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My wireless doesn't work with Ubuntu 12.04.(it worked with 10.04 LTS) I have a Dell Inspiron 1501. I followed the steps posted below:

Run these:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall bcmwl-kernel-source broadcom-sta-common broadcom-sta-source

echo "blacklist brcmsmac" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

echo "blacklist bcma" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

The first makes sure that the sta driver is in place, the second and third blacklists the two drivers brcmsmac and bcma which clash with the correct sta driver. Copy/paste or make sure your typing is correct! The last step is to go to 'Additional drivers' and enable the driver.**

....and now i have no Network device on my PC(wired or wireless)

HarlemSquirrel
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Angelo Daul
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    Can you add the hardware specs to the question - lspci -nn | grep -i net. Simply removing entries from /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf probably won't help. – mikewhatever Oct 17 '12 at 11:57
  • Yeah, I was thinking the same but I did answer the question ;) I came to the conclusion that it might be better to ask a new question on HOW to get wireless working. Purging the 1st command might not getting the desired results either :( – Rinzwind Oct 17 '12 at 12:02

4 Answers4

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You can remove the alterations from the last 2 commands with vi.

sudo vi /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

And remove the lines that says 

blacklist brcmsmac
blacklist bcma

Navigate with the arrow keys to those lines. dd to remove a line. {escape}:wq to save the alterations.

Rinzwind
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  • Thanks, i asked a new question with :how to...because removing the lines did not help. In my blacklist file, this two lines still appear ... – Angelo Daul Oct 25 '12 at 10:12
  • The hardware specs are: 05:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN [14e4:4311] (rev 01) 08:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX [14e4:170c] (rev 02) – Angelo Daul Oct 25 '12 at 10:34
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I think you are supposed to also run:

sudo modprobe wl

and

echo "wl" | sudo tee -a /etc/modules

You see, the point is to black list bcma and brcmsmac and to use wl only instead.

However, for 4311 I believe you are supposed to do this instead:

sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source broadcom-sta-common broadcom-sta-source
sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter firmware-b43-installer
sudo modprobe b43
echo "b43" | sudo tee -a /etc/modules

source: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BroadcomSTA%28Wireless%29

mchid
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You do not need to blacklist anything when you install bcmwl-kernel-source.

This package does it itself. And these blacklists are removed, when the package is removed.

You can also remove these lines by

 sudo sed -i '/blacklist brcmsmac/d' /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
 sudo sed -i '/blacklist bcma/d' /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
Pilot6
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OK, you should change the title of the question since you really want to get wireless working on your Dell Inspiron 1501 with BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN [14e4:4311].

  1. You will need to undo your blacklisting and my preferred way would be to use the terminal text editor nano so sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and delete the lines you added.
  2. According to the linuxwireless.org b43 page, you should be able to use the b43 driver and this is what I have had the most success with. So remove the packages you installed by running sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source broadcom-sta-common broadcom-sta-source
  3. Now you should be ready to install b43, so run sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer
  4. Now simply reboot with your fingers crossed!
HarlemSquirrel
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