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I"m running Ubuntu 14.04 from a usb flash drive on a Compaq Presario C700 laptop. The wireless card is a Broadcom 4311. When I look at System Settings --> Software & Updates --> Additional Drivers, it says it's using the Broadcomm 802.11 Linux STA drivers from bcmwl-kernel-source. But there's no sign of any wireless functionality. The network menu shows only the wired connection.

The laptop has a push button that toggles red or blue to toggle the wireless. When I'm running Ubuntu, the button stays red no matter what. When I run Windows, it goes blue and wireless works fine.

Wired networking works in Ubuntu on this laptop.

I'm pretty much ready to conclude that Ubuntu is not capable of running wireless, at least on this hardware. Is this correct?

I"m relatively new to Ubuntu and it really surprises me that Ubuntu is so user-unfriendly on such a basic function as wireless connectivity.

John Thiesen
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1 Answers1

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Ubuntu is quite capable of running this hardware wirelessly. Remarkably, the live USB, DVD and indeed Broadcom themselves offer to install the wrong driver for this device. Getting it corrected running the live USB is a bit tricky.

I suggest you reboot the device. Ignore the offer to install Additional Drivers; in this case, Wrong Drivers. Get a temporary internet connection by whatever means possible and open a terminal and do:

sudo purge bcmwl-kernel-source  <---if it isn't installed, just continue
sudo modprobe -r b43
sudo modprobe -r ssb

Check:

lsmod | grep -e b43 -e ssb

Did all the wireless drivers unload? Please continue:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer
sudo modprobe b43

Detach the ethernet. The wireless should now be working perfectly.

chili555
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  • sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer – John Thiesen Feb 17 '15 at 01:41
  • sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer results in an error "Unable to locate package firmware-b43-installer". Also, I have never gotten any offer to install additional drivers when I boot up. – John Thiesen Feb 17 '15 at 01:43
  • Another idea: is it possible that the usb drive has somehow flipped over to a read only drive. How would I determine that, and fix it if it's the case? – John Thiesen Feb 17 '15 at 01:44
  • Please see my edit above. If you are running a live session off the USB, I am certain it is read-only. The firmware will be held in RAM until reboot. Only upon full install is the firmware written to the harddrive permanently. – chili555 Feb 17 '15 at 01:51
  • I'm not sure I completely understand your last comment here. Do you mean that no updates or installed software ever get written to the usb? Is it the case that such changes only get saved permanently if you're running from a hard drive? I was under the impression that that ubuntu treated the usb as if it were a (slow) hard drive and just saved all changes to it. – John Thiesen Feb 17 '15 at 02:38
  • Did you create your USB with persistence? Please see: http://askubuntu.com/questions/283160/ubuntu-live-usb-doesnt-save-settings – chili555 Feb 17 '15 at 13:52
  • OK, with the sudo apt-get update, I was able to get the firmware-b43-installer. This time at the sudo modprobe b43 command, everything locked up. No shell prompt, no cursor, no response to the keyboard. – John Thiesen Feb 18 '15 at 01:16
  • Please see my edit above. – chili555 Feb 18 '15 at 01:22
  • The output from lsmod was ssb_hcd 12749 0 ssb 51854 1 ssb_hcd I assume that’s as it should be. In order to get the firmware-b43-installer to install, I have to go to Software & Updates, Ubuntu Software tab, and check the universe and multiverse boxes and let it reload. Otherwise, it tells me “unable to locate firmware-b43-installer” So after firmware-b43-installer successfully installs (as far as I can tell), then sudo modprobe b43 locks up the computer again. No cursor, no mouse response, no keyboard response. The only way to recover is a hard power down with the external power button. – John Thiesen Feb 19 '15 at 00:32
  • I don't think the USB was done as persistence. I didn't know at the time that that was a choice to be made. – John Thiesen Feb 19 '15 at 00:32
  • Please see my edit above. – chili555 Feb 19 '15 at 16:07
  • sudo modprobe -r ssb gets "FATAL: Module ssb is in use" – John Thiesen Feb 20 '15 at 01:23
  • I regret I have no other suggestions. I assure you the Broadcom 14e4:4311 device works well in a harddrive installation. – chili555 Feb 20 '15 at 01:46