Inspiron 600m Wireless Card Won't Work in Ubuntu 10.04

[TheEvilTwin]

Hello everybody,

I'm a complete Ubuntu newbie - I've never used anything but Windows before in my life. I was given an old Dell Inspiron 600m laptop with a busted hard drive to use as I saw fit, and decided to install that free operating system I'd heard about to save myself a little money. The install off the Live CD went well, but my wireless card isn't working.

Poking around on the internet (mostly these forums) I discovered that this was not an unusual problem, and the solution was to install a driver. So far I've tried a few different ways to do this, and none have worked. Hopefully, someone can point me to where I've gone wrong?

The card is a BCM4309 802.11a/b/g. I have downloaded what I believe to be the driver from the Dell website, now located at .wine/dosdevices/c:/dell/drivers/R55855/ (from here there are several files, including BCMSMwdm.inf, which I was led to believe was the correct driver). I was told to run the command "sudo ndiswrapper -i BCMSMwdm.inf"

When I run the command, I receive the message:
couldn't open BCMSMwdm.inf: No such file or directory at /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper-1.9 line 219.

Am I on the right track here? How do I get this driver installed properly? Am I even trying to install the right thing?

Thanks in advance!

[TheEvilTwin]

Hello all,

I posted over in the Ubuntu forum as well, but after seeing the sticky on what to put in your thread I thought I'd double-post here.

I can't get my wireless card to work in my Inspiron 600m. Here's the information the sticky said I should add:

============ lspci ============
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to I/O Controller [8086:3340] (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel
	Kernel modules: intel-agp
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller [8086:3341] (rev 03)
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:24c2] (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:24c4] (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:24c7] (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller [8086:24cd] (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev 81)
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge [8086:24cc] (rev 01)
	Kernel modules: iTCO_wdt, intel-rng
00:1f.1 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller [8086:24ca] (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: ata_piix
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller [8086:24c5] (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: Intel ICH
	Kernel modules: snd-intel8x0
00:1f.6 Modem [0703]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller [8086:24c6] (rev 01)
	Kernel modules: snd-intel8x0m
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV250 [Mobility FireGL 9000] [1002:4c66] (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: radeon
	Kernel modules: radeonfb, radeon
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5702X Gigabit Ethernet [14e4:16a6] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: tg3
	Kernel modules: tg3
02:01.0 CardBus bridge [0607]: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ711EC1 SmartCardBus Controller [1217:7113] (rev 20)
	Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus
	Kernel modules: yenta_socket
02:01.1 CardBus bridge [0607]: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ711EC1 SmartCardBus Controller [1217:7113] (rev 20)
	Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus
	Kernel modules: yenta_socket
02:03.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4309 802.11a/b/g [14e4:4324] (rev 02)
	Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
	Kernel modules: ssb

============ lsusb ============
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

============ lsmod ============
Module                  Size  Used by
binfmt_misc             6587  1 
snd_intel8x0           25588  2 
snd_ac97_codec        100646  1 snd_intel8x0
ac97_bus                1002  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss            35308  0 
fbcon                  35102  71 
snd_mixer_oss          13746  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                70662  3 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
tileblit                2031  1 fbcon
font                    7557  1 fbcon
snd_seq_dummy           1338  0 
snd_seq_oss            26726  0 
snd_seq_midi            4557  0 
bitblit                 4707  1 fbcon
softcursor              1189  1 bitblit
vga16fb                11385  0 
snd_rawmidi            19056  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event      6003  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
vgastate                8961  1 vga16fb
snd_seq                47263  6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
arc4                    1153  2 
snd_timer              19098  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
pcmcia                 33024  0 
radeon                674135  3 
b43legacy             115152  0 
ttm                    49943  1 radeon
snd_seq_device          5700  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
mac80211              204922  1 b43legacy
drm_kms_helper         29297  1 radeon
drm                   162471  5 radeon,ttm,drm_kms_helper
i2c_algo_bit            5028  1 radeon
yenta_socket           20408  4 
cfg80211              126485  2 b43legacy,mac80211
rsrc_nonstatic         10015  1 yenta_socket
led_class               2864  1 b43legacy
pcmcia_core            32964  3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
intel_agp              24177  1 
snd                    54148  14 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
agpgart                31724  3 ttm,drm,intel_agp
joydev                  8708  0 
soundcore               6620  1 snd
snd_page_alloc          7076  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
lp                      7028  0 
shpchp                 28820  0 
ppdev                   5259  0 
parport_pc             25962  1 
psmouse                63245  0 
serio_raw               3978  0 
video                  17375  0 
output                  1871  1 video
dell_wmi                1793  0 
dcdbas                  5422  0 
parport                32635  3 lp,ppdev,parport_pc
tg3                   109292  0 
ssb                    37336  1 b43legacy

