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My laptop has a bcm43142 driver which is proprietary, but when I used Ubuntu and Lubuntu, it was very easy to enable through Additional Drivers. My laptop does not have an LAN cable, so I use USB tethering from my phone. On Ubuntu Server, I installed ubuntu-drivers and tried to install the compatible driver, bcmwl-kernel-source. I am very new to linux and I don't even know if this question is valid. I scoured this site and the web for answers but nothing worked. I have internet access only through my phone. Also, when installing Ubuntu Server, I used my phone as a network.

The following picture contains the output of these commands:

sudo lspci -nnk
uname -a
ip addr

https://i.stack.imgur.com/uJouX.jpg

output for sudo netplan --debug apply

https://i.stack.imgur.com/gGorM.jpg

buntuifiw
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  • post the sudo lspci -nnk, uname -a and ip addr. – Pavel Sayekat Jul 24 '19 at 17:40
  • I could not copy output as text as I am on mobile. If the image doesn't suffice you can ask for output again. – buntuifiw Jul 24 '19 at 19:08
  • Welcome to AskUbuntu, hope you find your answer here. My understanding is that the problem you have is that you can't get networking to work through USB tethering without the GUI that the Ubuntu Desktop provides. You could clarify this in the title so that it directly describe your problem, – Bernard Wei Jul 24 '19 at 19:59
  • Actually, USB tethering already does work, I am trying to get wireless working. Anyway, I am reinstalling Ubuntu. I should have specified that I was trying to get wireless working. – buntuifiw Jul 24 '19 at 20:05
  • You have the correct driver installed and you have a wireless interface, namely wlp1s0. I shall propose an answer to get a wireless connection. There is no need, so far, to reinstall. Please also show us: ls /etc/netplan – chili555 Jul 24 '19 at 20:31
  • Also, is this intended to be a cloud instance or just a home server? – chili555 Jul 24 '19 at 20:47
  • I had to reinstall as I had lots of junk downloaded on my previous install. I have gone through the essential steps and all info is the same. ls /etc/netplan shows only 50-cloud-init.yaml . Also, this is will be a home server. I have done the home server on a vm on another pc and it works perfectly. I want to do this on my laptop but the wireless driver is the only issue. – buntuifiw Jul 25 '19 at 00:41
  • Also, rfkill shows all devices are unblocked, and output for lshw -C network shows wlp1s0 (wireless interface) as disabled, though it is easy to enable. I keep rebooting, trying this again and again, pinging 8.8.8.8, but nothing works. – buntuifiw Jul 25 '19 at 00:48
  • Please stop rebooting. It will never work without a proper netplan file. – chili555 Jul 25 '19 at 00:59

1 Answers1

1

You have apparently correctly installed the correct driver and you now have a wireless interface, namely wlp1s0. Now let's set up a connection.

Networking in Ubuntu server 18.04 and later is handled by netplan. Let's edit the netplan file to set your details.

You can find useful templates for netplan in /usr/share/doc/netplan/examples.

The file 50-cloud-init.yaml contains a suggestion:

To disable cloud-init's network configuration capabilities, write a file /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg with the following: network: {config: disabled}

Please do so:

sudo -i
echo "network: {config: disabled}"  >  /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg
exit

Please rename your file:

sudo mv /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml  /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml

Now fill in the file with your relevant details:

sudo nano /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml.yaml

Change the file to read:

network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  wifis:
    wlp1s0:
      dhcp4: true
      dhcp6: true
      access-points:
        "network_ssid_name":
          password: "**********"

EDIT: Please note that the name of the network, known as SSID and the password are enclosed in quotation marks.

Of course, substitute your exact details here. Spacing and indentation must be perfect. Proofread carefully. Save (Ctrl+o followed by Enter) and exit nano (Ctrl+x).

Follow with:

sudo netplan generate
sudo netplan apply

Upon reboot, you should be connected. Confirm:

ip addr show
ping -c3 www.ubuntu.com

If you get ping returns, you are connected.

chili555
  • 60,188
  • I have completed these instructions but ping returns no results. I proofread netplan and debugged it, checked if my info was correct, but still no ping results. But there was a difference while booting. For 2 min, something called Wait for Network was being configured. Before this, output is shown with similar proccesses concerning the network. This 2 minute process ends in a failure. This is the furthest I've gotten however, so thanks. – buntuifiw Jul 25 '19 at 01:24
  • Any clues in the message log? dmesg | grep wlp Also, may we see: ip addr show – chili555 Jul 25 '19 at 01:39
  • dmesg | grep wlp : [14.477418] wl 0000:01:00.0 wlp1s0: renamed from wlan0 – buntuifiw Jul 25 '19 at 01:49
  • ip addr show is same as in image plus following : inet6 fe80::da5d:e2ff:fa8a:bca3/64 scope link valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever – buntuifiw Jul 25 '19 at 01:54
  • Please see my edit above in a few moments. Be certain that you enclosed the name of the router, known as SSID in quotation marks " as well as the password. If you did not, after making the change, follow with sudo netplan generate and then: sudo netplan apply. – chili555 Jul 25 '19 at 13:14
  • I added the quotation marks, but still the same problem. I used a netplan debug command, see my question for output in second image. – buntuifiw Jul 25 '19 at 15:39
  • Your image clearly indicates that Network Manager is running and, unfortunately, interfering. Your question indicates that this is a server, not a desktop installation. My answer is written contemplating a server where NM is not installed and not running. No wonder nothing works. – chili555 Jul 25 '19 at 19:55
  • Is there any way around this? I am thinking of giving up anyway, maybe I will just stick with a vm. – buntuifiw Jul 25 '19 at 20:26
  • Are you running a full desktop? If so, it is easier to remove all the netplan details and let NM do the job. Please clarify. – chili555 Jul 25 '19 at 21:32
  • What does full desktop mean? I installed ubuntu server from the ubuntu website on a laptop and I have no other servers. It is this laptop only. – buntuifiw Jul 25 '19 at 22:16
  • Do you have a graphical user interface or just a blinking cursor? Network Manager doesn't come preinstalled on Ubuntu Server. – chili555 Jul 25 '19 at 23:21
  • I don't have any GUI. No desktop at all. I have added the ethernet option back to netplan so I have internet through USB tethering again. Thanks for being patient. – buntuifiw Jul 25 '19 at 23:36
  • Also, I just got my wifi working with wpa_supplicant. I have rebooted and now everything is running. I don't know if I have done it properly and if it might fail soon, but it is running perfectly for now. Thank you for guiding me through this. If you didn't tell me about netplan and Network Manager, I wouldn't have fixed it. I don't know if I should add an answer to this question though. – buntuifiw Jul 25 '19 at 23:44