result of lspci configuring dell wireless card on thinkpad T21

[David McGlone]

On Saturday 24 November 2007 10:25:23 am ndemalia armstrong wrote:
> HI Derek and David here are the result of the LSPCI as requested
>
> :~$ lspci
Ok. Here is what we are looking for.

> Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN
> Controller (rev 03)
>
> but when I issue the ndiswrapper -l it says inffile invalid Driver just
> because i think i don't know how to install it since it's a windows base 
> driver when i try to only wine picks it up... if anyone direct me on how to
> get this driver install i'll really be greatful, I've spend tons of hours
> trying to figure this out... everything is running great except for the
> wireless card.....thanks guys for all your inputs.

Ok. I have a feeling this is gonna be a long, long discussion. :-)

First off, if ndiswrapper says it's an invalid driver then:
A: you've used ndiswrapper to install the wrong driver.

B: you're using the windows driver and it's junk. I never had success with the 
windows driver from my windows disk. Go find it on the web, I use the one 
from dell's website although I own HP's. (I have the broadcom 4318 airforce 
one using the bcm43xx driver.)

C: (this isn't likely but i'll mention it because I don't know how much you 
know about computers) But you may be trying to use the 64bit driver on a 386 
or vise versa.

D: Finally, my biggest hunch is you're system is still trying to use the 
broken bcm43xx driver supplied with kubuntu that _doesn't_ work. You need to 
blacklist it.

Here is what I suggest first.

1. use ndiswrapper to uninstall the driver that you have uninstalled.

2. completely remove ndiswrapper and reboot your system. Then after you 
reboot, open a console and type sudo find / -name ndiswrapper*. Now remove 
*Everything* related to ndiswrapper _EXCEPT_ the folder /etc/ndiswrapper but 
make sure you remove everything _in_ the folder.

Next open /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and add this line at the very bottom:
blacklist bcm43xx. (you may not need to do this, but it's hard to diagnose 
problems though e-mail so I ask you to do it just to make sure it's not 
interfering with ndiswrapper)

Now issue the command sudo rmmod bcm43xx.

Now download & install the latest version of ndiswrapper. Don't use the one 
supplied with kubuntu.

Then find your driver for your card and put it in your /home. Now go into your 
folder where you unpacked ndiswrapper and issue the command ndiswrapper -i 
~/folder_you_put_your_driver_in/driver_name.

After you do this, issue ndiswrapper -l again and it should say something 
like:

driver name  driver installed hardware present.

Do all that listed and post back your results of ndiswrapper -l and lspci and 
we'll take it from there.

-- 
Today is what happened to yesterday.