I’ve had good experiances with Compaq and Linux (except for Redhat), but getting Linux fully operational on my Presario V2000 laptop was another story. But I finaly got 3d and WiFi working. Here are the tutorials I used, one found at the Ubuntu forums, the other at WordPress.com.
A Fast Way To Install ATIand NVIDIA Drivers
One of the first questions Linux users often ask, after installing their distro of choice, is “How do I install Nvidia drivers?” Although the process has been hit and miss in the past, one of the best solutions that I have come across is Envy for the Ubuntu distribution. The process is breathtakingly easy and works like a charm everytime. Since version 0.8.1 Envy now installs Ati drivers as well as Nvidia. The process is as easy as :
wget http://albertomilone.com/ubuntu/nvidia/scripts/envy_0.8.1-0ubuntu6_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i envy_0.8.1-0ubuntu6_all.deb
then press Alt+Cntrl+F1 to kill X-Windows and type
envy
at the terminal. From there press a few “Yes” and you have the latest stable Nvidia drivers installed on your computer. The program even brings you back into X-Windows. Envy is one very sweet script. The author of the program is Alberto Milone, better known as tseliot in the Ubuntu Forums. He was nice enough to answer to some questions on Envy, as well Ubuntu.
*Note for users of previous Envy versions you should first do these two steps before the installation of version 0.8.1
sudo aptitude purge envy
sudo rm -R /usr/share/envy
HOWTO: Broadcom 4318 Wireless Cards
This HOWTO is for people who have a Broadcom 4318 Wireless card in their laptop. This card can sometimes be a bit 
difficult to setup, so I have provided a working method (for me, anyway).
To check if you have a Broadcom 4318 Card, open up the terminal (click the Applications button, then Accessories, and then Terminal) and run (just copy and paste the code from the code boxes throughout the HOWTO [in the terminal, this is done by right click anywhere and clicking paste, ctrl+v doesn't work])
Code:
lspci | grep Broadcom\ Corporation
If your output looks similar to
Code:
0000:05:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
or you can see the string BCM4318 in the output, then this should work for you.
Please note that this was really designed to be run on a very fresh install, right after Ubuntu has come up for the first time. It is mostly likely to work then. If you have tried other attempts at making this card work, I have no promises for you, but it only takes two minutes, so it is worth a shot (most people can get it to work, even on a not-so-fresh install).
The point of this HOWTO is to make it as simple as possible (not to educate people - if you want to know how this works, open the script and read it) for people who have just installed Ubuntu for the first time, so I wrote a script and have provided a set of drivers that worked for me. Not all drivers will work with ndiswrapper, so please use the ones I have provided.
The script requires no internet connection after it is downloaded…all required files are on the CD you installed Ubuntu with, and the package manager should recognize this.
Feisty
Download http://ubuntu.cafuego.net/pool/feist…buntu2_all.deb and double click it to install. Reboot. Enjoy wireless.
Dapper and Edgy
- Put the CD that you installed Ubuntu with in the CD drive.
- Download this file to your Desktop (the Firefox default, so if you haven’t changed it, that’s where it went/will go).
- Open a terminal (click the Applications button, then Accessories, and then Terminal)
- Change the current directory to the desktop (copy and paste the following commands exactly into your terminal by right clicking anywhere on the terminal and clicking paste)
Code:
cd ~/Desktop
- Extract the compressed file
Code:
tar -xf bcm4318*.tar.gz
- Run the script, which will install ndiswrapper on your system, and set it up.
Code:
sudo ./ndiswrapper_setup
- Use the internet (you will have to open the System menu at the top of the screen, go to Administration, and then click Networking. Configure the interface eth1 or wlan0, and connect to your wifi network)
- If you are an Acer user, you will need to use the acerhk driver.
- If it doesn’t work, reboot.
- If that doesn’t work, read the troubleshooting section below.
- If you still can’t make it work, try reading this post by The Raven, which is so long I can’t even fit it in here without doubling the length of the post
16 responses so far ↓
Dave J // April 29, 2007 at 8:29 am
Have you or anyone to your knowledge used the firmware modification method from ubuntu.cafuego.net on a dual boot machine? I am relectant to modify the card’s firware without being sure that it will still work with Windows.
