| | A couple of weeks ago I downloaded Ubuntu's new release 8.04 (Hardy Heron) to my Dell Vostro 1000 which dual boots Ubuntu and Vista. Unfortunately, my wireless card has become inoperable since the new 8.04 install. Thanks to Ubuntu Forums, I was able to setup the previous version 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) fairly easy. The biggest problem I had with 7.10 as well was getting the wireless card to function properly. I don't recall the exact method I used to get the wireless card to work 7.10, but it involved using the software driver known as NDISwrapper. Well, this time after going through several Ubuntu Forums posts, and gathering bits and pieces of information, I developed a resolution for my particular case. Apparently, NDISwrapper is no longer necessary with this new 8.04 install. You just need the Broadcom 43XX drivers to solve the wireless card problem, and they can be extracted with a utility known as fwcutter. This applies for people that have a Dell Vostro 1000 with a 1390 WLAN; this may or may not work for other variations, but you have to determine what hardware you have to get the best results. When you take a look at Ubuntu Forums, you will notice that some people have success and some people don't. If you want the best outcome, just make sure you have the hardware I mentioned. Hit F2 before your system boots to enter Setup or just simply take a look at the packing slip that comes with your system. I hope maybe this can help someone so here goes. Connect to the Internet with a hard line, open a terminal and type the commands that follow:
sudo rmmod ndiswrapper
sudo ndiswrapper -e bcmwl5
sudo apt-get remove ndiswrapper-utils
The above commands ensure that you have removed all versions of NDISwrapper.
sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter
wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2
tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2
The above commands download and extract the fwcutter utility and retrieve the Broadcom wireless drivers. Once these sets of commands are input, you should notice your Wi-Fi light come on. Restart your computer, and now you can enjoy using Ubuntu 8.04 with a wireless internet connection. Enjoy…
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