Thursday, July 3, 2008

Ubuntu - 7.1 Gutsy - Asus F5R Wireless

Last time I installed Gutsy, I had some issues with wireless, but after messing around endlessly with it tonight (2.30am now...) i have decided to write down exactly what I have done to get it working.

1) Fresh install of Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon.
2) Downloaded version of ndiswrapper as listed here.
3) Installed ndiswrapper in this order
ndiswrapper-common
ndiswrapper-utils
ndisgtk
4) Added the following to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist ('sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist')
blacklist BCM43xx
blacklist b43
blacklist b43legacy
blacklist ssb
5) Used Windows Wireless Drivers application (System>Administration>Windows Wireless Drivers) to install Windows Wireless Driver (which I stole from HP here) called bcmwl5.inf (Ubuntu also grabs other things)
6) Edited /etc/modules ('sudo gedit /etc/modules') and added this at the bottom
ndiswrapper
7) rebooted (a couple of times)

This worked. When I previously had Gutsy installed, I used to have intermittent problems with wireless dropping out when logging in, but so far, this has just worked (touch wood). I will update on the consistency of this working, as it was the most frustrating thing I had with Ubuntu, as I prefer wireless for my network access, because it means I can sit on my recliner.

No comments: