BROADCOM 802.11g Wireless Drivers for Kubuntu

[Landrious]

Ok. I'm new to Linux in any form. I tried Linspire and could not get the thing to install to a hard disk properly. A friend suggested Kubuntu and it installed to my computer with little trouble. I like what I see so far and haven't found much to dislike.

About the system.
Computer is an Acer Aspire 3000 Laptop
Sempron 3000+ CPU
1.28 gigs DDR PC2700 (333) Ram
and a Toshiba 40 gig HD
It has a built in BROADCOM 802.11g Wireless card .

the problem is that while Kubuntu says the wireless device is there it will not let me enable the device .

I'm on a wireless network at home and this makes it very difficult for me to access the internet. If I can learn to use this OS and get this problem fixed I intend to migrate my entire network to it and off of Microsquish. Vista is not a nightmare I wish to endure!

When I tell the system to enable to device it turns green for a second and then goes right back to red and disabled. The built in 10/100 card has no problems and I can access the net though it but that defeats the purpose of having bought a laptop with built in wireless Help!! Please!

[sky]

Re: BROADCOM 802.11g Wireless Drivers for Kubuntu

Hi,

I think you should make a search on the forum or on wiki to find info about how to install a broadcom wifi card, I think you will need to install ndiswrapper and there's quite a lot of posts about this here
For example this one :
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=10383.0

Cheers

[jnorris235]

Re: BROADCOM 802.11g Wireless Drivers for Kubuntu

When I try to follow instructions such as:
login as root, and extract the files to the root folder, so you should have two folders:

1) /root/ndiswrapper-1.15/
2) /root/wpnt511_v1104/

Next, from the root directory, cd to ndiswrapper-1.15

root> cd ndiswrapper-1.5
root> make distclean
root> make
root> make install

I get Command not found.
I am then advised to use apt-get but since I can't get online.....and typing it in Konsole just says "Couldn't find package 'make'"

I must have read 40 or 50 posts and not one clear one (to a newbie)

What, please am I supposed to do about the 'make' command?

[sky]

Re: BROADCOM 802.11g Wireless Drivers for Kubuntu

Hi,

For this, you should install a metapackage called build-essential. You should be able to find it.
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install build-essential

Then it should work much better.

Cheers

[jnorris235]

Re: BROADCOM 802.11g Wireless Drivers for Kubuntu

No offence but you sound like a real Linux guy!! I'm a newby and you lost me within the first few words.
Since I cannot get the wireless thing to work I STILL don't see how I'm supposed to do all this apt-get stuff!
One computer wont see the printer and the other wont see the network.
Gosh Windows seemed good in retrospect....
Thanks anyway - not being rude!

[sky]

Re: BROADCOM 802.11g Wireless Drivers for Kubuntu

Hi,

Sorry for being so technical. In fact, as I read I've understood you're able to access internet by the wire connection right ?
If yes, just go in k menu, Run command, type in "konsole" then enter.
type in :
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get build-essential

If it's not working, can you give the output of what you get as result of this command.

Cheers

[jnorris235]

Re: BROADCOM 802.11g Wireless Drivers for Kubuntu

No!! No connection at all on the desktop, only on the laptop.

I have a laptop on which I tried kubuntu v6.06
All is fine (except for the printer - it sees it, sends to it, nothing prints) - and kubuntu is fabulous. It uses it's own internal wireless.

I have a desktop on which I have just put kubuntu.
All is fine - it even prints!!!
However it doesn't see any network. It uses a Netgear (Belkin) pre-n card F5D8000.

I understand from a mass of reading that I must use ndiswrapper.
However on the desktop, although I'm told ndiswrapper is there (by other people - I don't know the command to check this out) I don't know how to use it.

So - I can get on the net (here I am!!) but the desktop....all is quiet...

Your continued good-natured help much appreciated!!

[sky]

Re: BROADCOM 802.11g Wireless Drivers for Kubuntu

So I didn't understand well, sorry
As I don't know a lot about ndiswrapper, I can just help little bit as support on how to install it... I've found this page :
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...er/Ndiswrapper

If you don't find the packages you need to install, maybe you can download the alternate cd, I've heard ndiswrapper is installable from this cd...

Hope it helps

[jnorris235]

Re: BROADCOM 802.11g Wireless Drivers for Kubuntu

You've been more than helpful
I'll try that page you gave me.
Happy Christmas!!