Compaq (recently acquired by HP) is a brand that makes Made for Windows PCs and Laptops. All the hardware that come with them are completely closed, and are not available for the Open Source community to make drivers for them. The Broadcom Wireless Adapter is one such device that came with my new laptop. And I prefer no other OS than ubuntu on any of my computers.

A few months ago, I bought a Compaq laptop. Tried installing ubuntu and everything got detected except the wireless. The laptop has a Broadcom wireless adapter built in, and ubuntu will not readily detect or install driver for it. So how did I install that? The info will follow.

I had to install Windows (pirated, craked, nulled and completely abused by a hacker, and its boot screen says its Windows 2098. Nobody really does that to ubuntu or any other Linux though), to get the driver file for the wireless driver. Once the installation was done, the laptop booted and the screen resolution was not crossing 640/480. The display driver was not detected. I was not given a CD with the laptop containing the drivers. Here is the list of things that didn’t work when I installed windows.

1. Display Adpater.
2. Wifi Adapter.
3. Network Adapter.
4. Horizondal and Vertical Scroll functions of the touchpad.
5. Sound Adapter
6. USB and Expansion Slot
7. PCMCIA

which means, the only communication that the laptop has when Windows is installed in it for the first time is it CD/DVD drive. Wow, what a way to communicate. This means that you need to download software and driver from another PC, put it on a cd/dvd, n install it on this Laptop. Cool.

I called Compaq customer support and they said that the drivers need to be downloaded from hp.com/in and that they do not provide cds anymore to save the company from bankrupsy.

I plugged in the network cable, and found out that the network card isnt detected either. What the Fuck? Isnt that one of the basic things that need to work when an OS is installed on a computer system? So I just had to switch to a PC, and when I entered the product number on HPs website, all I found was a HP wireless management software, and a few other useless junk. No display driver, no network driver, no wireless driver, and no sound driver. The computer is personal again?

So I had to call these people again, and they told me to search for V6000. I got 2 page list of drivers from which I didnt know what all I need to download and install for my particular model, and what all I dont have to. anyways, I downloaded the wifi driver, installed it, and switched to Linux. I am sure I would never have found the network card driver in that huge list.

Now don’t anybody tell me that the drivers were not detected because I installed a Pirated version of Windows on it. Im sure that even on a fully licensed Windows, it would not have worked either. Windows is just a waste of money. 90% of Windows PCs in India use the Pirated version and about 10% use genuine just to show off. and thats what makes India the largest user of Windows. Thats how India is. As a matter of fact, till 2001, I didnt know that Windows was a paid software and requires a License Key that needs to be paid for. All I knew was that there would be a file named CD-KEY.TXT in the cd, and you just need to copy n paste that when the installer asks you to, and that makes me feel proud as I was born with the thought that software shouldnt have to be paid for. I was born an Open Source guy.

Back to the Point.

Compaq laptop seems to be made for Windows. No other linux except ubuntu and Fedora are likely to install on it and autoconfugure most of the hardware.

For those of you who dont know, in Windows, once the OS is installed, you need to spend hours more to install the basic software and drivers to make your system working fine. Linux autoconfigures all hardware that it detects. It also comes with a bunch of restricted drivers for several hardware components. And Linux never crashes, and has no virus.

And, like I always say, Windows is an OS which is completely unstable, with INTENTIONALLY placed bugs, and is prone to viruses. It was an OS developed with no research done on their own, but followed other people’s works without any decipline, and not they have branded it and are selling it. Nerdy Bill is behind all these. He should be hanged for that.

Drivers were not available for my Broadcom wireless adapter cos Bill made it so. However, the users at ubuntuforums.com had come up with a way to install the wireless on the lappy.

You will need the bcmwl5.inf file from windows. Which means you will have to install windows first, download the windows driver, look for the bcmwl5.inf, copy it somewhere, install linux, and follow the procedure below. If you use dualboot, you will be able to access the windows filesystem from your linux, and you wont need to copy the file anywhere. I hate people using dualboot by the way.

