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Yes, I've looked at several other posts, and other sites trying to figure out what's up, but I've followed the steps, and had no success.

Note that I'm a relative newbie to setting up wireless on Ubuntu, so please feel free to suggest dumb errors like "is it on", I very likely missed something fundamental.

Output from a couple of commands:

$ lspci | grep 

0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11a/b/g (rev 01)

$ iwconfig

lo        no wireless extensions.
eth0      no wireless extensions.

Additional Drivers says "Using Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver source from bcmwl-kernel-source (proprietary)"

I've tried:

sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source

It just gives errors:

sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source Reading package lists...
Done Building dependency tree        Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:   bcmwl-kernel-source 0
upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 129 not upgraded. Need to
get 0 B/1,150 kB of archives. After this operation, 3,120 kB of
additional disk space will be used. Selecting previously unselected
package bcmwl-kernel-source. (Reading database ... 204100 files and
directories currently installed.) Unpacking bcmwl-kernel-source (from
.../bcmwl-kernel-source_5.100.82.112+bdcom-0ubuntu3_i386.deb) ...
Setting up bcmwl-kernel-source (5.100.82.112+bdcom-0ubuntu3) ...
Loading new bcmwl-5.100.82.112+bdcom DKMS files... Building only for
3.5.0-18-generic Building for architecture i686 Building initial module for 3.5.0-18-generic Done.

wl: Running module version sanity check.
 - Original module
   - No original module exists within this kernel
 - Installation
   - Installing to /lib/modules/3.5.0-18-generic/updates/dkms/

depmod....

DKMS: install completed. ERROR: Module b43 does not exist in
/proc/modules ERROR: Module b43legacy does not exist in /proc/modules
ERROR: Module ssb does not exist in /proc/modules ERROR: Module
bcm43xx does not exist in /proc/modules ERROR: Module brcm80211 does
not exist in /proc/modules ERROR: Module brcmfmac does not exist in
/proc/modules ERROR: Module brcmsmac does not exist in /proc/modules
ERROR: Module bcma does not exist in /proc/modules update-initramfs:
deferring update (trigger activated) Processing triggers for
initramfs-tools ... update-initramfs: Generating
/boot/initrd.img-3.5.0-18-generic

Also, more output:

sudo lshw -C network    *-network UNCLAIMED     
       description: Network controller
       product: BCM4311 802.11a/b/g
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:0c:00.0
       version: 01
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:fe8fc000-fe8fffff   *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: NetXtreme BCM5755M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:09:00.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 02
       serial: 00:1c:23:5b:29:73
       size: 100Mbit/s
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm vpd msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd
autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=tg3 driverversion=3.123 duplex=full firmware=5755m-v3.29 ip=192.168.1.69
latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100Mbit/s
       resources: irq:45 memory:fe7f0000-fe7fffff

Any ideas?

1 Answer 1

2

With the Ubuntu 11.x releases, the proprietary Broadcom drivers stopped working with the 4311 Broadcom chips (see bug 732677). However these chips works fine with the open b43 driver, but you first need to install their firmware -- easily done with a package install. First, remove the proprietary STA driver if installed, (which is the same as driver wl), and its configuration files which suppress the working b43 driver) by reversing whatever you did to install them:

   sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source 

and/or run additional-drivers and unselect the Broadcom STA driver

Check that your removal/deactivation above is complete:
all the lines with "blacklist b43" should have been removed from all files in /etc/modprobe.d. These blacklist lines suppress the b43 driver, so they must be removed -- just the exact "b43" and "b43legacy" lines, leave the "bcm43xx" lines alone. Deal with any leftovers:

sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-bcm43.conf

 gksudo gedit  any-file-found-with-b43

and delete or put a # at the beginning.

The proprietary firmware cannot be distributed with the release,so you have to manually add it. Use a wired connection, and in a terminal:

   sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-nonfree

Another source of the Broadcom firmware is the package firmware-b43-installer

   sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer  

but only one set of firmware is needed (and non-4311 users should check for needing other versions of the firmware (like firmware-b43-lpphy-installer).

With the firmware in place, NetworkManager may start scanning, if not, manually load the b43 driver module, or just reboot.

 sudo modprobe b43  

At this point, you should have the b43 driver module loaded, and the wl and another possible driver, brcma module NOT present in the module list produced by:

 sudo lsmod | sort

If the brcma module is listed, blacklist it by adding the following: blacklist brcma blacklist brcmsmac blacklist brcm80211 to file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

  gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

NetworkManager should start scanning and offer a list of possible connection points within a few seconds.

Select your access point, select the correct encryption method, and enter your key. If you are not broadcasting your ssid and it does not show up in the list of access points, you might have to left click NetworkManager and select the menu item "connect to hidden network", and enter your ssid. Next boot, the connection should be automatic.

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  • Thanks for the help, but I'm not there yet. `sudo lsmod | sort
    – Tom
    Dec 25, 2012 at 17:19
  • The bcma has to go also. That's a newer driver which might or might not work -- don't know much about it.
    – ubfan1
    Dec 25, 2012 at 17:22
  • do I add it to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf? add a line of 'blacklist bcma'? Then is a reboot necessary? (I'll try all of this, just getting the steps down)
    – Tom
    Dec 25, 2012 at 17:25
  • Yes, That should do it, so b43 is the only wireless driver left in the lsmod listing.
    – ubfan1
    Dec 25, 2012 at 17:34
  • Still no luck. lspci shows 0c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11a/b/g [14e4:4312] (rev 01) Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1490 Dual Band WLAN Mini-Card [1028:0007] Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge I added the following to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf blacklist brcma blacklist brcmsmac blacklist brcm80211 blacklist bcma
    – Tom
    Dec 25, 2012 at 17:41

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