[svlug] Ubuntu and wireless on Dell Vostro 1000

[Skip Evans]

Hey all,

I just got a Dell Vostro 1000 laptop and installed 
Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. When it first booted the 
wireless didn't come up, so I got on line and 
found some issues people had and instructions for 
getting it going by install ndiswrapper and 
ndiswrapper utils and the proper driver.

Also, at this point under System -> Network it 
only listed the Wired Connection and Point to Point.

I also noticed that the update icon in the top 
right was list and said there were over 200 
updates waiting so I went ahead and did it update. 
When the update was completed it wanted to reboot 
the system.

After rebooting the blue bars for the wireless 
connection appeared in the top right and it then 
found my wireless Netopia DSL modem and said the 
connection was "100%", but when I right click and 
ask for connection information it has all zeros 
for IP address, etc.

Under System -> Network it shows Wireless 
Connection now along with the other two, but it is 
not check-able, and when I select properties it 
doesn't not have the Save button clickable.

I then went back to the docs that explained how to 
do get it working via ndiswrapper, and did

apt-get install ndiswrapper-common
apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils

The next step was

ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf

But when I do this I get

No ndiswrapper utils found!

But apt-get tells me that ndiswrapper-utils is the 
newest version.

Any advice on next steps would greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Skip
-- 
Skip Evans
Big Sky Penguin, LLC
503 S Baldwin St, #1
Madison, WI 53703
608-250-2720
http://bigskypenguin.com
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