From: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php%3Ft%3D201902%26highlight%3D02%253A00.0%2BNetwork%2Bcontroller%253A%2BBroadcom%2BCorporation%2BDell%2BWireless%2B1390%2BWLAN%2BMini-PCI%2BCard%2B(rev%2B02)&ei=aGQkR-zcHaTmqgOkq5SADg&sig2=qPsgfS-gdVWniNx42K4wUg&zx=0SxLcv-h_4M&ct=b

HOWTO: Broadcom 4306 With Ndiswrapper 54 Mbps

---

This is the easiest way to get your Broadcom 4306 wireless card working in the shortest amount of time. I wouldn’t use the firmware cutter because it only allows you to run at 11 Mbps with it. With ndiswrapper you will get 54 Mbps if your router will allow it.

*This guide now works with Gutsy Gibbon. If you find any problems or know anything that can make the guide better just tell me because I always appreciate the feed back I get. 10/22/07

Do everything in the order as it is listed.

The Drivers listed below work for most broadcom 4306 wireless cards but not all of them. If you use the drivers below and your card doesn’tshow up under network then you should try using the driver that came with your card or go to the manufacturer’s website.

Get the 32 bit drivers from here or the website of the manufacturer of your wireless card.

Get the 64 bit drivers from here. I’ve heard that you don’t change the name .inf file to bcmwl5.inf just keep it the way it is.

run the following command to make sure you have a broadcom chipset wireless card.
1.

 

Code:

lspci | grep Broadcom Corporation

2.

 

Code:

sudo rmmod bcm43xx

3.

 

Code:

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

5. You will need the Ubuntu 7.10 CD to get these packages.

 

Code:

sudo aptitude install build-essential

6.

 

Code:

uname -r

Insert the output of the uname -r command into the following 2 commands where the numbers are at

7. Gutsy Gibbon comes with this already installed so if you have Gutsy you can move to step 8.

 

Code:

sudo aptitude install linux-headers-2.6.22-14-generic

8.

 

Code:

sudo ln -s /usr/src/linux-2.6.22-14-generic /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/build

Download ndiswrapper
9.

 

Code:

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper-1.48.tar.gz

Make a folder for ndiswrapper and place it in there
10.

 

Code:

mkdir ~/ndiswrapper
mv ndiswrapper-1.48.tar.gz ~/ndiswrapper

Install ndiswrapper
11.

 

Code:

cd ~/ndiswrapper
sudo tar -xvzf ndiswrapper-1.48.tar.gz
cd ~/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper-1.48
make distclean
sudo make
sudo make install

12 If you are running Dapper or Edgy run this command. Some people say that compiling it works for them and some people say getting it with synaptic so I thought if you just installed both then you’ll have some form of ndiswrapper working.

 

Code:

sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils-1.8

If you are running Feisty or Gutsy run this command. You’ll need the Ubuntu 7.10 CD to get these packages.

 

Code:

sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils-1.9

If you can’t get ndiswrapper from any of the sources above you can get it from the Ubuntu CD.

13.

 

Code:

sudo ndiswrapper -i ~/folder where driver is/bcmwl5.inf

If you are using the 64 bit drivers run this command

 

Code:

sudo ndiswrapper -i ~/folder where driver is/bcmwl564.inf

Make sure the .sys file is in there also, without it, it won’t work

 

14.
Code:

ndiswrapper -l

To make sure the hardware is present

15.

 

Code:

sudo ndiswrapper -m

To load ndiswrapper automatically when the wlan0 interface is used

16.

 

Code:

modprobe ndiswrapper

Modprobe ndiswrapper didn’t put ndiswrapper in the /etc/modules folder for me on Gutsy and I tried it twice. This was the one of the reasons why after reboot a lot of people lose their wireless connection. Make sure you run the following command just to make sure. The following command manually puts ndiswrapper in the /etc/modules folder.

17.

 

Code:

echo 'ndiswrapper' | sudo tee -a /etc/modules

To load the module

If you are running Gutsy or Feisty you can skip to step 26.
Enable the Connection

18. Go to System -> Administration -> Networking

19. If you don’t see any wlan0 connections in Networking then you should restart your computer.

20. Go to your eth0 connection and disable the connection.

21. Now go to your wlan0 connection and enable it.

Network Manager

If you need WPA or WEP encryption do the following:

Note: If you are running Feisty you can skip steps 22 and 25.

22.

