Mandriva 2008 bcm4318

[johnsonbf]

Hey, I'm a the definition of a linux noob. And I'm scared/frustrated. I've been attempting the switch from windows to linux for the past several weeks. First I tried Ubuntu 6.10 which didn't like my wireless adapter (BCM4318 [airforce one 54g]). After a week of failed attempts to get the wireless working (not having a clue what I was doing most of the time) I popped in a friends copy of backtrack2. The wireless worked automatically! But I couldn't install it to my hd because of the backtrack2 installer issues...bummer. Keep in mind I'm relying on peoples postings in forums to fix any problem that I run across, and also keep in mind that anything to do with the konsole I do not have a good grasp of. So most of the time I'm blindly punching in commands in the konsole getting errors and other disheartening messages along the way. After the backtrack letdown I tried Feisty Fawn...same outcome as 6.10. Messed around with it for a few days trying different "solutions" posted in forums, but nothing seemed to work. After Feisty Fawn I re-installed windows xp pro, but made sure to leave half my hard drive ready for linux. Today I installed Mandriva 2008 and was disappointed to find that the same problem still exists. As of today I understand that this is due to broadcoms lack of cooperation with linux and the reverse engineered drivers, but I still can't figure it out. I could just not be following any of the instructions correctly, but how am I to know? I tried my best now I'm running to you guys. If anyone could walk me through the process of getting my bcm4318 working in mandriva 2008 I'll be your best friend. Thanks

 

p.s. my laptop is an acer aspire 5003wlmi

[anyweb]

I havnt tried it with mandriva but I have put together a guide for getting it to work in Ubuntu 7.04,

 

in addition, we have some info on right here in the wireless section

 

please try these ideas out and let us know what happens and welcome to the forums

 

cheers

anyweb

[johnsonbf]

I havnt tried it with mandriva but I have put together a guide for getting it to work in Ubuntu 7.04,  

in addition, we have some info on right here in the wireless section

 

please try these ideas out and let us know what happens and welcome to the forums

 

cheers

anyweb

 

Thanks for the response. I thought about it and decided to go with Ubuntu. After a fresh install I tried your guide and I got to where you downloaded wl_apsta.o and the link was dead so I went ahead with the next step and after the install firmware prompt (to which I answered yes) I got this:

Code:

root@Alpha:~# apt-get install bcm43xx-fwcutter
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree      
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
bcm43xx-fwcutter
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 135 not upgraded.
Need to get 25.6kB of archives.
After unpacking 119kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 [url="http://us.archive.ubuntu.com"]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com[/url] feisty/universe bcm43xx-fwcutter 1:006-1 [25.6kB]
Fetched 25.6kB in 0s (31.2kB/s)    
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously deselected package bcm43xx-fwcutter.
(Reading database ... 88260 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking bcm43xx-fwcutter (from .../bcm43xx-fwcutter_1%3a006-1_i386.deb) ...
Setting up bcm43xx-fwcutter (006-1) ...
--17:38:25--  [url="http://boredklink.googlepages.com/wl_apsta.o"]http://boredklink.googlepages.com/wl_apsta.o[/url]
          => `wl_apsta.o'
Resolving boredklink.googlepages.com... 72.14.203.118
Connecting to boredklink.googlepages.com|72.14.203.118|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 404 Not Found
17:38:25 ERROR 404: Not Found.

dpkg: error processing bcm43xx-fwcutter (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
bcm43xx-fwcutter
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
root@Alpha:~#

[anyweb]

are you trying ubuntu 7.04 or 7.10

[znx]

Seems that site is a dead link now.

 

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=527109 this forum entry points to:

http://svit.epfl.ch/stuff/wl_apsta.o

 

Which is still current and active.

[johnsonbf]

I'm currently using Ubuntu 7.04...unless otherwise suggested for any reason.

[johnsonbf]

Hey, I'm trying to move the bcm43xx-fwcutter files from /var/lib/dpkg/info so I can force the reinstall as stated in http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=527109, but It says I don't have permission to move or edit the files. How do I gain permission to do so?

[anyweb]

sudo -i

[johnsonbf]

I've tried that, but I'm still having difficulty moving the files out of var/lib/dpkg/info. Do I have to use the terminal to do it? If so how do I do that. I can cd to the directory but I don't know how to move files or anything of that nature. when I've tried previously it tells me that I don't have permissions to change the files or their parent folder. Sorry for my noobishness :). And thanks so much for helping me out.

[anyweb]

yes use the terminal

 

to move a file try this

 

Code:

mv test.abc /home/anyweb/Documents/

 

that moves a file called test.abc in the current directory (type pwd to see what that is) to /home/anyweb/Documents/

 

cheers

anyweb