1

First up: I'm a total Ubuntu noob with some Unix background

Installed Ubuntu 18.04 (complete overwrite on a 32-bit machine) and then updated to 18.04.1 using a wifi extender with cabled connection into machine. Firefox works wonderfully this way.

Take cable out so it uses the Broadcom 802.11 BCM4321 and Firefox times out. In terminal can only ping IP addresses and not host names.

Tried installing winbind and changed /ect/nsswitch.conf to include wins but no luck.

It seems like this should be simple. What am I missing here?

ubfan1
  • 17,838
  • Possible duplicate of Installing Broadcom Wireless Drivers Make sure the correct driver is installed. –  May 19 '19 at 02:21
  • @GabrielaGarcia if they can connect to wifi and ping IP addresses it's not their driver. It's USUALLY a DNS thing outside of the system in quesiton. – Thomas Ward May 19 '19 at 02:23
  • Yes, usually. What's unusual is that it works fine with the other connection. The reason for the duplicate is because the driver was automatically installed and not always it's the correct one, it may work (connect) but have all sorts of issues, including apparent DNS issues. –  May 19 '19 at 02:25
  • Ah ok so I didn't mention that I downloaded the STA drivers and installed those after the main install because originally I could not see any wireless networks to join. Could connect the cable and worked ok but could not connect wirelessly. Once installed the STA drivers I could then see the wireless networks and could connect to wifi. –  May 19 '19 at 04:02
  • I didn't think Ubuntu 18.04 came with a 32 bit version. I found the base 18.04 needed the package libnss-resolve installed to fix some DNS issues. wins is typically not needed, but the libnss-resolve adds to the /etc/nsswitch.conf file's hosts's line so it looks like: hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] resolve [!UNAVAIL=return] dns myhostname – ubfan1 May 19 '19 at 04:47
  • I've specifically installed Ubuntu Studio 18.04 that has a 32 bit option. I'm doing a complete reinstall and then will follow the Installing Broadcom Wireless Drivers instructions mentioned above. –  May 19 '19 at 05:10
  • So I've done a complete reinstall, then the Software Updater suggested I get the latest updates, so I let it do that. Then I followed the instructions in Installing Broadcom Wireless Drivers (bcmwl-kernel-source was the one listed for my PCI ID) and still no luck. –  May 19 '19 at 05:42
  • I then installed libnss-resolve and checked the conf file was updated as you suggested @ubfan1 and still not working. In fact now the ping of the IP doesn't even work :( –  May 19 '19 at 05:50
  • What is the pci-id of your BCM 4321? https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43 lists at least one which does not take the wl driver (so I guess it takes the default b43 driver). A failing ping IP is a driver problem, get that fixed, and then please post the output of ls -l /etc/resolv.conf, sudo systemd-resolve --status (all pages, keep typing return until the end, then q to quit, then cut and paste the output here). – ubfan1 May 19 '19 at 15:26
  • My PCI ID is [14e4:4328] (rev 03). I looked into that wiki link in your last post @ubfan1 and revision 3 is not listed and what IS listed is only partially supported. So does that mean I'm all outta luck here? "Software and Updates" says that I'm using the proprietary Broadcom 802.11 STA wireless driver. Based on the install document I was following in Installing Broadcom Wireless Drivers I needed to run this for my PCI ID (which I did):

    14e4:4328 rev 03 bcmwl-kernel-source bcmwl-kernel-source

     –  May 20 '19 at 04:32
  • Ooooo-kaaay! It seems to be working. I didn't do anything else today other than comment above. I was positive I rebooted after doing installs and changes etc but I have switched the PC on and oua-lah! Thank you everyone. I will mark the answers that got me to here. –  May 20 '19 at 04:43

1 Answers1

0

My problem has been solved with several comments from several contributors:

@GabrielaGarcia pointed me to Installing Broadcom Wireless Drivers

Then @ubfan1 suggested to try installing package libnss-resolve. The libnss-resolve adds to the /etc/nsswitch.conf file's hosts's line so it looks like:

hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] resolve [!UNAVAIL=return] dns myhostname

All is now working.