Configuring Wireless BCM4310 UART card in Debian Etch amd64 using ndiswrapper

This how to explains the steps involved in configuring BCM4310 UART wireless card in Debian etch.

Before proceeding to the steps check whether this how to applies* to you by issuing the following command:

 $  lspci | grep 4310 

If you get some output like the one given below then go ahead

   Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4310 UART (rev 01) 

Procedure

Step 1: Download the driver from ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp33001-33500/sp33008.exe

Step 2: Install linux headers for your running kernel

 apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` 

Step 3: Install GNU build tools and cabextract to extract drivers

 apt-get install build-essential cabextract 

Step 4: You can obtain a copy of ndiswrapper latest source from http://ndiswrapper.sf.net

tar -xzvf ndiswrapper-1.34.tar.gz
cd ndiswrapper-1.34
make distclean
make;
make install

Step 5: Extract the driver which you have downloaded in step 1)

 $ cabextract sp33008.exe

Step 6: Install the driver using ndiswrapper

$ ndiswrapper -e bcmwl5
$ ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
$ ndiswrapper -l
$ ndiswrapper -m
$ modprobe ndiswrapper

Step 8: Add ndiswrapper to /etc/modules

$ echo ndiswrapper >> /etc/modules 

Step 9: Go to Desptop->Administration->Networking and give the parameters required for wlan0 wireless card

Step 10: Reboot your machine and Enjoy using wireless :) (Though this step is not required if you know the ways and means ;) )

You may need to do add this line to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist in Ubuntu:

 blacklist bcm43xx 

and then run the following command

 $ modprobe -r bcm43xx 

*NOTE: This how to can be applied for for any of the existing wireless card provided it is supported to work using ndiswrapper. You can check this from the following link and download the drivers from the links given:

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

If you have any doubts just post a comment to this blog entry or shoot a mail to me (stylesen at gmail dot com)

This how-to is also applicable to Ubuntu users with not much change!