 

Code:

sudo apt-get install network-manager-gnome

23.

 

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces

24. Comment out anything in there at the bottom that has to do with your wireless essid. You need to also comment out anything that says eth1, eth2, or atho. When I say comment out that means put a # in from of it. You can leave all of the eth0, wlan0, lo, inet, and auto stuff.

25.

 

Code:

nm-applet

26. Now click on the applet that is in the top right corner and you should see all of the available connections. Click on yours and set it up.

SOLUIONS TO PROBLEMS

Problem 1
Totoro found a fix for the eth1 problem. Thank You Totoro!
add ndiswrapper to /etc/modules
change eth1 -> wlan0 in the files below:

 

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/modeprobe.d/ndiswrapper
sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces
sudo gedit /etc/iftab

Problem 2
Shaton found a fix for the FATAL: Error inserting ndiswrapper problem. Thank You Shaton!
If you get an error saying

FATAL: Error inserting ndiswrapper (/lib/modules/2.6.17-10-generic/kernel/drivers/net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper .ko): Invalid argument

then try this.

 

Code:

sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils-1.8
sudo rm /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper
sudo ln -s /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper-1.8 /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper

If you are using Feisty then you will need to put a 9 where the 8 is.

Problem 3
If you get a lot of error messages talking about the icon then run this command:

 

Code:

sudo gtk-update-icon-cache -f /usr/share/icons/hicolor/

Problem 4
If you have to run modprobe ndiswrapper every time you reboot your computer run this command.

 

Code:

echo 'ndiswrapper' | sudo tee -a /etc/modules

Thanks Phifer for the fix for problem 4

I hope this helps a lot of people!

__________________

So you think Vista looks cool. Well, for those who don’t know, check out the video below which shows that ubuntu (with Beryl) is even cooler.

Im sure all you Anti Windows guys liked the way the video ended. And Im sure no one would forget that day when that pc failed irrecoverably.

Well, let me start the war now. Nothing gives me more pleasure in life than writing a DVD with pirated Windows in it, but since the authorities are all around us these days, I am unable to do that anymore. I somehow managed to get a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate and installed it on my Virtualbox. The network adapter was not detected.

Virtualbox is a virtual pc software, and the virtual devices that come with it are easily detected by any OS. But it didnt work. Fine, tried to play some music. That too didnt work. Well, tried to configure a network drive, that didnt work either. So, I just shut down the PC, got a spare hard disk, disconnected the linux drives, and installed Vista on the spare drive that I just took out.

It was an old 80 GB IDE Hard Drive, and it was formatted for Linux earlier, and now for installing Vista, I had to reformat it. Fuck, I cant tell you how long it took to format an 80 GB drive. Imagine how much time it would have taken to format a 160 or a 250 GB drive which is common these days. The PC has 4 GB of DDR 2 RAM, and is an AMD Dual Core system. If I thought the PC was bad, I would write that here.

So after the formating, it began to install. After asking for the acceptance of the stupid agreement, formatting, copying of files, and finalization of the installation, the PC finally booted up.

Sound card worked, network worked, everything was fine. But display adapter didnt. I have a very basic display driver that came with the motherboard and I dont have ATI or an Nvidia adapter that needs special driver. So that failed.

Tested all the 3d stuff, the Areo environment etc. Was all good. Great eyecandy. Nothings inside. Same open platform for viruses, trojans and hackers. Microsoft clearly dont want Norton and other companies to loose business.

It was weekend, and I didnt have much use for the PC, so I decided to put it on a simple test. I installed java, and Azureus, the popular torrent client, and started downloading a few torrents, which I expected would be done in 48 hours.

No one ever went near that PC in 48 hours, no other applications were running. After 48 hours when I checked the system, everything was completely fucked up. I checked the PF, and it was showing 5.7 GB. Even Indyahozting’s Windows server’s RAM havent gone that high. When I checked the processes, a lot of tiny processes with random names, each using atleast 100 MB of RAM are there in the process list. Virus? No way. So thats where Vista stands.

Here is a popular picture thats been around for a while about Windows and its Firewall.

If you are with Windows for the Eyecandy, watch the Video above, and you will start using Ubuntu with Beryl.