Joshua Davis // April 29, 2007 at 9:05 am
I’ve used the method above and it’s firmware mod with success on a dual boot machine. You might want to check out the linked to post, because it’s been updated.
I’m not able to access the above mentioned site, so I can’t tell you about how it will work with a dual booting machine.
Dave J // May 2, 2007 at 8:08 pm
thanks much
dave J
Neil // July 5, 2007 at 7:17 pm
will envy allow the use of beryl? I have some sort of ATI driver installed but beryl and compiz don’t work. thanks.
Joshua Davis // July 11, 2007 at 1:47 pm
neil, i’m not really sure… i’ve tried getting beryl to work, and have had difficulty with that… i’m personally waiting until it’s officially supported by ubuntu.
mike // July 24, 2007 at 2:16 am
Thanks alot for the wireless install!!
works like a charm!
-mike
Guillaume Pelletier // August 7, 2007 at 4:04 pm
I simply L O V E Y O U !!!
haha
This Feisty script just seems too easy to be true. Works like a charm, i am writing this on my wep wi-fi.
This script single-handedly manage to do the job while ndiswrapper royally failed. Fantastic.
aaron // October 29, 2007 at 2:35 am
Thank you! Tried the one-click install with 7.10 ubuntu, and the little blue light shows up on the button, and I have a successful connection! So far so good, thanks very much!!!
Lupo // November 27, 2007 at 3:44 am
Gusty make it easy with Broadcom it is takes only one click to have it working.
I upgrated Feisy to gusty and the presario was as fast boot as before but after reinstalling from the CD I have now the boot taking 3 full minutes, it is close to Vista - 5 minutes. Can I fix it or make it boot faster again?
The Presario V2000 with ATI Radeon Xpress 200m can not take it and trying to force it may block the machine.
JS // February 17, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Hey how did u get to instll ubuntu 7.10 on ur presario v2000? My comp freezes after i hit Start/install ubuntu.
Joshua // February 18, 2008 at 8:59 am
Check your laptops memory, the graphical installer takes a lot of it. You also should try downloading the alternate text only install.
Mark Chappel // March 11, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Joshua,
I just installed Gutsy on my Compaq Presario V2000 and really appreciate your help in getting the Broadcom wireless working. No problem at all. I have another strange problem though. Any and all DVDs fail to be recognized, whether blank or recorded. No problem with CDs - they play and burn just fine. When I load a DVD and click on the drive in Nautilus, I get a message that it can’t mount it since there is probably no media present. So I can’t play or burn any DVDs. Thanks for any help you can give me on this. I’ve been running Feisty on an older eMachine for a while and I really love it. A real joy for my daily use.
Joshua // March 11, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Mark, are your DVD and CD drives integrated or separate?
claire // March 28, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Hi Josh,
I’m running Ubuntu 7.10 ix86 on a Compaq Presario V2000
Processor: AMD Turion 64 ML-37//RAM : 512MB DDR//Video Graphics Processor: ATI Mobility Radeon Integrated Graphics//Graphics Card using shared RAM.
The wireless solution worked perfectly although now I have to be much closer to the router for a working connection. I can no longer pirate off my neighbors…but that’s ok.
I tried both of the ati solutions and couldn’t get either to work. When I tried to install the restricted drivers for ATI I got a blank screen and ended up re-installing Ubuntu. Now I get a blank screen on boot up, but that’s something I can live with. Tried your method above, when I hit ctrl-alt-f1 my resolution got huge and i had to scroll to read all the questions (install nvidia? y/n, ect). I tried installing, got an error message (something about it not being able to find the package, i think) rebooted and still nothing. no 3D. any suggestions on what I could do? And thanks again for posting this, I never thought I’d get wifi working!
Joshua // March 29, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Yeah that is a problem with the hacked WiFi drivers but at least it’s their. As for your video card issue, I suggest you try installing from the command line. Maybe there’s also more info on this problem at ubuntuforums.org
jambo // August 5, 2008 at 11:59 am
I installed Hardy on my Compaq Presario V2000 and had the same wifi issues. I tried your .deb but it didn’t work. However it turns out that all I had to do was run:
sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter
and then reboot and the wireless came up. Looks like the support is now in Hardy, they just can’t package the actual firmware because of legal reasons.