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BCM4328 Wireless Card and WEP in Ubuntu 7.10

November 4th, 2007

When I installed Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" on my Dell Latitude D830, the wireless did not work out of the box. Using ndiswrapper, I was able to get it working (Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" on a Dell Lattitude D830) and icon in my notification area at the top-right corner of my screen (nm-applet 0.6.5) would show a list of available WiFi connections and their signal strength.

Note: My BCM4328 wireless card is identified through the 'lspci' command as:
Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4328 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 03)

BCM4328 Wireless Networks in Ubuntu

I could then select my network (which is an open network) and connect without any problems. However, when I tried to connect to a WEP key protected network later at a hotel, it would not connect. Upon further reading, this seems to be a common problem. Although it's talked into the ground throughout the web, I just need to connect to WEP networks once in a while--at coffee shops and hotels and the like.

When I go to a cafe or hotel and need to get my Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon and BCM4328 Wireless card working on WEP networks, these are the steps I take. (If you don't already have ndiswrapper setup for your BCM4328 WiFi card, read Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" on a Dell Lattitude D830).

Note: You could spend some time and set up a better solution, however, it's very rare that I need to connect to a WEP network and I like using the nm-applet with roaming mode. This was the first thing I figured out that worked for me and I don't intend to spend any more time on the topic. Just thought I would share with other users. Feel free to post a comment if I'm doing something ridiculous.

  1. Left-click the Wireless icon in the notification area (nm-applet) and select 'Manual Configuration...' from the menu to open the 'Network Settings' dialog.
  2. Select 'Wireless connection' and click the 'Properties' button.
    Network Settings in Ubuntu 7.10
  3. Under the properties for wlan0, un-check the 'Enable roaming mode' box. I put the information I'll be using only so that the 'OK' button is enabled. However, the connection still will not be working at this point, but, the roaming mode will be turned off.
    Turn off Roaming Mode
  4. Back in the 'Network Properties' dialog, I un-check 'Wireless connection' and click 'Close'
  5. Finally, I open a terminal and issue these commands:
    sudo ifdown wlan0
    sudo ifconfig wlan0 essid TheNetworkSSID key abcabc1234
    sudo ifup wlan0
    Where "TheNetworkSSID" is the network you want to connect to and "abcabc1234" is the WEP key. Typing 'ifconfig' again with no options will confirm that the network connection to "TheNetworkSSID" was established (or show nothing for the essid if it did not take)

Posted on Sunday, November 4th, 2007 at 4:44 pm

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8 Responses to “BCM4328 Wireless Card and WEP in Ubuntu 7.10”

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  1. Jan Kester Says:
    December 4th, 2007 at 2:05 am

    Hi Micah

    I have the same environment as you have used in your article:
    dell d830, broadcom bcm4328 rev 03, and ubuntu 7.10.
    I managed to get my ndiswrapper loaded, my nm-applet shows networks. I also managed to connect to unprotected networks, got an IP from the dhcp server and could ping the gateway.
    I did not manage to get my protected WPA network running though. Did you tryout WPA too, or only WEP?
    When I use the functionality of the nm-applet it suggests me to use WPA-personal, I enter my ESSID and password, but it keeps returning on the password, I guess this is some kind of bug with the password manager.
    Your trick above would just shutoff this nm-auto-functionality and set details by hand?
    Are your commands above correct? Should the ifconfig not be iwconfig?
    I did not get it running, my card did not get an ip.
    Is there any issue with WPA? Do you need to take care of something else?

    Regards, Jan Kester.

  2. Micah Says:
    December 4th, 2007 at 7:44 am

    I did not try WPA actually, and I do recall (though this was quite a while back) that WPA was tricky. I had to do it by hand, but that was a different card at a different time.

  3. Shankar Says:
    December 26th, 2007 at 1:16 pm

    Hello,

    I had the same issue on my HP DV6500z (uses the same Broadcom chipset). I highly recommend using the great little utility called "wifi-radar" (you can find it in the standard repositories). Set the nm-applet to "manual configuration" and then use wifi-radar to manage your connection. Works great for me whether at home (WPA), or friend's place (WEP) or the local coffee shop (no encryption).

    Hope this helps,
    Shankar

  4. Adventure with Linux « David Chandra’s Weblog Says:
    January 10th, 2008 at 7:02 am

    [...] accidently found a very good article written by Micah Carrick. Actually this article is meant for Ubuntu, but because Linux Mint is an [...]

  5. Mike T. Says:
    January 24th, 2008 at 6:19 am

    Micah,

    I have installed the wrapper and driver as you have outlined. Why don't I have the wireless icon in my top system tray?

    Thanks,

    Mike

  6. Walski Says:
    March 16th, 2008 at 7:45 am

    Thanks for your how to it has come very in handy with my intel IMAC which has the same chipset! :D

  7. Andres Says:
    April 12th, 2008 at 12:04 pm

    I have installed the driver for mi hp tx1320us and have a working wireless conection but everytime i shutdown and turn on my computer the driver disables and i need to repeat the steaps of instalation. any suggestions? why it doesnt stay configurated?

  8. James Valentine Says:
    June 21st, 2008 at 2:47 pm

    Many thanks for this. Worked perfectly for an HP TX2130.

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