Help with Wireless GCC and everything!

[VirtuallyFaceless]

Hey all! Ive decided to try out linux again after it didnt agree with me last time i tried a few years ago. So i picked up a linux magazine with a free copy of Debian 4.0 ETCH and partitioned my laptop so im running XP Media Centre and Debian. The instal was fine and all went to plan (which i was rather proud of!) anyway the main thing i wanted was to get it on the net and it would be fine, i would pretty much fully convert to Linux. Well thats enough background.

The problem is that my Wireless doesnt work. I ran lspci (or whatever it is) and found out my wireless chipset is a Broadcom BCM4318. After awhile of searching on the net (got it hooked up to the net with cable straight to router im actually sat in my hallway) i found the info i needed, i was going to use fwcutter, after a bit of trying it didnt work, when i ran the make command it came out with lots of scary errors (im a complete noob by the way) so i did some more searching, came up with ndiswrapper, tried, lots of scary errors on the make command. so i thought to myself (with my basic grasp of linux knowledge) maybe its the fact i dont have any form of compliler (lol) i ran apt-get install gcc, and it installed!!! only now i get more errors on the make command!

Its very frustrating and i would just like to know how i can solve this.

The ndiswrapper error came out with this:-

joe@debian:~/ndiswrapper-1.47$ make
make -C driver
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/joe/ndiswrapper-1.47/driver'
Can't find kernel build files in /lib/modules/2.6.18-4-amd64/build;
  give the path to kernel build directory with
  KBUILD=<path> argument to make
make[1]: *** [prereq_check] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/joe/ndiswrapper-1.47/driver'
make: *** [all] Error 2

I guessed this was a privilage isse so i switched over to a root console:-

debian:/home/joe/ndiswrapper-1.47# make
make -C driver
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/joe/ndiswrapper-1.47/driver'
Can't find kernel build files in /lib/modules/2.6.18-4-amd64/build;
  give the path to kernel build directory with
  KBUILD=<path> argument to make
make[1]: *** [prereq_check] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/joe/ndiswrapper-1.47/driver'
make: *** [all] Error 2

Then i tried with fwcutter tool, and it spewed out pages and pages of errors so here is just a snippet, the rest were very similar to this:-

fwcutter_list.h:1800: warning: excess elements in struct initializer
fwcutter_list.h:1800: warning: (near initialization for ‘files[134]’)
fwcutter_list.h:1801: error: unknown field ‘pcm5_pos’ specified in initializer
fwcutter_list.h:1801: warning: excess elements in struct initializer
fwcutter_list.h:1801: warning: (near initialization for ‘files[134]’)
fwcutter_list.h:1801: error: unknown field ‘pcm5_length’ specified in initializer
fwcutter_list.h:1801: warning: excess elements in struct initializer
fwcutter_list.h:1801: warning: (near initialization for ‘files[134]’)
fwcutter_list.h:1807: error: unknown field ‘flags’ specified in initializer
fwcutter_list.h:1808: warning: excess elements in struct initializer
fwcutter_list.h:1808: warning: (near initialization for ‘files[135]’)
fwcutter_list.h:1809: error: unknown field ‘iv_pos’ specified in initializer
fwcutter_list.h:1809: warning: excess elements in struct initializer
fwcutter_list.h:1809: warning: (near initialization for ‘files[135]’)
fwcutter_list.h:1810: error: unknown field ‘iv_map’ specified in initializer
fwcutter_list.h:1810: warning: excess elements in struct initializer
fwcutter_list.h:1810: warning: (near initialization for ‘files[135]’)
fwcutter_list.h:1811: error: unknown field ‘uc4_pos’ specified in initializer
fwcutter_list.h:1811: warning: excess elements in struct initializer
fwcutter_list.h:1811: warning: (near initialization for ‘files[135]’)

Any help would be great. Thankyou!

[daark.child]

You need to install the kernel source package in order to compile ndiswrapper. Search for kernel-source or linux-source in your package manager and install the version that matches the kernel you are running (you can find this out by doing "uname -a").

[VirtuallyFaceless]

Thankyou, that worked perfectly. The only problem now is i seem to have lost my internet connection. I have it wired up exactly as before, it even says im connected to the wired network and shows me the ip addresses and everything, i can get a connection with windows. Ive tried with another computer and its fine, so its definatly linux. Im not sure why it has just stopped. I did move the router around and extend the cable so i could sit down in my room with it, and it all seemed to work with windows, but it didnt with linux so i changed everything back to how it was before and i still cant get online (im on my other pc.)

Thankyou for having patience I don't intend to give up anytime soon.

EDIT: I have pretty much worked out how to do this now. I just have to restart my router when i boot up linux, the router has to come on second for some reason. Anyway thats just the wired bit. I now know how to install drivers etc. However i downloaded some and they were wrong, ive removed them and would like to know if anyone knows where i can get the real drivers. I tried with this address but it says theres nothing there:-

AMBIT G (Broadcom solution) Wireless LAN driver (T60H906.00)" for XP-64BIT v3.100.64.0
Acer Europe - Service & Support, Drivers & Utilities, Downloads, Notebook, Aspire 5020

Im using an Acer Aspire 5100 series.

Any ideas?

[daark.child]

Take a look at this article. Hope it helps.

[VirtuallyFaceless]

How do I do the whole repository thing? Is that what makes it download on its own?

[daark.child]

Edit /etc/apt/sourses.list and add the word "contrib" to your list of repositories.

[VirtuallyFaceless]

I don't understand. I put it in there and it didn't make any difference.

[daark.child]

Everytime you add sources to your sources.lst file, you need to update the package list by doing

#aptitude update

After that install bcm43xx-fwcutter by doing

#aptitude install bcm43xx-fwcutter