============ dmesg-firmware ============
[   12.497469] platform radeon_cp.0: firmware: requesting radeon/R200_cp.bin
[   15.482301] tg3 0000:02:00.0: firmware: requesting tigon/tg3_tso.bin
[   16.004051] b43legacy ssb0:0: firmware: requesting b43legacy/ucode4.fw
[   16.201559] b43legacy ssb0:0: firmware: requesting b43legacy/pcm4.fw
[   16.240936] b43legacy ssb0:0: firmware: requesting b43legacy/b0g0initvals2.fw
[   16.592050] b43legacy-phy0: Loading firmware version 0x127, patch level 14 (2005-04-18 02:36:27)

============ kernel version ============
2.6.32-21-generic

============ ifconfig ============
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0b:db:a6:ba:e5  
          inet addr:192.168.2.3  Bcast:192.168.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::20b:dbff:fea6:bae5/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:14516 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:14165 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:9560473 (9.5 MB)  TX bytes:2679355 (2.6 MB)
          Interrupt:11 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:480 (480.0 B)  TX bytes:480 (480.0 B)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:90:4b:27:a1:5f  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)


============ iwconfig ============
wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=20 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off

Let me know what other information people need. Thanks in advance for your help!

[reed9]

Currently, your system is loading the b43legacy driver. However, according to the b43 wireless site, your card is not supported, though I've seen reference to it working with b43legacy. So I don't know what to say to that.

Can you post the output of

sudo ifconfig wlan0 up
sudo iwlist wlan0 scan

Assuming the b43legacy driver really isn't going to work, you can use ndiswrapper instead.

This

sudo ndiswrapper -i BCMSMwdm.inf

most likely failed because you weren't pointing it to the right location. If it's where you indicated, something like this would be correct

sudo ndiswrapper -i ~/.wine/dosdevices/c:/dell/drivers/R55855/BCMSMwdm.inf

You'll also need to unload and blacklist the b43/b43legacy drivers.

Here is a tutorial. (It should be the same for 10.04 as for 9.04)

[TheEvilTwin]

The output is:

 wlan0     No scan results

Thanks for the other information, I'll try out what the tutorial says.

[TheEvilTwin]

I'm having some trouble following the tutorial. When I get to the point where you enter

 sudo depmod -a
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

I get the following message:

WARNING: All config files need .conf: /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist, it will be ignored in a future release.

Is this a problem? I'm going to try to continue with the tutorial.

[TheEvilTwin]

Continuing to the next step:

 sudo cp /etc/network/interface /etc/network/interfaces.orig echo -e 'auto lo\niface lo inet loopback\n' | sudo tee /etc/network/interfaces

gives me:

 cp: invalid option -- 'e'
Try `cp --help' for more information.

[TheEvilTwin]

Ok, I went through the rest of the tutorial, finished it out, and restarted the computer. Now things are even worse! The network manager isn't even detecting that I HAVE a wireless card! Any advice? What did I do wrong?

[reed9]

I'm having some trouble following the tutorial. When I get to the point where you enter

 sudo depmod -a
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

I get the following message:

WARNING: All config files need .conf: /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist, it will be ignored in a future release.

Is this a problem? I'm going to try to continue with the tutorial.

Config files in /etc/modprobe.d used to be able to be named pretty much anything. Now they should end in .conf. So if you had a file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist it should not be /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf. The tutorial is using the old format.

sudo cp /etc/network/interface /etc/network/interfaces.orig echo -e 'auto lo\niface lo inet loopback\n' | sudo tee /etc/network/interfaces

This should be two lines.

sudo cp /etc/network/interface /etc/network/interfaces.orig

and

echo -e 'auto lo\niface lo inet loopback\n' | sudo tee /etc/network/interfaces

But actually, I don't think it should be necessary. Post the contents of the file /etc/network/interface (Open it with any text editor or print it to the terminal with cat /etc/network/interfaces)

Ok, I went through the rest of the tutorial, finished it out, and restarted the computer. Now things are even worse! The network manager isn't even detecting that I HAVE a wireless card! Any advice? What did I do wrong?

We blacklisted the b43legacy driver and either ndiswrapper isn't loading or you have the wrong .inf file, so the system isn't seeing a network interface.

Post the output of

ndiswrapper -l
lsmod

[TheEvilTwin]

Thank you for the help! I wound up finding another tutorial elsewhere on b43-fwcutter that did the trick. Problem solved! I really appreciate the assistance.