Fixing WiFi on the Dell 1501 Edgy & Feisty

The best thing you can do is read the complete guide first, then print it out and read it again. You have to do every step right.

STEP 1: CLEAN YOUR SYSTEM - You need to remove any and all versions of Ndiswrapper currently installed on your system.
In a terminal type:
sudo rmmod ndiswrapper
then:
sudo apt-get remove ndiswrapper-utils

Now you need to hunt down and find all instances of ndiswrapper left on your file system.
The easiest way to do this is to run a search. To find Ubuntu's search function, look under the Places entry on the top left corner of your computer. Type in ndiswrapper and look in folder : file system.



Now once you actually searched your file system to you should see results similar to the ones pictured below.



The files paths outlined by the red box tell you exactly where to look to file the old unneeded ndiswrapper files you must delete. Many of these files require you to be root (have administration access) to delete them.

To become root and look for these files you need.
In a terminal type:
sudo nautilus

You should see this:


In this newly opened /root window you can search and delete all instances of ndiswrapper. Take the file pates the search function gave you and type them in to the location box highlighted in red. If you don't have the location box, click the button in highlighted in blue to change views.

Delete all instances of ndiswrapper. Then run the two previous commands over again.
In a terminal type:
sudo rmmod ndiswrapper
Then:
sudo apt-get remove ndiswrapper-utils

STEP 2: GET NEEDED PACKAGES - We'll need to install compiling tools, the latest kernel headers, and then the source code for the latest ndiswrapper, and the wireless drivers from Dell.com

Get your compiling tools & kernel headers
In a terminal type:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`

Download Ndiswrapper
In a terminal type:
wget http://easynews.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper-1.47.tar.gz
If that doesn't work use this link.
Since writing this guide newer versions of ndiswrapper have been released on sourceforge. If you decide to download a newer release just change the version number to one you downloaded. If you download 1.50 instead of 1.47 you should change the command to ...ndiswrapper-1.50.tar.gz

Get the Windows driver for your Dell 1501
In a terminal type:
wget http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R140747.EXE

Now we will make a folder store your drivers in.
In a terminal type:
mkdir ~/.drivers

Now we will move the files we downloaded, ndiswrapper & R140747.EXE (the Dell driver), to the folder we just made.
In a terminal Type:
mv ~/ndiswrapper-1.47.tar.gz ~/.drivers
Then:
mv ~/R140747.EXE ~/.drivers

Now we are going to to untar/uncompress the ndiswrapper.
In a terminal type:
cd ~/.drivers
Then:
tar -xzvf ndiswrapper-1.47.tar.gz

Finally, we need to blacklist the broken and useless bcm43xx firmware drivers that try to load in a default Ubuntu install:
In a terminal type:
sudo su
Then type:
sudo echo blacklist bcm43xx >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

YOU MUST REBOOT NOW!

STEP 3: COMPILE PROGRAM - Now we'll complile the Ndiswrapper program

Point your terminal to the ndiswrapper-1.47 folder.
In a terminal type:
cd ~/.drivers/ndiswrapper-1.47

Now get everything ready for the compiling.
In a terminal type:
sudo make uninstall

Do the above command multiple times, 3 should do it. After running the command continue to the next step. You can stop when you get the message that says something about no files or directories found.

Now we compile ndiswrapper:
In a terminal type:
sudo make
Then:
sudo make install

STEP 4: INSTALL DRIVERS - Use the Windows driver with ndiswrapper to get WiFi working

In order for us to unzip the R140747.EXE driver we need to point your terminal to the /.driver folder.
In a terminal type:
cd ~/.drivers

Unzip the R140747.EXE driver
In a termianl type:
unzip -a R140747.EXE

We need to point your terminal to the DRIVER folder we just unzipped
In a terminal type:
cd ~/.drivers/DRIVER

Now install the Windows driver
In a terminal type:
sudo ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
Then:
sudo ndiswrapper -l

You should see a message that says driver present, hardware detected.

Now finish installing the driver
In a terminal type:
sudo ndiswrapper -m
Then:
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

YOU MUST REBOOT NOW!

STEP 5: TEST WIRELESS

Your WiFi light on your laptop should be illuminated, if not you can always turn it on and off with the Fn+F2 (Function & F2 Key) and you're all set! Try running this to see if your wireless card is functioning properly.

In a terminal type:
sudo iwlist scanning

edited by pHreaksYcle