What that stupid fucker Bill Gates has done till date :

1. He created a company called Microsoft in 1981.

2. Sat at his backyard and created a stupid command line OS and named it Microsoft Disk Operating System. See? Its not a Computer Operating System, its just to operate the Disk. Well, IBM gave it that name, but anyways. He created that, and copied Apple’s Mac OS, and made Windows. Marketed Windows 3.1 which came in 21 floppy discs in mid 1990s, which was dos based.

That later developed into Windows 95, 96, 98, NT, 2000, ME, XP, 2003, and now Vista. Dos was highly prone to virus. And Windows was, is and forever will be so. During the phase of the development, Bill Gates has willingly created a Platform for virus makers, so that the Virus Scanners will get business, and a share would definitely go to Microsoft. Similarly, the Nvidia Datasheet is too complicated and closed, and its not open for the Linux people to make drivers for it. That means, people who want to run Nvidia adapters need to buy Windows. This way, Microsoft has been creating a Monopoly over the OS and software market.

But I guess the fall of Microsoft has started. People have started to recognize linux, all sorts of applications for Linux platforms are available these days on the Internet as easy to install bin files, or .deb as required by ubuntu. We have got rpm converters if required.

Linux is for serious users though. Not for boys who want to be playing games all day not facing reality.

For Linux to overtake Windows, and for Windows to start begging for mercy, the following might be needed.

Commercial tieups with huge software companies like Adobe so that there will be linux versions of Photoshop, flash and dreamweaver too. Though GIMP is there for Linux, its not as good as photoshop. Commercial tieups with Gaming Companies like EA to attract the stupid game buffs into linux. Form voluntary organizations, burn Linux DVDs and distribute it to each and every house with a pc in the world. Preach Linux where ever you go. Display them on your automobiles, get T-Shirts, talk about it, spread the good word around. And be glad that you are doing this for providing the next generation a better life. A bug free life, a Virus free life. An environment where our Kids can really use their brains when working on a computer. Eradicate a company that works for money, and promote the mindset of OpenSource.

Free your mind, and the OS will follow (as in microsuck.com)

Windows is for Boys, Linux is for Men. And MAC is for adolescent. Dont go for Vista. Decide what you are.

Unfortunately enough for me, I have never been able to connect to a better broadband from my home in Pondicherry than a BSNL connection. The operators who are available in my area are SIFY, Tata Indicom and BSNL, out of which BSNL is the best. The other two are even worse.

Sify goes down very often, and when you call their helpline, they just tell you that the problem will be fixed in 24 to 48 hours, and when your line goes down for 15 times a month, you will be left for a month without internet. TATA is horrible. I have written a lot about my experiences with them at the office and at home. So all that I am left with is BSNL.

The only good ISP in Pondihcerry is Airtel, and out of sheer bad luck, they dont operate in my area of residence, and at the office. The first office that I had taken in Pondicherry was in an area where Airtel served, and I was quite happy wiht the service, but now, I am stuck to BSNL.

What is so bad about bsnl? Well, there is absolutely no customer service to start with, though the lines do not go down for more than a few hours together at a streatch. I am supposed to have a 2 Mbps connection, but the speed never crosses that of a 256 kbps connection, and I dont understand why I have to pay for the limited line if I dont get the promised 2 Mbps, and why not go for an unlimited 256 Kbps. Well, thats the plan that I had in the beginning, and in that connection, no data is ever transfered, and if you download a torrent file or something with quite a number of data connections, meaning if your computer connects with more than say about 50 ips at a time, and still download data at around 8 kbps or something, you will never be able to access any other website though there will be a good amount of bandwidth that is open for your use.

Airtel was really good, and I miss the service, and for this if you ask me to relocate my home for the sake of gothic art, it would be quite difficult. Why dont Airtel expand here?

