Don't you love reading about network adapter configuration and the installation instructions tell you to download the latest drivers? Funny thing is, I see this more often than not in official documents. To make things worse, Ubuntu 8.04 (aka Hardy Heron) did not only not have the ndiswrapper packages pre-installed out-of-the-box but they didn't even include the packages on the CD! So you may be wondering, how then are you able to get your wireless adapter working?

Well, that is where this article comes in handy. My laptop is a Compaq Presario V5305WM. The following steps explain how I was able to get my wireless adapter working without any previous wired network access. Please note that I assume you are on a network without any encryption such as WEP or WPA. If you are using any of these protocols, you will need to configure the wireless network settings accordingly.

First off, if you don't already have a wired Internet connection you will need to dust off that old Gutsy Gibbon CD if you have it. Otherwise, you will need to get it from a friend or download the packages from another system and put them on a USB drive. You can then just sudo dpkg -i the deb files from the USB drive in Terminal instead of using Synaptic Package Manager as explained in the steps below. I will assume you have the CD, so follow along if you do.

Prerequisite: If you don't have a Windows driver CD, download the Broadcom BCM4318 drivers, extract them in Windows and then copy the files bcmwl5.inf and bcmwl5.sys to your Ubuntu system.

• Bring up the Ubuntu desktop
• Insert the Gutsy Gibbon CD in the drive
• From the menu, select System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager
• From the menu, select Settings > Repositories
• Click the Third-Party Software tab
• Click the Add CD-ROM... button and then Close when finished
• Click the Ubuntu Software tab and make sure the Installable from CD-ROM/DVD box has a checked entry in it that says CD-ROM with Ubuntu 7.10 'Gutsy Gibbon'
• Close Software Sources
• Click the Search menu icon
• Type ndiswrapper in the Search: box and then click the Search button
• Click the boxes ndiswrapper-common and ndiswrapper-utils-1.9 and Mark for Installation
• Click the Apply menu icon
• Close Synaptic Package Manager
• Open Terminal and enter the commands as follows:
• $ cd /driver/files/directory (replace with your directory)
• $ ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
•  
• $ sudo gedit /etc/init.d/wirelessfix.sh
• Add the following lines:
• #!/bin/bash
• modprobe -r b44
• modprobe -r b43
• modprobe -r b43legacy
• modprobe -r ssb
• modprobe -r ndiswrapper
• modprobe ndiswrapper
• modprobe b44
•  
• $ cd /etc/init.d/ && sudo chmod 755 wirelessfix.sh
• $ sudo update-rc.d wirelessfix.sh defaults
• Reboot and enjoy wireless networking!

For more information, refer to the following:

• 1. Compaq installation instructions for Broadcom BCM4318 drivers
• 2. List of cards known to work with ndiswrapper
• 3. Hints for ndiswrapper troubleshooting

I hope this article was useful for anyone else with Broadcom BCM4318 wireless adapter configuration woes. Please feel free to add any comments or suggestions.