0

I am having problems connecting to Wifi with a dell laptop, using BCM43224 , 14e4:4353. Sometimes it works fine but on other days I am unable to access any webpages although I can see the network name and % signal strength in the corner. Sometimes it will not connect to this network. Sometimes, it will connect, but I will not be able to access any pages. I have tried rebooting, logging in and logging out, and activating and deactivating Wifi, which are all unsuccessful. Sometimes after a suspend it will not connect to Wifi. Each time the Wifi did not work, I tested the Internet with another device and it worked fine, to verify that the problem was not the network/internet connection. I think the current driver is brcmsmac, posted details below.

Should I try the b43 driver, or what should I do instead or in addition? I found this page Installing Broadcom Wireless Drivers which lists 4353 as a special case, but I am not sure what that means for how to modify the instructions, however on this page http://linuxwireless.sipsolutions.net/en/users/Drivers/b43/ it states that the b43 driver will work for 3.1+ (not sure what the 3.1 refers to).

Thanks!

Edit: answers to the questions asked below. I did see the text for special case #1 but I still don't know what it means, based on your answer I think maybe that I am already using the b43 driver and there is nothing to be done on the driver level? Perhaps it is time for a new wireless card?

$ lsb_release -d
Description:    Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca

$ lsmod | grep -e wl -e brcmsmac -e b43
brcmsmac              563041  0 
cordic                 12574  1 brcmsmac
brcmutil               15618  1 brcmsmac
b43                   387371  0 
mac80211              630653  2 b43,brcmsmac
cfg80211              484040  3 b43,brcmsmac,mac80211
ssb                    62379  1 b43
bcma                   52096  3 b43,brcmsmac

$ uname -r
3.13.0-37-generic

2nd edit: Do not know if this is important, but while the computer loads, I briefly get the following message:

brcmsmac bcma0:0: ms_ops_bss_info_changed: qos enabled: false (implement)
brcmsmac bcma0:0: brcms_ops_config: change power-save mode: false (implement)

Edit 10/20/2015: I bought a new wireless card and it still does not connect to the Internet so I do not believe that is the problem. Are there any suggestions on how I can troubleshoot this? The only other step I can think of it to buy a new computer which will be expensive and troublesome. Is there an Internet forum where I can post questions on this?

1 Answer 1

1

The link you referred to says this device is Special Case #1 if you are running Ubuntu 14.04 and UNKNOWN if 15.04. In the footnotes, for Special Case #1, it says:

Uses bcma and brcmsmac driver combination. Required firmware is installed by default in the package linux-firmware.

Which version are you running?

lsb_release -d

Which driver are you running?

lsmod | grep -e wl -e brcmsmac -e b43

Once we have more details, I will propose a solution.

The other link you gave us says that b43 works for 3.1+. That means kernel versions 3.1 and newer. Find out your kernel version with:

uname -r

For all Ubuntu versions that have not reached end-of-life, the kernel version is likely 3.13 and newer.

1
  • Any thoughts from anyone? Sep 21, 2015 at 21:27

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .