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My friend gave me this laptop to use for my university. It's a Samsung NP-X420 which has Lubuntu 14.04. The problem is that I don't know how to get wifi on this laptop. This is what I see: Desktop Lubuntu.

I started to search around in the laptop and then I clicked on: Preferences > Network Connections. When I click on "Add", I get this window where I need to choose the Connection Type. Then I click on "Wi-Fi" and then "Create". Then I get this window: Wi-Fi and I don't know what to do. Like, do I really have to fill in all the parameters of the wifi network that I want to connect to? How would I know them, especially if I want to use the wifi of my university?

I'm not sure what to do to get wifi. Do I need to install drivers? Do I have to use some command in the terminal?

I don't have a wired connection at home, so I can't connect the laptop to the internet. I also don't have any boot CD/USB/etc... But I do have another (very slow) laptop at home that can connect to wifi and that I can use to download the needed drivers, and then put them on a USB stick to get them to the Samsung laptop.

I'm not so experienced with pc's, laptops and such so I would highly appreciate it if you are easy to understand and don't use too much technical terms. If there are some terms that I don't understand, I will of course do the effort to look them up on the internet, but please don't make me read several articles just to understand the meaning of a word. Thanks in advance!

EDIT: When I open the terminal and type: lspci -nnk | grep 0280 -A2 I get the following message:

02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN [14e4:4311] (rev 01)

Subsystem: AMBIT Microsystem Corp. Device [1468:0422]

Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge

The number 0280 between the brackets on the first line is in red color. I wanted to post a picture of it but I apparently can't post more than two images, since I don't have 10 reputations.

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  • "... if you are easy to understand and don't use too much technical terms. " We will do our very best. It appears to me that there is no driver for your wireless. Let's gather some information so we can see what you have and what we need to do to get it going. Please open a terminal with Ctrl+Alt+t and run: lspci -nnk | grep 0280 -A2 That funny pipe symbol | is on the right side of my US keyboard on the same key with \. Please edit your question to add the result. Welcome to Ask Ubuntu.
    – chili555
    Oct 27, 2016 at 2:23
  • Thanks for the quick reply sir! I will start the laptop up right now
    – I. Wewib
    Oct 27, 2016 at 2:31

1 Answer 1

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Your Broadcom requires firmware. Please download the file b43.zip from post #16 here: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2320529&page=2&highlight=b43.zip Transfer it to the desktop of the Ubuntu machine. Right-click it and select 'Extract Here.'

Next, in the terminal:

sudo mkdir /lib/firmware/b43
sudo cp Desktop/b43/* /lib/firmware/b43
sudo modprobe -rf b43
sudo modprobe -rf ssb
sudo modprobe b43

Run each command one at a time and press Enter after each.

It may take a reboot. You should see your network at the Network Manager icon. Click on it, supply the password and connect.

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  • PS- I will be away for the evening. Good luck!!!
    – chili555
    Oct 27, 2016 at 3:01

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