I can't install NDISWRAPPER

Question

I built a computer and installed Ubuntu 13.10. I've never used Linux before.

I have installed in it a wireless network card, Broadcom BCM4318, chip 14e4:4318.

I'm told that to use it I need to install NDISWRAPPER, so I downloaded ndiswrapper 1.59. I followed the instructions in the package- navigating to the directory of the tarball, extracting it using

tar zxvf ndiswrapper-version.tar.gz

Then going to the INSTALL file, doing what it said:

make uninstall
make

Login as root and run

make install

And now I'm trying to run ndiswrapper, and the terminal says it isn't installed, but I can install it using

sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-common

So I type that in and it says

 E: Unable to locate package ndiswrapper-common

And here I am, stuck, as if I have done nothing. I'm tearing my hair out over here, nothing appears to work. All I'm trying to do is something that every internet guide claims is easy, YET EVERY ONE OF THEM HAS A DIFFERENT SET OF INSTRUCTIONS FOR DOING SO. How do I install my damn wireless network card?

Solution 1

I don't believe ndiswrapper is required at all. Please get a temporary wired ethernet connection, open a terminal and do:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-nonfree
sudo modprobe b43

Detach the ethernet; your wireless should now be working.

Solution 2

In Ubuntu 13.10 ndiswrapper-common package was available at the Universe repository.So try to enable Universe Repository in Software and Updates.

After enabling the universe repository,update it and install ndiswrapper-common package by running the below commands,

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-common

Comments

[MadMike]

Which guide are you using? It seems strange to me that you do a "make install" and then you want to "apt-get install .." install it again via "apt-get".

[JCMontalbano]

I'm using the wired internet connection to answer this. I used the terminal, entered your command, and got this: [sudo] password for john: Reading package lists... Done Building dependency treeReading state information... Done` `E: Unable to locate package linux-firmware-nonfree'

[chili555]

Please see my edit.