How To Install Your Broadcom BCM4318 Using Ndiswrapper

From FedoraNEWS.ORG

Written by Carlos Peraza on 2005-11-21

I have a compaq presario V2312US AMD Turion 64 with a Broadcom Corporation BCM4318. I will be installing the ndiswrapper driver using yum and livna repo.

1. My laptop uses a Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller. 2. I am attaching the windows driver to be use for installation. So just download it!

I will be using the livna repository if you already have it skip this part:

Become root in terminal and run:

gedit /etc/yum.conf

and add this lines:

[livna]
name=Livna for Fedora Core $releasever - $basearch - Base
baseurl=http://rpm.livna.org/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.lvn
        http://livna.cat.pdx.edu/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.lvn
        http://wftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/linux/livna/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.lvn
        http://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/rpm.livna.org/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.lvn
#mirrorlist=http://rpm.livna.org/mirrorlist
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-livna

Click on save and done. Now run this command to install ndiswrapper:

yum install ndiswrapper kernel-module-ndiswrapper-$(uname -r)

Please be aware that everytime you upgrade the kernel you have to re-install ndiswrapper.

This is an example of the livna repo installing ndiswrapper:

============================================================================
 Package                 Arch       Version          Repository        Size
=============================================================================
Installing:
 kernel-module-ndiswrapper-2.6.14-1.1637_FC4  i686       1.5-0.lvn.1.4    livna              81 k
 ndiswrapper             i386       1.5-0.lvn.1.4    livna              24 k

Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install      2 Package(s)
Update       0 Package(s)
Remove       0 Package(s)
Total download size: 105 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/2): kernel-module-ndis 100% |=========================|  81 kB    00:02
(2/2): ndiswrapper-1.5-0. 100% |=========================|  24 kB    00:00
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
  Installing: ndiswrapper                  ######################### [1/2]
  Installing: kernel-module-ndiswrapper-2. ######################### [2/2]

Installed: kernel-module-ndiswrapper-2.6.14-1.1637_FC4.i686 0:1.5-0.lvn.1.4 ndiswrapper.i386 0:1.5-0.lvn.1.4
Complete!

Create a folder in your home directory (dont name it since we will trash it) and download the driver needed from acer website: ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_3020_5020/driver/80211g.zip

Once downloaded right click on folder and extract the 80211g.zip into the folder you created. You will need 2 files to make ndiswrapper work:

A) bcmwl5.inf B) bcmwl5.sys

which you can put in another folder which most of the community is naming bcmwl. If you are good in creating folder from terminal use by all means use it. If not, think of yourself using ms windows to create folders because it has same principle.

From terminal cd folder or directory where the windows driver is now located:

cd bcmwl

As root install driver with ndiswrapper command:

/usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf

Installing bcmwl5
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2
[root@FC4Laptop bcmwl]#

View installation of driver:

/usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -l

[root@FC4Laptop bcmwl]#/usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
bcmwl5          driver present, hardware present

Create an alias in /etc/modprobe.conf

/usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -m

[root@FC4Laptop bcmwl]# /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -m
Adding "alias wlan0 ndiswrapper" to /etc/modprobe.conf
[root@FC4Laptop bcmwl]#

Go to System Tools >Internet Configuration Wizard > enter root's password and select >Wireless Connection and DONE! :D

Truly yours: imdeemvp