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I know there are other answers similar to this, I have tried those but am stuck. In Windows my wifi LED was on, in Ubuntu it is not. Function keys are not turning it on. There is no reference to WiFi from network manager, only:

  • Ethernet network disconnected (greyed out)
  • VPN connections
  • enable networking (ticked)
  • Connection information (greyed out)
  • Edit connections

I have tried using rfkill from terminal, but nothing happens, it just goes back to command line. I have also tried sudo rfkill, with the same result.

Should wifi work when running from the Live CD? Would like it to so I can see full extent of system.

I'd appreciate any help, but please remember I'm new. Sorry if this is too similar to other questions.

result of lspci -nnk | grep -i net is

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 BCM 4401-B0 100 Base-TX [14e4:170c] (rev 02)

The "net" is red is both lines.

Ubuntu version is 13.04 (boot from live system) and I am on a Dell Inspiron 1501.

gertvdijk
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Katie Davis
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  • Add the results of lspci | Network to your question please. – To Do Jul 21 '13 at 14:51
  • If you're on a laptop and rfkill returns nothing your wireless killswitch isn't recognized. Try a newer version of Ubuntu or try installing it (to an external hard drive perhaps to try out) and apply all updates, reboot, and see if that helps. – gertvdijk Jul 21 '13 at 14:54
  • Some wifi cards work out of the box, and others don't. Let us know what card there is. To do that, please open a terminal window (ctrl-alt-t), copy/paste lspci -nnk | grep -i net, and hit Enter. That will produce the output, that we'd very much like to see, so please, add it to the original question. – mikewhatever Jul 21 '13 at 15:03
  • I think "To Do" meant to ask the output of something like lspci -nnk | grep -iEA3 "(network|wireless)" – gertvdijk Jul 21 '13 at 15:04
  • @gertvdijk Yes. That's what I meant. I forgot grep. – To Do Jul 21 '13 at 15:25
  • You need to install the broadcom drivers. Reference: WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx – To Do Jul 21 '13 at 15:25
  • "I know there are other answers similar to this, I have tried those but am stuck". What exactly have you tried? This answer thoroughly explains how to install Broadcom drivers. Have you gone through it? – Alaa Ali Jul 21 '13 at 16:16

3 Answers3

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I believe the proprietary driver is incorrect for 14e4:4311. Please get a temporary wired ethernet connection and do:

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

Reboot and let us hear your report.

chili555
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  • Thanks everyone for all the help. I need to buy an ethernet cable before I can go any further...! But will let ypu know how I get on. – Katie Davis Jul 21 '13 at 16:48
  • Am a bit confused because the commands in answer above, and commands in posted links in other answer are slightly different - does this matter? Sorry for all the questions. – Katie Davis Jul 21 '13 at 16:50
  • I'm not sure what the other links suggest. I am sure mine work as written. There is no problem asking questions. I am happy to clarify anything. There is a procedure to get the firmware on another computer and transfer it on a USB key here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/322034/broadcom-cooperation-bcm4312-802-11b-g-lp-phy-driver – chili555 Jul 21 '13 at 16:54
  • thanks, I have one more question before I buy the ethernet cable to do the steps above: since I am running a trial of ubuntu from a CD, will the installations & reboot still work? I think I read elsewhere that when running trial from CD, everything is forgotten each time you reboot? Thanks, Katie – Katie Davis Jul 22 '13 at 08:11
  • You are quite correct. The changes are forgotten on reboot. The installation will work just fine. Instead of a USB cable, you could also download the firmware b43.zip from the link I gave you and install the firmware from the USB. I assume you are testing thoroughly before you decide to permanently install; a very smart procedure! – chili555 Jul 22 '13 at 12:17
  • Hello, I have an update. When I loaded up ubuntu today my wireless indicator was on. i don't know why, this must be from something I did yesterday. – Katie Davis Jul 22 '13 at 18:34
  • But Network Manager still as before. So I thought I would try the USB method before splashing out on an ethernet cable. Because the link for this method posted by @chili555 linked to b43.zip in the ubuntu forums, which aren't currently working, I searched instead and found these instructions. There were no instructions for 13.04 which I am using, so I followed for 12.04. This has not worked, I still have the same options in Network Manager. – Katie Davis Jul 22 '13 at 18:41
  • any suggestions on what to do next? thank you. – Katie Davis Jul 22 '13 at 18:42
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 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN [14e4:4311] (rev 01)

Shows you've got a Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 Wireless LAN card in your machine. This one is only supported by some proprietary driver which you can install after installation. You'll need to use the regular wired Ethernet connection to install this using the regular "Hardware drivers" application in Ubuntu.

