Getting bcm4312 (rev 02) wireless to work

Hey guys, I am giving Ubuntu another shot on this particular laptop and it is giving me some real problems; I’ve managed to get 3D acceleration working by installing the new NVIDIA GLX drivers as well as dynamic CPU throttling, but I’ll be damned if I figure out how to get this Broadcom wireless card working.

It is not recognized at all in Ubuntu’s network manager, although by issuing the command lspci I have found the exact model of the card. It is a bcm4312 (rev 02) card. Can someone help me through this without throwing links at me? I have spent hours looking all over the internet and tried several guides.

I've gotten as far as having the network manager no longer graying out wireless, but it couldn't detect any networks; I suspect that the card was no longer working at all as the wireless LED was off. Needless to say, this version of the Broadcom card has baffled me and I'm beginning to wonder whether or not it can work with Linux.

Thanks for any help.

 

FWIW, my (working) Broadcom card shows up as

when I execute the lspci command.

 

linux will try to use the native driver bcm43xx, but it isn't reliable. Try ndiswrapper.

 

That's the driver I'm using, and it's working, but it's proprietary...is that still considered 'native'?

 

As stated in my OP, I have followed several how-tos on the bcm43xx driver as well as NDISwrapper. What I need is some assistance in troubleshooting what isn't working.

 

before i replaced the broadcom card in my laptop for a 3945 card here's what i did to enable the driver without using ndiswrapper.

1. connect to the internet via ethernet
2. enable the restricted repo in /etc/apt/sources.list
3. apt-get update
4. system -> administration -> restricted driver manager
5. enable the firmware and follow simple instructions
6. edit /etc/network/interfaces
7. /etc/init.d/networking restart

i was then able to connect at a whopping 24mpbs which is why i swapped the card out with a 3945abg card which allowed me to transfer at 54mbps. if you have problems try reloading bcm43xx, look at dmesg, or use networkmanager. however, networkmanager is not needed to connect via wireless. it's just a point and click gui.

 

What changes did you apply to the txt files in steps 6 and 7?

Also, some information for those who are curious:

 

Nevermind this whole fiasco... I've just purchased a laptop that I'll be using for Linux exclusively:

IBM ThinkPad T40
Intel P-M 1.5
512MB DDR RAM
40GB HD
Cisco wireless
Radeon 7500

Everything worked out of the box. Everything. Broadcom, you forced my hand you fascists.

 

Sweet. A ThinkPad.

 

My Dell wireless worked fine with bcm fwcutter thingy.
Sweet a thinkpad!

 

Check the output of "dmesg", and see what happens when ndiswrapper is loaded. That will tell you any errors that are encountered when loading the driver, which will get you started.

 

i have the same network card bcm4312 (rev 02) and i had also a lot of trouble, but eventually i worked it out.
follow this link
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx/Feisty_No-Fluff
and for step 2 choose 2a!

this guide worked in gutsy but now it doesn't work in hardy, and i think it's the ndiswrapper. maybe it'll work if the newest ndiswrapper is compiled from source