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I'm running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 64-bit and I'm trying to get my Cisco AE2500 USB wireless receiver to pick up the wireless signal. Initially during the install of Ubuntu onto my system I had it connected via ethernet to download all the updates. After rebooting and getting into Ubuntu for the first time, my wireless worked but is getting really bad signal even for sitting right next to the router. If I move the computer back to where it was originally, no signal will reach it.

I've come to find out that it's using my on-board wireless device which I never officially set up because I didn't have the hardware, more specifically, the antenna which it needed. This also explains why I'm getting bad signal even when sitting close to it.

On a previous install, I was able to get my AE2500 to work but I was never able to connect to anything, despite being able to see the networks. On this install, since I actually did the updates this time around, it's using Broadcom drivers for my onboard networking card. When using the NDISWrapper GUI (ndisgtk) I try to use the XP driver set which was valid on my last install but now is saying "Invalid Driver!" with a big red X across it. My guess is that it is thinking this driver is trying to be applied to my on-board network card and not my USB device.

Is there anyway I can choose or make default, this AE2500 device and disable the on-board card so there is no conflict? I tried the "Additional Drivers" and I see the Broadcom driver and I attempt to disable it. When I hit "Apply Changes", it reverts back to what it had. I thought maybe there is a dependency since I was connected via wifi, so I plugged the ethernet cord in, rebooted, and it still won't allow me to remove it.

I'm up for any ideas at this point.

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  • Can you disable the wireless in BIOS?
    – Nattgew
    Oct 16, 2014 at 18:45
  • I can disable it in BIOS, yes. After I do so, no wireless options are available at all. My XP (also tried Vista and Win7 drivers) drivers are loaded into NDISWRAPPER via NDISGTK but report "Invalid Driver!"
    – NervXT
    Oct 18, 2014 at 20:12

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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I suggest you run, in a terminal:

sudo lshw -C network

Find the driver for the internal (Broadcom?) device. Then unload and blacklist its driver. lshw will report, for Broadcom devices, either 'driver=wl0' or 'driver=b43-pci-bridge.' The relevant drivers to be blacklisted are wl or b43. Assuming it is wl, for example:

sudo -i
modprobe -r wl
echo "blacklist wl"  >>  /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
exit

The procedure is the same for b43.

Next, alias the ndiswrapper driver to the USB device. Find its usb.id with:

lsusb

You may find something like: Bus 002 Device 003: ID 13b1:003a Linksys

We will use the usb.id 13b1:003a to ceate an alias to the driver:

sudo ndiswrapper -a 13B1:003A bcmwlhigh5

Of course, substitute your exact details here. If unsure, post your details and we'll help.

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  • Sorry, deleted my comment so I could say it a little better. I followed your instructions exactly but it still seems to be using the motherboards wireless networking device. When showing my USB devices via "lsusb" it shows the AE2500 and in brackets, [Broadcom BCM43236] even after I followed what you mentioned above to alias the device ID to use that driver. ndisgtk also reports that it's an "Invalid Driver!".
    – NervXT
    Oct 18, 2014 at 19:51
  • What does this tell us about the "bad driver?" dmesg | grep ndis Thanks.
    – chili555
    Oct 18, 2014 at 20:10
  • Is there a way to paste more text than the 600 characters they're limiting me to? I can't paste the entire output and I'm not certain on what is important or not.
    – NervXT
    Oct 18, 2014 at 20:15
  • Paste it here and give us the link in your reply: paste.ubuntu.com
    – chili555
    Oct 18, 2014 at 20:20
  • Thanks! Here is the output: paste.ubuntu.com/8586851
    – NervXT
    Oct 18, 2014 at 20:21
0

Type

sudo lsmod

This is a list of active "drivers". If you see anything resembling your onboard card here, do

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

and add your bad driver there. Reboot.

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