Dell Wireless and Ubuntu Hardy Heron

May 31, 2008 · Filed Under Linux 

dellbuntu.jpg

I have a Dell Inspiron 1520 with the Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card, one that has given many Linux users big headaches.

After trying many different approaches suggested all over the web, and gathering clues in many Ubuntu forum posts, I finally worked out this solution:

First of all you must check if you have the correct card:

lspci -nn | grep 14e4

Result: 05:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI [14e4:4311 (rev 01)]

Then proceed to the first step:

1. blacklist bcm43xx

echo blacklist bcm43xx | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

2. install ndiswrapper and related files

sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-common ndiswrapper-utils-1.9 ndisgtk

3. download http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R174291.exe

this is a ridiculous bit of bloat, but the most complete INF for 43xx devices

4. Unzip the drivers.

5. go into folder DRIVER_US inside the result of what you did above

6. use ndiswrapper to install bcmwl5.inf

System -> Administration -> Windows Wireless Drivers -> Install New Driver -> Select bcmwl5.inf from ~/R151517/DRIVER_US

7. Modify rc.local

gksudo gedit /etc/rc.local

Insert these lines ABOVE “exit 0″ line:

modprobe -r b44
modprobe -r ssb
modprobe -r ndiswrapper
modprobe ndiswrapper
modprobe ssb
modprobe b44

8. Restart or simply paste one by one the following lines:

$ sudo rmmod b44
$ sudo rmmod ssb
$ sudo rmmod ndiswrapper
$ sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
$ sudo modprobe ssb
$ sudo modprobe b44

You should see the WiFi led on and you are good to go.

Comments

18 Responses to “Dell Wireless and Ubuntu Hardy Heron”

  1. bas on May 17th, 2008 7:11 pm

    Thnx a lot this helpt me whit my inspiron 1525 lapttop.

    Regrads Bas

  2. Vlad on May 18th, 2008 2:22 am

    I am glad I could help…

  3. Felipe on May 26th, 2008 7:31 am

    Yeah! Great, it works perfectly on my Dell precision M4300. The 1395 wireless card just start working after reboot allowing me to leave this reply.

    Thanks a lot.

  4. Vlad on May 26th, 2008 11:54 am

    Avec plaisir :D

  5. William Brown on June 13th, 2008 10:37 am

    Worked great for DELL 1525 wireless 1395 (Broadcom 4315 chipset BCM4310). Thanks William
    PS I have no ssb module but wireless works

  6. Vlad on June 13th, 2008 3:06 pm

    May I recommend WICD http://wicd.sourceforge.net/ ?
    It simplifies Ubuntu’s network manager.

  7. Niki Liu on July 5th, 2008 11:21 am

    This was the single most helpful and lifesaving post I’ve read in my entire life.

    I don’t know how to thank you enough!

  8. bill on July 5th, 2008 11:13 pm

    Please HELP–

    i have the following problem- it ran incorrectly, and now i can not remove it, or reinstall it. If i try to reinstall it, it says it is already installed. If i try to remove it - it says inappropriate ioctl for device….

    bill@Archimedes:~/download/driver$ ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
    driver bcmwl5 is already installed
    bill@Archimedes:~/download/driver$ ndiswrapper -l
    bcmwl5 : invalid driver!
    bill@Archimedes:~/download/driver$ gksudo gedit /etc/rc.local
    ndiswra
    ndiswrapper
    bill@Archimedes:~/download/driver$ ndiswra
    bash: ndiswra: command not found
    bill@Archimedes:~/download/driver$ ndiswrapper
    install/manage Windows drivers for ndiswrapper

    usage: ndiswrapper OPTION
    -i inffile install driver described by ‘inffile’
    -a devid driver use installed ‘driver’ for ‘devid’ (dangerous)
    -r driver remove ‘driver’
    -l list installed drivers
    -m write configuration for modprobe
    -ma write module alias configuration for all devices
    -mi write module install configuration for all devices
    -v report version information

    where ‘devid’ is either PCIID or USBID of the form XXXX:XXXX,
    as reported by ‘lspci -n’ or ‘lsusb’ for the card
    bill@Archimedes:~/download/driver$ ndiswrapper -r bcmwl5
    couldn’t delete /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5: Inappropriate ioctl for device

  9. bill on July 5th, 2008 11:33 pm

    ok i got by the above by going to system, administration, windows wireless drivers, and removing it.

    but now when i go back to the terminal to reinstall it, i get permission denied…

    bill@Archimedes:~/download/driver/DRIVER_US$ ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
    couldn’t create /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5: Permission denied at /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper-1.9 line 194.
    bill@Archimedes:~/download/driver/DRIVER_US$

  10. bill on July 9th, 2008 1:30 am

    and that line of that file reads as follows…

    mkdir(”$confdir/$driver_name”) or

  11. Glenn on July 12th, 2008 8:12 am

    It worked great for my DELL Inspiron 1525 wireless 1395. Thank you!

  12. bill on July 12th, 2008 11:02 pm

    ok I got it! thanks!

  13. Vlad on July 14th, 2008 6:06 pm

    Sorry I was unable to respond but I took a little vacation :D I’m glad you figured it out.

  14. ron on July 24th, 2008 5:51 am

    Thanks Vlad, i’ve got my bcm4318 working with ndiswrapper now on an Acer TM2480 running hardy. all other threads i checked were first of all way tooooooo looooooong and second of all most of those used the much slower native linux driver and not ndiswrapper. in my case i already had ndiswrapper installed via the package manager including ndisgtk for a nice gui to install the bcmwl5.inf file and only needed step 7 from this guide. Thanks mate, this is what we simple guys need to stay up to scratch with our linux boxes; clear and to the point!

    ron

  15. Ploysics. » Blog Archive » Ubuntu : Vostro 1310 หา wireless 1395 (Broadcom) ไม่เจอ on July 31st, 2008 8:18 pm

    [...] แต่ Dell vostro 1310 wireless 1395 หรือรุ่นอื่นๆ เป็น ไวเลส Broadcom 4310 ไม่มีในลิส support สามารถทำได้ตาม dell-wireless-1395-card-and-ubuntu-hardy-heron [...]

  16. Oliver on August 12th, 2008 10:36 pm

    Awesome! I’ve spent hours trying to figure this out. Thank you very much.

  17. cameron on August 16th, 2008 12:51 am

    hey guys, noob here. this post would really help, but where do i type all of this in at? do i open a terminal and type this stuff in there?

  18. Vlad on August 18th, 2008 6:07 pm

    You type it in a konsole and only at paragraph 7 you modify the file rc.local.

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