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I am a pretty clueless Ubuntu user, so bear with me. Yes I have searched extensively for an existing answer, but they all either make no sense to me or do not seem to apply.

Anyway, I installed a fresh version of 13.04 on my Dell inspirion 1721, and I have no wired or wireless connections. There are no additional drivers available in software and updates.

An interesting thing is that if I boot up with the usb stick that I used to install Ubuntu, the wired connection works fine and the Broadcom driver is listed in software and updates - additional drivers.

If anyone could point me in the next direction to go, I would greatly appreciate it.

Cat /ect/lsb-release; uname -a

    cat: /ect/lsb-release: No such file or directory 
Linux mike-Inspiron-1721 3.8.0-19-generic #29-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 17 18:19:42 UTC    2013 i686 athlon i686 GNU/Linux 

lspci -nmk | grep -iA2 net

03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX [14e4:170c] (rev 02) 
    Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01fd] 
03:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller      [1180:0832] (rev 05) 
-- 
0b: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: wl 

lsusb

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0930:6544 Toshiba Corp. Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 Stick     (2GB) 
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 045e:0745 Microsoft Corp. Nano Transceiver v1.0 for Bluetooth 
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 0a5c:4500 Broadcom Corp. BCM2046B1 USB 2.0 Hub (part of BCM2046 Bluetooth) 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub 
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub 
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub 
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub 
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub 
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub 
Bus 005 Device 003: ID 0a5c:4502 Broadcom Corp. Keyboard (Boot Interface Subclass) 
Bus 005 Device 004: ID 0a5c:4503 Broadcom Corp. Mouse (Boot Interface Subclass) 

iwconfig

lo        no wireless extensions.

lsmod

Module                  Size  Used by 
nls_utf8               12493  1 
isofs                  39211  1 
nls_iso8859_1          12617  1 
parport_pc             27504  0 
bnep                   17669  2 
ppdev                  12817  0 
rfcomm                 37420  0 
bluetooth             202069  10 bnep,rfcomm 
snd_hda_codec_idt      63896  1 
snd_hda_intel          38307  3 
snd_hda_codec         117580  2 snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel 
ssb                    69217  1 
snd_hwdep              13272  1 snd_hda_codec 
snd_pcm                80890  2 snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel 
wl                   3027822  1 
snd_page_alloc         14230  2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel 
radeon                870822  3 
snd_seq_midi           13132  0 
snd_seq_midi_event     14475  1 snd_seq_midi 
ttm                    71289  1 radeon 
snd_rawmidi            25114  1 snd_seq_midi 
snd_seq                51280  2 snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_midi 
drm_kms_helper         47545  1 radeon 
r852                   17873  0 
sm_common              16772  1 r852 
snd_seq_device         14137  3 snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_midi 
drm                   228750  5 ttm,drm_kms_helper,radeon 
snd_timer              24411  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq 
snd                    56485  15       snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_device 
nand                   49670  2 r852,sm_common 
soundcore              12600  1 snd 
kvm_amd                50336  0 
nand_ecc               13105  1 nand 
nand_bch               13003  1 nand 
joydev                 17097  0 
lib80211               14040  1 wl 
sp5100_tco             13447  0 
kvm                   376505  1 kvm_amd 
i2c_algo_bit           13197  1 radeon 
bch                    17226  1 nand_bch 
cfg80211              436177  1 wl 
dell_wmi               12601  0 
dell_laptop            17161  0 
i2c_piix4              13066  0 
sparse_keymap          13658  1 dell_wmi 
r592                   17707  0 
dcdbas                 14021  1 dell_laptop 
memstick               15842  1 r592 
nand_ids                8547  1 nand 
mtd                    38922  2 nand,sm_common 
psmouse                81038  0 
shpchp                 32129  0 
mac_hid                13037  0 
k8temp                 12842  0 
serio_raw              13031  0 
wmi                    18590  1 dell_wmi 
video                  18894  0 
ati_agp                13177  0 
lp                     13299  0 
parport                40753  3 lp,ppdev,parport_pc 
hid_generic            12484  0 
usbhid                 41805  0 
hid                    82666  2 hid_generic,usbhid 
pata_acpi              12886  0 
usb_storage            47684  1 
firewire_ohci          35292  0 
sdhci_pci              18158  0 
sdhci                  31824  1 sdhci_pci 
pata_atiixp            13058  1 
firewire_core          61718  1 firewire_ohci 
crc_itu_t              12627  1 firewire_core 
ahci                   25507  2 
libahci                26108  1 ahci 

The 'rfkill list all' comand returned nothing.

