Ubuntu Wiki

• These steps are required for Dapper Drake (6.06 LTS)
• They should NOT be used for Feisty Fawn (7.04)
• Edgy Eft - unknown ... if someone uses edgy, please note wifi status here.

General Notes

This is a consolidated list of instructions on getting wifi working on the Acer Aspire 5003WLCi laptop. The information came from https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WifiDocs/Driver/Ndiswrapper and ?Broadcom43xx

• For troubleshooting: SetupNdiswrapperHowto Broadcom43xx WiFiTroubleshooting WirelessTroubleshootingGuide

• if you want to rmmod ndiswrapper for some reason, be sure that you've done "$sudo ifdown eth1" first - otherwise the system will lock up
• This laptop has an illuminated button that turns wifi on and off. In XP it's lighted up if the card is active, the same is true for the 32-bit driver - with the 64-bit driver it only lights up when data is actually being transmitted. This makes it tough to know what state the card is in prior to getting it set up in the first place (which hinders the troubleshooting process). If anyone finds a 64-bit driver that behaves correctly with the light, please update this page

I am assuming that every laptop that Acer labeled 5003WLCi is 100% identical. That means :

• The chipset of the wireless card is 14e4:4318 (rev 02)
• The drivers that worked for me should work for you
• Ubuntu sees the wireless card as eth1

Instructions

Download driver for either 32-bit or 64-bit, whichever Ubuntu you installed

• 32-bit - ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/softpaq/sp30501-31000/SP30676.exe

• 64-bit - ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/notebook/ferrari_4000/driver/winxp64bit/80211g.zip

Source : http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/List

install ndiswrapper-utils

1. Insert your install CD into the cdrom drive.

2. Click on System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager

3. Click the "Reload" button to make sure your package list is up to date.
4. Click the "Search" button
5. Enter search criteria : ndiswrapper
6. Click the "Search" button
7. Right-click on the ndiswrapper-utils package and click "Mark for Installation"
8. Click "Apply"
9. Click "Apply" on the Summary dialogue

add line to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

sudo vi /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

1. Press <SHIFT>G to get to the end of the page

2. Pres "o" to insert a new line, and type this text : blacklist bcm43xx
3. Press "Escape"
4. Type the 3 characters ":wq" to save and exit

remove the broadcom driver

$sudo rmmod bcm43xx

Turn off the wired NIC

$sudo ifdown eth0

Extract the driver to some directory

• For the 32-bit driver, I used windows to extract it, it may be possible to use wine, I don't know. I wouldn't use the laptop's version of windows; you never know what it will do to the existing windows wireless configuration.

The rest of this article assumes that the driver has been extracted to directory /home/user/broadcom/

The .inf file is named the same (bcmwl5.inf) for both the 32-bit and the 64-bit driver.

Install the driver

sudo ndiswrapper -i /home/user/broadcom/bcmwl5.inf

Check to make sure the driver loaded properly

sudo ndiswrapper -l

If that doesn't come back with a response like the following, then you need to look at the ndiswrapper troubleshooting pages :

• bcmwl5 driver present, hardware present

sudo depmod -a
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

Now test to see if the card is working... (I hope I don't need to point out that you need to be near a wireless access point)

iwlist eth1 scan

If that does not find your wireless network, then try pushing the wifi button on the laptop, perhaps it's off. Then run the command again. If the card does not detect any wireless networks, then you need to visit some troubleshooting pages.