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I followed the instructions in the answer of

Dell XPS 13 (9350) Compatibility

to solve the problem of not-working wifi (broadcom BCM4350) on my Dell XPS 13 (9350) with fresh installed Ubuntu 15.10.

After unzipping I follow the commands detailed in the answer. The first 

sudo chown root:root brcmfmac4350-pcie.bin BCM-0a5c-6412.hcd

returns 

chown: changing ownership of 'brcmfmac4350-pcie.bin': Operation not permitted
chown: changing ownership of 'BCM-0a5c-6412.hcd': Operation not permitted

The following command line 

sudo mv -t /lib/firmware/brcm/ BCM-0a5c-6412.hcd brcmfmac4350-pcie.bin

works fine, while 

sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-4.3.0-wifitest-custom_4.3.0-wifitest-custom-10.00.Custom_amd64.deb linux-image-4.3.0-wifitest-custom_4.3.0-wifitest-custom-10.00.Custom_amd64.deb

returns

Error! Your kernel headers for kernel 4.3.0-wifitest-custom cannot be found. Please install the linux-headers-4.3.0-wifitest-custom package, or use the --kernelsourcedir option to tell DKMS where it's located

Any help is appreciated since I'm a real noob concerning Linux.

Community
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bruco
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2 Answers2

0

This adapter is not supported by Ubuntu stable kernels.

A way to get it work is to install a 4.4 kernel from Ubuntu 16.04 branch.

Connect to internet by wire and run in terminal

mkdir linux-4.4
cd linux-4.4
wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/l/linux/linux-image-4.4.0-8-generic_4.4.0-8.23_amd64.deb
wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/l/linux/linux-image-extra-4.4.0-8-generic_4.4.0-8.23_amd64.deb
wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/l/linux/linux-headers-4.4.0-8-generic_4.4.0-8.23_amd64.deb
wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/l/linux/linux-headers-4.4.0-8_4.4.0-8.23_all.deb
wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/l/linux-firmware/linux-firmware_1.156_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Then reboot and test the wifi.

The kernel files are a subject of updates. The links will need to be updated. Ubuntu packages search can be used to get the correct links

Update: For Ubuntu 14.04 users the 4.4 kernel can be installed by

sudo apt-get install linux-generic-lts-xenial

But dkms packages will not build with this kenel, if gcc 4.9+ is not installed.

Pilot6
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  • Is it stable to update the kernel to the version 4.4 ? – bruco Feb 27 '16 at 18:53
  • This is a stable kernel. And you have no option – Pilot6 Feb 27 '16 at 19:02
  • Well, i can use a wifi usb key until the next stable version of ubuntu will come out otherwise. – bruco Feb 27 '16 at 19:05
  • Well, it is your choice. It is the matter off opinions. Kernel 4.4 has been released as stable. Another option is to wait till 16.04 is released. – Pilot6 Feb 27 '16 at 19:08
  • And you can always revert to the original kernel. – Pilot6 Feb 27 '16 at 19:09
  • what do you suggest? new kernel? – bruco Feb 27 '16 at 19:10
  • If you need the wifi now, then install that kernel. If you can wait, then wait. It is obvious. But I need to update links. – Pilot6 Feb 27 '16 at 19:15
  • The funniest thing is that you already tried to install a custom kernel that was built by someone. It is not stable in any meaning. And you ask "is the official Ubuntu kernel stable". That is really funny. You run any commands you find in the net without knowing the meaning and talk about stability. – Pilot6 Feb 27 '16 at 19:27
  • as i wrote i'm a newbie, i'm trying to learn something about linux, for this reason i ask something here, and it's not easy since there are plenty of proposed solutions. After that, i didn't know that kernel 4.4 is the official ubuntu kernel. Sorry for the ignorance, and if it is that funny for you that i ask stupid questions, well, do not reply the next time. – bruco Feb 28 '16 at 14:42
  • There was no offence sry. I just noticed that in your question there are commands to install a custom built kernel. You probably failed to install a kernel, or maybe not. But then you started to be scared to install a stable kernel for Ubuntu dev release. – Pilot6 Feb 28 '16 at 14:48
  • I tried to update the kernel as you said. Unfortunately the system crashed after rebooting. I got a black screen with "gave up waiting for root device ... ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/(big string) does not exist. Dropping to a shell!". Then it appears BusBox v.1.22.1 built-in shell (ash) with (initramfs) for taping commands. I don't know absolutely what to do... – bruco Feb 28 '16 at 16:10
  • You could make a mistake and did not install some part of it. You can always boot with a previous kernel using grub menu. – Pilot6 Feb 28 '16 at 16:15
  • Are you sure that I need only the five files you listed above? – bruco Feb 28 '16 at 21:28
  • Yes, I am sure. Check that they install without errors. – Pilot6 Feb 28 '16 at 21:31
  • No way, i tried once again the update of the kernel, there were no errors, and the system crashed again... – bruco Feb 28 '16 at 21:45
  • It is hard to tell what is wrong in you system tith this driver. You can wait till the release of 16.04 with this kernel. – Pilot6 Feb 28 '16 at 21:47
0

I have just installed the kernel v4.5 from http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.5-wily/ on my Dell XPS 13 (9350) and wifi works fine now. Previously I had kernel v4.2, and tried installing v4.4 rc6 and rc7 without success (couldn't even start Ubuntu after the install).

Steps to follow:

mkdir /tmp
cd /tmp
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.5-wily/linux-headers-4.5.0-040500-generic_4.5.0-040500.201603140130_amd64.deb
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.5-wily/linux-headers-4.5.0-040500_4.5.0-040500.201603140130_all.deb
wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.5-wily/linux-image-4.5.0-040500-generic_4.5.0-040500.201603140130_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
reboot
user519852
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