Fix: Getting Linksys WMP300N to work on Ubuntu

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This is a little old actually, but it looks like it’s still getting hits on my old blog, so here it is being migrated over to this new blog. The Linksys WMP300N is not as widely used so it seems and therefore, it’s quite hard to find much resources on it. So I guess this might be good post to keep alive as well.

Linksys WMP300N
Linksys WMP300N – Source: Amazon

If you somehow happens to be having the Linksys WMP300N and Ubuntu 8.10, well, you’d probably be wondering how to get the wireless adapter working as I did! Well, fret not, I did find a guide that pretty much describes what you need to do to get it working.

But firstly, you’d need to get the latest drivers in order to get it working on the latest built of Ubuntu, 8.1 or Intrepid Ibex that is. I’ve basically downloaded the latest Linksys Windows XP drivers, extracted the two files that you’d need and uploaded it here.

Next, you’d need to get the Ndiswrapper utility installed on your machine. If you are still able to access the internet via ethernet LAN or perhaps a 3G-enabled phone, things would be a lot easier. All you’d need to do is to fire up a terminal and type

sudo apt-get install ndisgtk

and it would install the ndiswrapper and all the required packages. If you can’t connect, then you’d need to download the packages on another machine and copy it over and install it offline.

Once ndiswrapper is installed, the next steps is to install the driver!

But first things first, let’s remove all existing drivers (if any) that are already installed with ndiswrapper. You can do that by first listing all the drivers that’s currently installed by typing

ndiswrapper -l

in the terminal. If you don’t see any result, simply move on to the next step! Otherwise, remove all the drivers by typing

sudo ndiswrapper -r

where is as per listed in the list earlier. It would be something like “sudo ndiswrapper -r BCM43GX”. Repeat if you have more than one driver installed.

Next, it’s time to install the driver!. Of course, extract the Linksys drivers (as linked above) to any location. I chose to extract mine in my home folder. Once done, remember where it is and modify the path of the following command accordingly. Type

sudo ndiswrapper -i ~/wmp300n/bcmwl5.inf

to install the driver. Then, type the following commands to load the ndiswrapper (i think).

sudo depmod -a
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
sudo ndiswrapper -m

You’d also want to make sure the default Ubuntu drivers do not load as it don’t work. To open up the blacklist file, type the following.

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Once the editor is opened, add the following lines at the bottom.

# broadcom default no firmware, using ndiswrapper instead
blacklist bcm43xx
blacklist b43
blacklist b43legacy
blacklist ssb

Also make sure there’s a couple of empty lines below the last line in the file to make sure the files it ended properly.

Lastly, you’d also want to check in the /etc/modules file and make sure ndiswrapper is added for it to load when the machine boots. Type

gksudo gedit /etc/modules

to edit the file and add “ndiswrapper” to the list if it’s not there.

Once that’s done, restart your machine and if it works, then you’ll be able to detect your wireless network and connect to it!

Hope this helps! BTW, I’m no Linux guru and am merely sharing what I’ve gathered over the Internet on resolving this issue.

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