Similar questions to look into:

and look for more using BCM4311 in the search.

Community
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gertvdijk
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Here is a link to the b43.zip file from my Dropbox. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/58267392/b43.zip Download it to a USB drive. Drag and drop it to the desktop of the Ubuntu machine. Right-click it and select 'Extract Here.' Now open a terminal and remove, in case it was erroneously installed, the proprietary driver:

sudo apt-get remove --purge bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo modprobe -r wl

Now we'll move the firmware to the location the driver expects to find it.

sudo mkdir /lib/firmware/b43
sudo cp Desktop/b43/* /lib/firmware/b43

Now we'll unload the driver and reload it so it sees and uses the new firmware:

sudo modprobe -r b43 && sudo modprobe b43

Now your wireless should be working correctly.

chili555
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  • thank you, I can see how much you are trying to help and to explain things clearly and simply. I appreciate this - but have still had no success. I followed the instructions above with the following results: bcmwl-kernel-source had not been installed so could not be removed. Then "FATAL module wl not found". The mkdir & cp commands worked fine, I could see through Files. The last (double) command led to a black screen with loads of white writing, probably equivalent to blue screen of death in Windows - I couldn't do anything except force to turn off. – Katie Davis Jul 23 '13 at 19:49
  • So I tried again, this time separating final line into 2. The first command gave no output, the second part again broke everything, this time with a screen of scrambled colours. Not your fault and I appreciate everything you have done to help, but am on the point of thinking Ubuntu is not for me. I realise this problem is because I have proprietary wireless card and a brand new computer set up for Ubuntu would not have this issue, but if something else goes wrong I'm not sure I'm up for hacking my way to a solution without understanding what I'm doing. But still tired of MS & Apple etc... – Katie Davis Jul 23 '13 at 19:55
  • We can get this worked out, hang in there. Please reboot if you have not already and run: lsmod. Is the driver we don't want wl listed? If so, then repeat: sudo apt-get remove --purge bcmwl-kernel-source – chili555 Jul 23 '13 at 20:15
  • Now check to see if the firmware is in place: ls /lib/firmware/b43 Are there many firmware files listed? If so, we are done! Do you have a wireless interface wlan0? – chili555 Jul 23 '13 at 20:17
  • thanks for the further instructions. Please remember though that I am doing this from a trial run off the CD rom, so everything is forgotten when I reboot. Therefore I would need to repeat the earlier instructions before these, including the command that has crashed my system twice now (does it not concern you that this happened?). So, instead of doing that again, I am going to buy an ethernet cable and try the simpler approach. Even if I can't get wifi working in this way I will be able to explore Ubuntu fully with the internet connection. – Katie Davis Jul 24 '13 at 09:52
  • Is it 'sudo modprobe b43' that crashes the system? I am not terribly concerned because it works perfectly on many permanently installed systems. Since the operating system is running in RAM, it could be crashing because of the amount of RAM consumed by all the processes. b43 could be the proverbial straw. I look forward to your comments after the ethernet is hooked up. – chili555 Jul 24 '13 at 13:49
  • In the end, even with all the help, I couldn't get wifi to work when booting from the CD. I tried to use the CD to install Ubuntu alongside windows, but I couldn't work out the partitioning. So eventually I have used Wubi to safely install alongside Windows, which I would recommend for beginners. Using my ethernet cable I used the recommended commands to remove bcmwl-kernel-source and install linux-firmware-nonfree. This got the wifi working, so I was able to unplug my ethernet cable and am now writing wirelessly from Ubuntu! thank you all for your help and patience. – Katie Davis Jul 28 '13 at 21:16