31
May

Dell Wireless and Ubuntu Hardy Heron

   Posted by: Vlad   in Linux

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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.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 31st, 2008 at 1:23 pm and is filed under Linux. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

21 comments so far

bas
 1 

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

Regrads Bas

May 17th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Vlad
 2 

I am glad I could help…

May 18th, 2008 at 2:22 am
Felipe
 3 

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.

May 26th, 2008 at 7:31 am
Vlad
 4 

Avec plaisir :D

May 26th, 2008 at 11:54 am
William Brown
 5 

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

June 13th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Vlad
 6 

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

June 13th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Niki Liu
 7 

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!

July 5th, 2008 at 11:21 am
bill
 8 

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

July 5th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
bill
 9 

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$

July 5th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
bill
 10 

and that line of that file reads as follows…

mkdir(”$confdir/$driver_name”) or

July 9th, 2008 at 1:30 am
Glenn
 11 

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

July 12th, 2008 at 8:12 am
bill
 12 

ok I got it! thanks!

July 12th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Vlad
 13 

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

July 14th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
ron
 14 

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

July 24th, 2008 at 5:51 am
Oliver
 15 

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

August 12th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
cameron
 16 

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?

August 16th, 2008 at 12:51 am
Vlad
 17 

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

August 18th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Antonio
 18 

Hi, I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 with laptop with a a wireless 1395 WLAN mini-card, i ran the Kubuntu 8.04 live CD and it doesn’t detect the card. I haven’t installed it yet but I don’t think is going to work either, so here’s my question(and i hope it’s not too dumb), do you think your solution would work for my wireless card? because i’ve been doing some reading and it seems the 1390 and the 1395 are pretty similar just like ubuntu and kubuntu, I just wanted to know, because it seems like it’s going to take some time to apply your solution and if it’s definitely not going to work i would’t want to waste all of that time. Thank you!

August 29th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Vlad
 19 

I thinks it will work, but if it doesn’t you can try downloading a different windows driver for your 1395 card. Ubuntu and Kubuntu are the same only the gdm is different.

August 29th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Shyam
 20 

i am using Dell 1420 laptop…I dont have the driver for 1395 minicard. i can use it while using windows.. but i cant, if i am using ubuntu…. please help

August 29th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Vikas Jain
 21 

Hi,

Thank you very much. Your guide solved my problem.
I had installed bcmlw6.inf (this comes with Vista) but does not work with ubuntu 8.04. I followed your guide and installed bcmlw5.inf (windows xp version) for my DELL inspiron 1525 with Wireless lan. It is working fine now.

Thanks again!

September 18th, 2008 at 6:54 pm

2 Trackbacks/Pings

  1. Ploysics. » Blog Archive » Ubuntu : Vostro 1310 หา wireless 1395 (Broadcom) ไม่เจอ    Jul 31 2008 / 8pm:

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

  2. Dell Wireless 1395 WLAN Karte unter Ubuntu installieren « Eitopomar    Sep 30 2008 / 10pm:

    [...] das Inspiron 1525 jetzt vollkommen “ubuntukompatibel” ist. Im folgenden fasse ich die original Anleitung zusammen und ergänze sie um einige [...]

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