll try today after school.

 

[Nothinman]

Why is Broadcom such a pain in the ass for Linux based systems?

My Acer laptop uses' one and it took hours of googling to find out how to bypass it just to get Peppermint(an Ubuntu variant) to install. I had the same problem with Xubuntu to. Even a live session wouldn't work with either distro.
I finally got Peppermint installed then I had to edit the grub on reboot so the system wouldn't hang. After that I had to go into the terminal and type some special command(sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer) just to load the drivers for the damn wifi adapter.

Seriously what is the hang up with Ubuntu and Broadcom wifi? I'd really like to know because it's a headache for first time users who are curious about Linux distros.

Because Broadcom makes crap hardware and doesn't like to release specs for their chipsets so that 3rd party drivers can be written nor will they make the firmware redistributable so that it can be easily included/installed in Linux distros, instead they embed it within the Windows drivers so a tool like the one you mentioned are necessary to extract it so that the Linux drivers can load it onto the card so it can be more than a dumb radio.

As Broadcom has become more prolific things have gotten better, but not a whole lot relative to hardware put out by others like Intel or Atheros. The only reason I can fathom for them staying relevant and actually becoming as popular as they are is OEM deals with companies like Dell. Because lord knows they haven't become popular on technical merits.

I hate how some of these ways tell me to get a hard line connection but the room with the router is on the other side of the house -_- I'll try today after school.

Yes, it sucks but it's necessary with Windows too in many cases. Hell, Windows probably won't have ethernet drivers out of the box either so you're required to have an entire second machine handy so that you can download the drivers there since it's impossible to do so on the PC you're installing.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

I'll download the OS at school and burn it onto a CD.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Okay, I dunno what to download for drivers.

EDit: Found it

b43 - No Internet access


If you do not have any other means of Internet access from Ubuntu, then you will have to download the firmware from another computer with Internet access, from an existing OS on another partition, or before you install Ubuntu. You will also need the b43-fwcutter package which is usually included on the install media or can be downloaded from the official online repositories.

1. 
   Install the b43-fwcutter package. This is usually located on the Ubuntu install media under /cdrom/pool/main/b/b43-fwcutter/ or you can download the binary '.deb' package by following the links on launchpad.
   Double click on the package to install or in a Terminal issue the following commands: cd /cdrom/pool/main/b/b43-fwcutter/sudo dpkg -i b43-fwcutter*
2. 
   On a computer with Internet access, download the required firmware file:
   
   b43legacy - http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
   b43 (10.04 Lucid Lynx) - http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
   b43 (12.04 Precise Pangolin) - http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-5.10.56.27.3_mipsel.tar.bz2
   For the latest information on what files to download see http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#Other_distributions_not_mentioned_above and http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43/developers .
3. 
   Copy the downloaded file to your home folder. Open a new Terminal and use b43-fwcutter to extract and install the firmware:
   
   b43legacy sudo b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
   b43 (10.04 Lucid Lynx) tar xfvj broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2sudo b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver/wl_apsta_mimo.o
   b43 (12.04 Precise Pangolin) tar xfvj broadcom-wl-5.10.56.27.3_mipsel.tar.bz2sudo b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware broadcom-wl-5.10.56.27.3/driver/wl_apsta/wl_prebuilt.o
4. Restart the computer or reload the b43/b43legacy module as outlined in the Switching between drivers section below (replace b43 with b43legacy where appropriate).

 

[todpod]

Check out this thread. I did get it to work

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2298893

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Still no cigar.

Did everything it told me to but didn't work. :c

Anyone want to help me with a step by step?

The method i tried was the fwcutter, which didnt work...i think.

 

[lxskllr]

What chipset is it?

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Bcm 4306

 

[lxskllr]

Try downloading this, double clicking it, and then restarting your computer.

http://ubuntu.cafuego.net/pool/hardy-cafuego/broadcom/bcm43xx-firmware_1.4-0cafuego1_all.deb

What version of Ubuntu are you using?

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Ubuntu 12.10
I'll try it when I get home

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Fw cutter is installed but can't tell if drivers are installed....