Thanks

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  • This time log to Recovery Mode(Safe Mode) and first go to network option to enable networking, then go to root option from the same list and run any command like sudo apt-get update to check if network is working or not. If it works then you'll get information like X KB fetched in Y seconds, which will insure that internet is working in Recovery Mode. Reply what happens, then I'll proceed further.. I suggest you to do this step while connected via wired network Sep 7, 2013 at 17:33
  • I get a bunch of error messages like " Failed to fetch ect.. Something wicked happened resolving 'us.archive.ubuntu.com:http' (-11 - System error)"
    – Xyrauchen
    Sep 7, 2013 at 17:43
  • Did you go to network option? Did you get any problem while enabling network! Like some error message except messages that have been displayed by default? Sep 7, 2013 at 17:46
  • When i select network, I get a message that says, "Continuing will remount your / filesystem in rea/write mode and mount any other filesystem defined in /ect/fstab. do you wish to continue?
    – Xyrauchen
    Sep 7, 2013 at 17:51
  • oho.. Obviously!! You have to select yes.. Then only it will enable network! After enabling.. wait for some time and then proceed further.. Sep 7, 2013 at 17:52

3 Answers 3

0

You seem to have both NIC and wireless card of broadcom and they are sometimes nasty. Your lsmod says wl module is loaded which is proprietary driver and should have worked. But wl has issues so what I would recommend is you try sudo apt-get install --reinstall dkms bcmwl-kernel-source and see in the terminal if you get any errors. Also try b43 driver which is an alternative for your wireless chip.

UNFORTUNATELY, these all require you to be online, so you may need to download these packages and do local install. Also AFAIK b43-fwcutter requires you to be online.

See official doc. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx

May be you could get your wired network running with this then try the above steps: Broadcom BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX Issues

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  • I can't find the file that he is talking about editing in the link.
    – Xyrauchen
    Sep 8, 2013 at 18:51
  • You will get that file only when you have broadcom-sta installed.Just try sudo modprobe b44 or sudo modprobe b44.ko and see if your ethernet responds. Sep 8, 2013 at 19:02
  • sudo modprobe b44 drops the curser one line and it blinks for ever. Sudo modprobe b44.ko retuns 'FATAL: Module b44.ko not found
    – Xyrauchen
    Sep 8, 2013 at 23:00
  • Find what modules you have. Just do sudo find /lib/modules -name 'b44.ko'. Also try wl.ko. Uninstall wl driver and add b44 to /etc/modules and reboot and see. What I have found is b44 comes in linux-image. So you may try reinstalling linux-image as well. Sep 9, 2013 at 1:05
  • Your answer was not exactly what I was looking for, but it pointed me in the right direction. The propritery wireless driver was blacklisting the ethernet driver (b44). I went in /ect/modprobe.d/blaklist-bcm43.conf and put a pound sign in front of every line. That got my ethernet connection working and then I downloaded b43 and the b43 firmware from ubuntu software center. It was all in the official doc that you linked to, but the key was that the stupid driver that did not work was blacklisting everything else. I have learned alot about linux today.
    – Xyrauchen
    Sep 9, 2013 at 3:46
0

Take a look at this page. If you find your driver, download it and install it just like any program.

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  • According to my Ubuntu Software Center that driver is already installed.
    – Xyrauchen
    Sep 8, 2013 at 18:49
-2

I don't know what couse this problem , but I have a (Broadcom driver wireless) for Dell inspirion 1545 I can Upload it for you if you want I hope that help's you

anyway you can open synaptic and type in search (Broadcom) and you will find your driver

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  • Good, he will find the drivers in synaptic, but can you suggest him the way to download it from there..? Sep 8, 2013 at 8:39
  • from another computer which connected to internet
    – exotic
    Sep 8, 2013 at 10:40
  • Sounds great!! Then why don't you edit your answer and describe step by step process to do so.. It would really help Xyrauchen to solve the problem.. Sep 8, 2013 at 10:44

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