I am running Ubuntu 10.10 on a Dell Inspiron 1501 and when I upgrade or clean install to Ubuntu 11.04 onto my computer, the WiFi stops working. Does anyone have any ideas that I could try to solve this problem? Thank you.

is nm-applet running?

What exactly is that and how do I know if its on or not.

It is the network manager applet (nm). Should be in your upper right hand corner of the screen. Depends on the icon theme you are using as to what it looks like. Could be a pair of overlapping monitors or a male an female cable ends (some others too), just cursor over them and you should get some text that is related to your current connection.

Right click will get more options.

Please post the output of
Dell's frequently use broadcom cards. If you're using the broadcom sta driver, it may need to be rebuilt against the current kernel. (Or an updated package installed for 11.04.)

jeff@jeff-Inspiron-1501:~$ lspci -vnn | grep -a4 -i net
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: radeon
Kernel modules: radeon

05:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN [14e4:4311] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card [1028:0007]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
Memory at c0200000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
Kernel modules: wl, ssb

08:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX [14e4:170c] (rev 02)
Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:01f5]
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 21
Memory at c0300000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
jeff@jeff-Inspiron-1501:~$ lsmod
Module Size Used by
nls_iso8859_1 12617 1
nls_cp437 12751 1
vfat 17335 1
fat 55505 1 vfat
usb_storage 43946 1
uas 17676 0
parport_pc 32111 0
ppdev 12849 0
snd_hda_codec_idt 60537 1
binfmt_misc 13213 1
snd_hda_intel 24140 2
snd_hda_codec 90901 2 snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep 13274 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 80244 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
dell_wmi 12601 0
sparse_keymap 13666 1 dell_wmi
snd_seq_midi 13132 0
snd_rawmidi 25269 1 snd_seq_midi
b44 35301 0
radeon 896428 3
snd_seq_midi_event 14475 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 51291 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
dell_laptop 13515 0
snd_timer 28659 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
dcdbas 14054 1 dell_laptop
snd_seq_device 14110 3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
ssb 45942 1 b44
ttm 65184 1 radeon
joydev 17322 0
psmouse 73312 0
snd 55295 13 snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_se q_device
drm_kms_helper 40745 1 radeon
wl 2642531 0
serio_raw 12990 0
k8temp 12872 0
sp5100_tco 13456 0
i2c_piix4 13095 0
soundcore 12600 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 14073 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
video 18951 0
drm 180037 5 radeon,ttm,drm_kms_helper
i2c_algo_bit 13184 1 radeon
lib80211 14570 1 wl
shpchp 32345 0
ati_agp 13202 0
lp 13349 0
parport 36746 3 parport_pc,ppdev,lp
hid_logitech 17421 0
ff_memless 12945 1 hid_logitech
usbhid 41704 1 hid_logitech
hid 77084 2 hid_logitech,usbhid
sdhci_pci 13623 0
ahci 21591 2
sdhci 22720 1 sdhci_pci
pata_atiixp 12968 0
libahci 25548 1 ahci

See this page from the Ubuntu help site to troubleshoot your problem: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...Driver/bcm43xx

I did what that page said and nothing happened. My std driver is active but i can't get on the internet for some reason. There is nothing about wireless internet in the applet either

Hello -

Can you use wired ethernet to get to internet to update you packages? 11.04 is pushing out new software continuously since it is still in BETA.

Then, if that does not help, can you then remove restricted drivers?

and then from https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...river/bcm43xx:

I had the same problem with my Dell vostro 1400 and so i deactivated the STA drivers, rebooted and installed the B43 installer and cutter in synaptic manager and its working just find now.

1 members found this post helpful.

found solution here from user: exile http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...6#post10720776

I will give that a try once my final exams have ended. Thanks for the help everyone.

Interesting. Prior to seeing this, this morning I tried the Natty liveCD on a netbook that requires the STA driver. Worked fine straight from the liveCD (no wired connection).

The crappy GMA500 video still isn't supported, but there is a ppa that has a fix for that.

Must get around to an upgrade sometime.

I am using Asus notebook, I hope ubuntu 11.04 will work well for me.

My WiFi is working once again. Think you so much for helping me everyone :-)