I recently installed Ubuntu 13.04 with dualboot setup on a pre-installed Windows 8 Sony vaio laptop.I went to Additional Drivers under software and updates found the Broadcom 802.11 linus sta driver.Enabled it wifi came ,switched off the pc tried again and wifi gone.Whatever guide on this I found on net worked for the while system was on and once switched off I loose access to wifi again(not showing Enable wifi).when i went to additional drivers It shows that this "device is not working" or this device is using "an alternative driver". By hook or crook searching about Broadcom sta drivers I get them to work but again after rebooting the Wifi is lost.I really dont want to reinstall ubuntu as I already had a hardtime defeating Windoes 8 Uefi stuff.Please any way i get wifi settings or network setting to default and then finally able to cleanly access wifi everytime in ubuntu Also wifi works normal on windows 8.
1 Answer
It seems that Ubuntu is using brcmsmac driver, by default and the sta driver you are using is blacklisted. Follow this procedure to do the opposite:
1-sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source ( in case you want to use wl0 driver which is recommended over sta driver)
or you can install it from synaptic manager also, make sure broadcom-sta-common, broadcom-sta-source, firmware-b43* are NOT INSTALLED.
2-Even if you install the wl0 driver it won't load automatically as it is blacklisted by default. So make sure "/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-bcm43.conf" file looks like this:
# Warning: This file is autogenerated by bcmwl. All changes to this file will be lost.
blacklist b43
blacklist b43legacy
blacklist ssb
#blacklist bcm43xx
#blacklist brcm80211
blacklist brcmsmac
blacklist bcma
3-If you wish you can copy above contents in your blacklist-bcm43.conf file.
4-Hope this works, best of luck! and make sure you restart your pc.
