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Hi I have a Dell Inspiron 6400 and have been running Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS alongside windows for a few months. I decided to get rid of windows and move over to Ubuntu completely yesterday and started with a clean install. Since then my laptop won't connect to the wireless network and when I try and use the different fixes online it stops connecting via the Ethernet cable as well. I have the Broadcom BCM 4311 network adapter and I have tried installing the STA driver that Ubuntu suggests. As well as running the terminal commands to uninstall the bcmwl-b43 and then install the firmware-b43-installer and b43-fwcutter.

I'm sure it's an easy fix that I am overlooking but I really need someone's help with this.

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  • Can you show us the instructions you've followed, and provide the exact terminal commands you've ran and the output they produced. That may help in finding a solution. (The best way to provide this information is by editing your answer.) Aug 16, 2013 at 8:45
  • Honestly I can't really remember everything that's been produced (realised after an hour of fiddling that I should have been keeping a copy of it somewhere)could you help me if I reinstall it so its the original OS with none of my 'fiddling'
    – BigAd028
    Aug 16, 2013 at 8:55
  • Yeah I already reinstalled the os this morning I. The hopes that starting from scratch might help me. I currently have a wired connection but it doesn't have any options for a wireless one.
    – BigAd028
    Aug 16, 2013 at 9:18
  • In that case, if you provide the requested information, it will probably be fresh, so definitely go ahead! It should make it much easier for people to help you. Aug 16, 2013 at 9:19

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This is an easy one for me, because I have the same wifi card. I have re-installed ubuntu countless times, never dual-booted though on this laptop. To get the wifi to work, simply run the commands below. I would recommend doing this on a clean installation. It got mine working perfectly. If that doesn't work then refer to this forum (where I got it from) here.

sudo apt-get remove bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter firmware-b43-installer

Then, reboot!

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  • Just a thought, if this doesn't work would I be able to download Wine and then get the card drivers off the manufacturers website to install them?
    – BigAd028
    Aug 16, 2013 at 9:19
  • @BigAd028 Wine will run many Windows applications, but does not run any Windows drivers. There is something called NDISWrapper that can be used to run some Windows drivers on Ubuntu (and other GNU/Linux systems), but it is usually best to troubleshoot native drivers first, especially if nobody else has already gotten the particular Windows driver you're interested to work with NDISWrapper and published details of how they did it. Aug 16, 2013 at 9:21
  • See still a complete newbie at this -.- just followed the above instruction and now I have a wireless connection Thankyou!
    – BigAd028
    Aug 16, 2013 at 9:29

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