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I had no wireless connection. eth0 functioned but there was no eth1. I finally got it up but it disappears again after each reboot. My question is : "How can I make eth1 come up automatically?"

Hopefully, this text contains some clue, which is why I tell this long story, detailing the original situation and my actions.

ORIGINAL SITUATION :

Hardware :

lspci (extract)

05:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)
08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)

inxi -nx

Network:   Card-1: Broadcom and subsidiaries BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
           driver: b43-pci-bridge bus-ID: 05:00.0
           IF: N/A state: N/A mac: N/A

       Card-2: Broadcom and subsidiaries BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX
       driver: b44 v: 2.0 bus-ID: 08:00.0
       IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full
       mac: 00:1d:09:b7:bf:6f

lshw (extract)

*-network
                description: Network controller
                product: BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
                vendor: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries
                physical id: 0
                bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0
                version: 01
                width: 32 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
                configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=0
                resources: irq:18 memory:c0200000-c0203fff

*-network
                description: Ethernet interface
                product: BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX
                vendor: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries
                physical id: 0
                bus info: pci@0000:08:00.0
                logical name: eth0
                version: 02
                serial: 00:1d:09:b7:bf:6f
                size: 100Mbit/s
                capacity: 100Mbit/s
                width: 32 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
                configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=b44 driverversion=2.0 duplex=full ip=192.168.0.101 latency=64 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100Mbit/s
                resources: irq:21 memory:c0300000-c0301fff

Software :

ip a
iwconfig 
iwlist eth1 s
sudo ifconfig eth1 up
ifconfig -a
sudo ethtool eth1
ifup eth1 (with or without sudo)

--- etc ---

All said nothing about eth1 or said "interface doesn't support scanning" or something like that.

dmesg | grep eth1 : gave nothing

I tried to edit /etc/network/interfaces but I didn't know what to write in it. I copied an example found online :

auto eth1
iface eth1 inet static 
  address 10.5.15.200
  netmask 255.255.255.128
  pre-up ifconfig eth1 hw ether AA:6F:78:UI:34:34

and (of course) it said

ifup
AA:6F:78:UI:34:34: invalid ether address.
Failed to bring up eth1.

The GUI tools :

wifi-radar didn't see any wifi network. Network Connections (lubuntu) saw one, the one with no password, but only displayed its name.

I RE-INSTALLED THE DRIVER

Following the instructions here: Installing Broadcom Wireless Drivers

Then I had to type

sudo modprobe -r b43
sudo modprobe b43    
sudo rfkill unblock all

After that I tested with inxi -nx :

inxi -nx
Network:   Card-1: Broadcom and subsidiaries BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
           driver: b43-pci-bridge bus-ID: 05:00.0
           IF: wlan0 state: down mac: 00:1e:4c:82:78:25

       Card-2: Broadcom and subsidiaries BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX
       driver: b44 v: 2.0 bus-ID: 08:00.0
       IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: 00:1d:09:b7:bf:6f

The wifi functioned.

After each reboot, eth1 disappears again and to get it up I have to retype :

sudo modprobe -r b43
sudo modprobe b43    
sudo rfkill unblock all

It's much better than no wifi at all, but it's a bit tedious. What should I do, please?

Alain Reve
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    What Ubuntu version are you using? Also, the system is not wrong about network address - UI is not a valid part of a MAC address, and your wifi card is not properly identified in the system – Thomas Ward Apr 24 '23 at 17:58
  • Lubuntu 18.04.6 LTS, for 32 bits machines. The system is not wrong, the MAC address is wrong. It's just something I found online, it would be a big coincidence if it had been my own mac address. I was hoping to get an error message giving me my mac address (which I found later but didn't use). – Alain Reve Apr 24 '23 at 18:03
  • You are asking about an EOL version. End of Life on Friday, April 30, 2021 that is off topic on this site. – David Apr 24 '23 at 18:29
  • I know I only have 5 days of support left. Hopefully that will be enough. I can't install a more recent version on a 32 bits machine. – Alain Reve Apr 25 '23 at 06:54
  • No days left it went EOL on April 30 2021. As I had already said. – David Apr 25 '23 at 09:02
  • I installed Lubuntu 22.04.3 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish), supported until April 2025, and the problem is still the same. – Alain Reve Sep 26 '23 at 09:10

1 Answers1

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An update to Lubuntu 22.04.3 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) didn't solve the problem.

I found you could add the command line options in /etc/rc.local but I had no such file in /etc.

Finally, typing :

sudo systemctl edit --full rc-local

opened the correct file for editing. I went down the file (using the arrows) and right at the bottom I typed

modprobe b43

Then control-o to save and control-x to exit.

I rebooted and had wifi.

I typed the systemctl command again after the reboot : what I had written was gone, but a new line had appeared in the file : ExecStart=/etc/rc.local start

Still no such file as /etc/rc.local but it functions...

Alain Reve
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