#07 | WPC54g on Ubuntu

Let's assume you have a Windows/Ubuntu dual-boot system. You had a rough youth and now you're using an Intel wireless adapter and some weird network setup. Unfortunately for you, Ubuntu is experiencing problems connecting to the wireless network. You should, off course, look for the core problem and fix this (write a better driver...), but, you could also use that old Linksys WPC-54g wireless card you have lying around somewhere.

So here you go: plug-in that nice piece of PCMCIA hardware and you're up. Or not. Turns out that Ubuntu doesn't have the correct drivers installed. And how could we install drivers without having a working Internet connection? ....... It's Windows time all over again.

Searching the web, being unlucky as you are, you'll find yourself stuck in (a) searching for the correct debian package, followed by (b) finding that the package does not contain the actual driver. It is easy to fix this on your own, but having the solution out here, is much easier :-)

It comes down to this

wget http://www.vvdveen.com/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
export FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR="/lib/firmware"

if [ ! -d "$FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR" ]; then
mkdir -p $FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR
fi

tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
cd broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver
b43-fwcutter -w "$FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR" wl_apsta_mimo.o