Hello everyone. I just finished installing drivers for a built-in Broadcom AirForceOne 54g (bcm4318) wireless network adapter. I spent a day and half trying to get this working, and now I want to share the procedure with everyone. One thing to keep in mind is that this procedure is universal, although I have not tested this on other systems, this procedure should work with the other Broadcom cards - bcm43xx, etc. The procedure will cover my specific case.
I am currently writing this post on an HP Pavilion dv1000 laptop, with the Intel Celeron M processor.
Here we go:
NOTE: You are about to perform an administrative task. It is best to this as the root user. It is possible to do this as a regular user as well, but I recommend to switch to root, since you will have to download a driver (I like to keep all system-related files in the root account)
1) Download this file: 80211g.zip from www.download.com
If you cannot download it from there, Google this, exactly as you see here in italicized font. You do not have to register with any website to download the file, this is a driver for hardware; it must be available to anyone who needs it. If the website requires registration, go somewhere else.
2)Extract this archive to your hard drive, for purposes of simplicity, extract it to the home folder
3)Go to the network control panel. Choose ndiswrapper. Choose the bcmwl5.inf file.
4)See if the adapter works now. Try to connect to your wireless network. In my case, the Wi-Fi light started blinking. Once I connected to my network, the light was steady.
In STEP 3, you will realize that you ca choose between several .inf files. Choose the one I just specified here. If it does not work, choose another. I'm pretty sure that the first one should work.
The 80211g.zip file is a set of drivers for an Acer laptop. As you can see, you don't need to worry about your laptop model. The beauty of Ndiswrapper is that it works as long as you can get the .inf file. Remember this: all hardware drivers (at least for Windows anyway) must include an .inf file to be installed in the OS.
Apparently, Broadcom's adapters always require extracting the firmware. This is probably Broadcom's doing, to protect their technology. However, in this case, it is not required! For future reference, remember this: search for the drivers to your hardware. If the manufacturer does not have it, someone else does.
I am currently writing this post on an HP Pavilion dv1000 laptop, with the Intel Celeron M processor.
Here we go:
NOTE: You are about to perform an administrative task. It is best to this as the root user. It is possible to do this as a regular user as well, but I recommend to switch to root, since you will have to download a driver (I like to keep all system-related files in the root account)
1) Download this file: 80211g.zip from www.download.com
If you cannot download it from there, Google this, exactly as you see here in italicized font. You do not have to register with any website to download the file, this is a driver for hardware; it must be available to anyone who needs it. If the website requires registration, go somewhere else.
2)Extract this archive to your hard drive, for purposes of simplicity, extract it to the home folder
3)Go to the network control panel. Choose ndiswrapper. Choose the bcmwl5.inf file.
4)See if the adapter works now. Try to connect to your wireless network. In my case, the Wi-Fi light started blinking. Once I connected to my network, the light was steady.
In STEP 3, you will realize that you ca choose between several .inf files. Choose the one I just specified here. If it does not work, choose another. I'm pretty sure that the first one should work.
The 80211g.zip file is a set of drivers for an Acer laptop. As you can see, you don't need to worry about your laptop model. The beauty of Ndiswrapper is that it works as long as you can get the .inf file. Remember this: all hardware drivers (at least for Windows anyway) must include an .inf file to be installed in the OS.
Apparently, Broadcom's adapters always require extracting the firmware. This is probably Broadcom's doing, to protect their technology. However, in this case, it is not required! For future reference, remember this: search for the drivers to your hardware. If the manufacturer does not have it, someone else does.