Installing Broadcom BCM4306

[_Draco]

I had a lot of problems with this so I think it would be useful to post what I found:

The card I'm talking about is a:

Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03) (information I got using command $lspci)

Installed in a Dell Inspiron 2200, I'm running a Debian Etch.

The driver that ships with the kernel (bcm43xx) by the moment I'm writing doesn't work with the card, the hardware is detected but it doesn't work, so I used ndiswrapper.

1--To start, download the driver from:

ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/note...ver/80211g.zip

and extract the files to some location in your home directory.

2--Next, you need to install ndiswrapper, you can use Synaptic Package Manager in Gnome to search for it and install it or apt-get, however, in my case, the package didn't install the module ndiswrapper.ko so I had to compile the source code. To know if you have the file do a search after the installation. If this is not the case for you, you can skip the next step.

3--To get the source is best if you get it from debian ndiswrapper-source package(or the source for your distribution) because is already optimized for the distribution and you can install it using module-assistant, after installing it you can find the source at:

/usr/share/doc/ndiswrapper-source.

To compile it, the easiest way is using module-assistant which actually does everything for you, it also takes care of all the dependencies (very nice).

$apt-get install module-assistant (In case is not installed)
$module-assistant auto-install ndiswrapper

4--Now you are ready to configure ndiswrapper.

$ndiswrapper -i /[driver directory]/bcmwl5a.inf
$ndiswrapper -m (I got an error in this one but it worked anyway)
$ndiswrapper -ma

You have to use bcmwl5a.inf not bcmwl5.inf.

Then you have to edit the following file:

$sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper

There you will find some lines like this one:

alias pci:v000014E4d00004324sv*sd*bc*sc*i* ndiswrapper

as you can see they have the different models 43xx, buy the line for the model 4306 was missing, copy one of those and change 43xx to 4306. Also add the alias

alias eth1 ndiswrapper

5-- Now you are ready to load the driver with:

$modprobe ndiswrapper

and then restart your system. If you get an error saying: "FATAL: Module ndiswrapper not found" while executing modprobe ndiswrapper, you'll have to compile ndiswrapper. Because the file ndiswrapper.ko is missing, that's on step 3.

[FxIII]

Once finished the procedure you can try to up your wifi with ifconfig up command whitout reboot:

ifconfig wlan0 up

or whatever name you aliased to your card.
if you get an error, you can read the output from dmesg which is quite illuminant.
if not try the follow:

sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter

and answer "YES" when asked. It should works (worked for me )
bye
Fx
P.S.
I don't found the driver at the mentioned link, but you can get the files from this urls
h t t p ://biginoz.free.fr/linux/bcmwl5a.inf
h t t p ://biginoz.free.fr/linux/bcmwl5.sys
(sorry I cant post urls )
I don't know who to tank for this files but if you find him you can say tanks from me too