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how to enable wifi in ubuntu 16.04 on dell latitude with broadcom limited bcm4313 adapter ?

sudo lshw c -network
 *-network DISABLED        
       description: Wireless interface
       product: BCM4313 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter
       vendor: Broadcom Limited
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: wlp2s0
       version: 01
       serial: bc:85:56:a9:14:db
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=wl0 driverversion=6.30.223.248 (r487574) latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11
       resources: irq:17 memory:f7d00000-f7d03fff

lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 16.10
Release:    16.10
Codename:   yakkety

lspci -knn | grep Net -A3
00:19.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection [8086:1502] (rev 04)
    DeviceName:  Onboard LAN
    Subsystem: Dell 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection [1028:0534]
    Kernel driver in use: e1000e
    Kernel modules: e1000e
00:1a.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 [8086:1e2d] (rev 04)
--
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Limited BCM4313 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:4727] (rev 01)
    Subsystem: Dell BCM4313 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter [1028:0015]
    Kernel driver in use: wl
    Kernel modules: bcma, wl
0b:00.0 SD Host controller [0805]: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ600FJ0/OZ900FJ0/OZ600FJS SD/MMC Card Reader Controller [1217:8221] (rev 05)

rfkill list
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no
2: brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: yes
4: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: yes
5: dell-bluetooth: Bluetooth
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: yes
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17
  • will you add the output of sudo lshw c -network to your question?
    – L. D. James
    Mar 7, 2017 at 17:04
  • sudo lshw c -network Hardware Lister (lshw) - unknown usage: lshw [-format] [-options ...] lshw -version -version print program version (unknown) format can be -html output hardware tree as HTML -xml output hardware tree as XML -short output hardware paths -businfo output bus information options can be -class CLASS only show a certain class of hardware -C CLASS same as '-class CLASS' -c CLASS same as '-class CLASS' etc.
    – adam cadmon
    Mar 7, 2017 at 17:19
  • What @L.D.James meant to say is please edit the output of sudo lshw -c network into your question. Please also edit in the output of lsb_release -a Thank you for helping us help you!
    – Elder Geek
    Mar 7, 2017 at 18:04
  • 5
    Possible duplicate of Installing Broadcom Wireless Drivers
    – Elder Geek
    Mar 7, 2017 at 18:08
  • @adamcadmon Someone else might be able to help, but I can't make out the content. Would you mind pasting the output to your question? It would make it substantially easier for me to process it.
    – L. D. James
    Mar 7, 2017 at 18:23

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
5

Your wireless adapter is hardware blocked according to your rfkill list output.

As far as I know Dell computers have a hardware switch that is off. You need to turn it on. Depending on the model it could be a Fn+some Fx key combination.

You can also check the BIOS to see if wireless is enabled there.

If you really can't find the hardware switch you can stop the dell_wmi by

sudo modprobe -r dell_wmi
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3
  • Tried ubuntu 18.04 Fedora 17 ; back to ubuntu 16.04. Dell inspiron E6540 . Does not see any wifi drivers at all. Getting really fed up now. Wasted several hours on this. Tried compiling drivers, blacklisting. virtually everything I have found on the forums. That wifi will not light up. Been in the bios too and its all turned on. The little button at the side is at the black position (I assume red means off). Have tried FN F2 as well.
    – Robin
    Nov 29, 2018 at 12:29
  • Which way does the hardware switch at the side work? Does red mean OFF or ON ?
    – Robin
    Nov 29, 2018 at 13:24
  • On my Latitude E6320, red means OFF, black means ON.
    – Silas Palmer
    May 22, 2020 at 2:45
-1

Connect device with wire to modem. In GNOME open terminal sudo apt update Search on Show Applications Additional Drivers

IT Fins the proprietry Broadcom driver Enable IT.

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