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I installed ubuntu 12.04 on my dell inspiron with BCM4312 802.11/b/g (LP_PHY) wlan card,installation was followed by errors about missing firmware so to fix it i installed firmware-b43-lpphy-installer,after that it detects my wlan card but it doesn't detect any wireless networks it's using b43-pci-bridge,however it detects few wireless networks with wl driver sometimes but wifi switch does't respond then and card is working well with windows7 I even followed these instructions to install firmware provided by broadcom but no success and now i have no idea what could be the problem and how to fix it

david6
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user2007060
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    Have you followed my guide in http://askubuntu.com/questions/55868/how-to-install-broadcom-wireless-drivers – Luis Alvarado Apr 25 '13 at 17:16
  • @user2007060 Please, respond to the Luis request, so we can know if your problem was solved or not. Thanks! – Lucio Apr 25 '13 at 17:39
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    yes i followed the your link @Luis but no luck.. as i told above it's not working at all with b43 and acting strange with wl that is wifi switch stops working,it detects some wireless networks for a while and then that too disappears later – user2007060 Apr 26 '13 at 05:51

1 Answers1

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Work in progress ..

Solves driver issue, but not in repeatable, stable manner.

Note: I have already tried all suggestions in: Installing Broadcom Wireless Drivers

Typically, after initial install of Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS (latest update) you will get an error message briefly on screen suggesting the wireless card's firmware is out of date.

In other words:

dmesg | grep -e b43 -e Broadcom

returns: (or very similar)

[    8.091376] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4312 WLAN found (core revision 15)
[    8.136098] b43-phy0: Found PHY: Analog 6, Type 5 (LP), Revision 1
[    8.161222] Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PNL ]
[    8.188507] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode15.fw" not found
[    8.188512] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43-open/ucode15.fw" not found
[    8.188516] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware for this driver version. Please carefully read all instructions on this website.

You need to install Non-Free drivers, then restart driver:

sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-nonfree

sudo modprobe -r b43 && sudo modprobe b43

Check the status:

dmesg | grep -e b43 -e Broadcom

should return: (or very similar)

[  306.159033] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4312 WLAN found (core revision 15)
[  306.200170] b43-phy0: Found PHY: Analog 6, Type 5 (LP), Revision 1
[  306.224407] Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PNL ]
[  306.628157] b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 666.2 (2011-02-23 01:15:07)

Note 1: If you instead did a full update (sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade) to 12.04.4, this may change the b43 firmware loaded to 2008 (which is not the latest).

Note 2: IMHO, this step is required to support the BCM4312-LP card, regardless of what driver you end up using.

The BCM4312-LP card should now be working ..

Try shutting down, removing power and Ethernet cable, waiting a full 20 seconds, and re-starting laptop/netbook ..

Check the status:

dmesg | grep -e b43 -e Broadcom

should return: (or very similar)

[  438.442062] eth1: Broadcom BCM4315 802.11 Hybrid Wireless Controller 6.20.155.1 (r326264)

OR

[    7.663552] eth1: Broadcom BCM4315 802.11 Hybrid Wireless Controller 6.20.155.1 (r326264)
[  187.909055] Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PNL ]

Remove any soft/hard kill flags

sudo rfkill unblock all

I have tried ALL the following:

  1. Loading the Broadcom STA driver (from icon, on top bar)

    This (of course) crashed before completing install. However, once it attempts to install, the driver problem is resolved.

  2. Manually running 'Additional Drivers', to load STA driver

    So far, always crashes, stalls, or fail to load ..

  3. Manaually running 'Additional Drivers, from command line

    jockey-gtk

    So far, either stalls or eventually loads ..

Will keep you updated ..

Feb-27:

No useful update.

I have used these steps 5-6 times successfully, but not fully repeatable ..

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david6
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