can't find networks on dell inspiron 1501

Question

Hi installed a clean install of ubuntu 12.04 on a dell inspiron 1501.

according to sudo lspci -nnv my wireless card is listed as:

Broadcom Corporation BCM4331 802.11b/g WLAN
    Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card
    Flags: Bus Master, Fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
    Kernel Driver in use: wl
    Kernel modules: wl, ssb

It just won't find any wireless networks, i have previously tried to install the windows drivers using ndiswrapper

sudo modprobe ndiswrapper returns and error FATAL: Module ndiswrapper is not found

Can anyone help? Since I'm new to Ubuntu please let me know what extra details you want and I'll update this post with the info

lspci -nn -d 14e4:

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)

dmesg | grep b43

[   171.530952] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4311 WLAN found (core revision 10)
[   171.646898] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found
[   171.646911] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43-open/ucode6.fw" not found
[   171.646917] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware for this friver version. Please carefully read all instructions on this website

Fixed:

Fixed by blacklisting b43 and b43legacy and updating NDISwrapper

Then entering sudo modprobe ndiswrapper into terminal

May I see: lspci -nn -d 14e4: Thanks! – chili555 Jun 10 '13 at 20:49 — chili555, Jun 10 '13 at 20:49
@chili555 I have updated the data for you – PurityLake Jun 10 '13 at 21:01 — PurityLake, Jun 10 '13 at 21:01

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 10 '13 at 21:13

1

The wrong driver is installed. Please do:

sudo apt-get remove --purge bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-nonfree

Reboot and you should be all set.

answered Jun 10 '13 at 21:13

chili555

60,188

no such luck :/ the device i mentioned above are still in the same positions – PurityLake Jun 10 '13 at 21:33
Please show us: lsmod | grep -e b43 -e ndis -e wl Also: rfkill list all Thanks. – chili555 Jun 10 '13 at 21:43
first returns nothing and either does the second – PurityLake Jun 10 '13 at 21:49
Please do: sudo modprobe b43 and then show me: dmesg | grep b43 – chili555 Jun 10 '13 at 21:51
updated for you now, sorry bout the absence – PurityLake Jun 11 '13 at 13:48
This indicates that the firmware is still not present! Please try: sudo apt-get install --reinstall linux-firmware-nonfree After it's done, reboot and let us hear your results. – chili555 Jun 11 '13 at 14:15
let us continue this discussion in chat – chili555 Jun 11 '13 at 14:41

can't find networks on dell inspiron 1501

1 Answers1