1. You Don’t Try Before You Buy – We all want to believe all the propoganda from people selling us something we don’t need. So why would you want to be able to test-drive an operating system via liveCD before you install it. Tell ‘em you don’t need any guarantees either, you’ll take it as-is, sight unseen.
2. Installation of Software is Too Easy – With Ubuntu you only have to click on the Synaptic and click checkboxes to add software. Then hit Apply. You probably will feel gypped when you have to go searching for software, unzip it, quite everything else you are running, and then install an .exe. Then when you are done run Windows Update (of course only using Internet Explorer) just to make sure everything’s up to date.
3. Too Few Viruses/Too much security – Virus scanners give you a warm fuzzy feeling, they can also keep your computer from performing as fast as possible. Slowing down your perfomance keeps people’s expecations of you low. Without spyware and virueses slowing you down it’s a nuisance plus once you are logged in it’s not going to crash or be wiped out by virues. Plus if you got too much work done you might get promoted or a raise. That would be a real pain trying to figure out how to spend the extra money.

4. No Expensive Office Suites – You know you like to pay $400+ dollars for Microsoft Office Professional. OpenOffice.org must be some kind of communist plot. Why save that money for your kids college or support education intiaitives in the third-world when you can help fund Bill Gates’ humble lifestyle.
5. Optional Purchase Option – If an operating system is free it can’t be that good.  You want to go through an activation process to make sure it’s a genuine operating system. That activation is a convenience put in place to make you feel more secure. You should be proud to volunteer your personal information and then be forced into an upgrade cycle that milks you out of hundreds of dollars every couple years. It makes perfect sense.
6. Too many Free Applications to Choose From - Why would you want choices you think it better just to be told what to do? You should browse the Microsoft catalog first, then go to your local Best Buy for an office suite, image editors, and other document authoring software. If you are tempted to chose one package over the other on your own ask the burnout sales guy who was smoking weed behind the dumpster an hour ago for his opinion. Why would you want to use Scribus, Nvu, GIMP, OpenOffice that can be downloaded for free when you drive your gas guzzling SUV to the store add some CO₂ to the global warning, maybe even run down an endangered species in route.
7. Too Well Documented – You hate it when you can find easy-to-understand, searchable documentation. [I wanted to find out how to troubleshoot my wireless card so I went and looked at the http://help.ubuntu.com and there was at least three easy-to-read up-to-date documents to help me.] I know I really wanted to call someone named John who was being exploited in a third world country, have him read a script about how he would help me and watch him fail miserably then have him wish me a very good day as my system was in worse condition than before we started talking.
8. Excellent Free No Wait Technical Support – Speaking of support, why should I want to go to #Ubuntu on IRC where 1300 Ubuntu users are hangng out and offering their time to answer questions for free.
   It’s much more fun waiting on hold to hear John read his support script.

   John (in an accent that is so thick you can hardly make out the words): Hello, this is John, “How may I be helping you.”
   You: My desktop isn’t displaying anything but a error message
   John: I am sorry to hear that, what seems to be the problem.
   You: My screen is displaying an error message.
   John: I am very sorry to hear that, I would like you to reboot.
   You: I just did.
   John: I am very sorry to hear that, I would like you to reboot.
   You: Really, why? I just rebooted.
   John: I am very sorry to hear that, I would like you to reboot.
   You: Can you just tell me problem that might cause that error?
   John (long pause): Please hold I must get my supervisor….
   You: What’s his name?
   John: Frank
   You: What’s his real name?
   John:….Pradnesh

9. Too many Interface Choices - I know you like the choices in Windows you can buy many versions of Vista with slightly more functionality at much greater prices. When you use Ubuntu, you have too many choices. You have the option of using Ubuntu with the Gnome desktop environment, if you hate that you can use Kbuntu using the QT-based KDE environment. What if you work in an office don’t you want the same operating system that is used by third graders in their schools. After all let’s start children while they are young authoring painfully ineffective slide decks on Powerpoint. Why would you want them to use a custom version for schools like Edubuntu . It shold be a law that you need a fast state of the art computer, why would you want an operating system that doesn’t require at least a gig of RAM and a wicked fast video card. In fact Ubuntu users with modest machines use Xbuntu to keep the resource requirements low. Once again you shouldn’t be allowed to compute if you can’t afford the latest and greatest computer. Computing is a privelege and poor people shouldn’t be allowed to access the Internet.
10. Too Much Eye Candy - You don’t want any cool eye-candy like rotating desktops transparency, woobly windows, and more. Why risk someone calling you a show-off when you start demonstrating your fancy desktop. Keep your proflie low with Windows Vista, it looks just like everyone elses desktop.