[SOLVED] Cannot get Wifi working

pappo46 · 03-14-2019, 04:05 PM

I am only able to connect with a wired connection.
I did the lspci and lshw and I have a BCM43 network card.

I did a "sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source

lspci -nnk shows:

Broadcom Inc BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
Kernel modules: ssb, wl

When I try to setup the wifi using network connections I used wlan0 as the device. Is that correct?
Any help would be appreciated.

the_waiter · 03-14-2019, 04:50 PM

Hello

Maybe you need to have kernel headers installed. Can you post the terminal outcome here when you try installing the package?

S

pappo46 · 03-14-2019, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_waiter

Hello

Maybe you need to have kernel headers installed. Can you post the terminal outcome here when you try installing the package?

S

What package are you talking about ?

pappo46 · 03-14-2019, 05:57 PM

If you meant the install of kernel-source, here it is:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
bcmwl-kernel-source
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/1,518 kB of archives.
After this operation, 7,179 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Selecting previously unselected package bcmwl-kernel-source.
(Reading database ... 146762 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../bcmwl-kernel-source_6.30.223.271+bdcom-0ubuntu4_i386.deb ...
Unpacking bcmwl-kernel-source (6.30.223.271+bdcom-0ubuntu4) ...
Setting up bcmwl-kernel-source (6.30.223.271+bdcom-0ubuntu4) ...
Loading new bcmwl-6.30.223.271+bdcom DKMS files...
Building for 4.9.0-6-686
Building for architecture i686
Building initial module for 4.9.0-6-686
Done.

wl:
Running module version sanity check.
- Original module
- No original module exists within this kernel
- Installation
- Installing to /lib/modules/4.9.0-6-686/updates/dkms/

depmod.......

DKMS: install completed.
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.130ubuntu3.7) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.9.0-6-686

cordx · 03-14-2019, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pappo46

When I try to setup the wifi using network connections I used wlan0 as the device. Is that correct?
Any help would be appreciated.

when i run

Code:

lshw -C network

i can see the connection name after "logical name:" as well as the name and version of the installed driver under configuration. is that where you got wlan0? what happened when you tried to set up the wifi connection? did you see any networks listed?

pappo46 · 03-15-2019, 08:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cordx

when i run

Code:

lshw -C network

i can see the connection name after "logical name:" as well as the name and version of the installed driver under configuration. is that where you got wlan0? what happened when you tried to set up the wifi connection? did you see any networks listed?

I used wlan0 because that is what it always was on my other Ubuntu systems. You are right, I should not assume wlan0.

This is my output of lshw -C network

*-network UNCLAIMED
description: Network controller
product: BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
vendor: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:d6000000-d6003fff
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: PRO/100 VE Network Connection
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 8
bus info: pci@0000:05:08.0
logical name: enp5s8
version: 02
serial: 00:16:36:ef:8d:11
size: 100Mbit/s
capacity: 100Mbit/s

cordx · 03-15-2019, 09:38 AM

i have found a couple places that say the same thing. the first link below is much more detailed and recently updated. i wanted to add the second for completeness and to show the first should work.

the overall gist is that you need to purge bcmwl-kernel-source:

Quote:

For example, if you have previously installed the bcmwl-kernel-source package, you will need to remove it by using the purge method:

Code:

sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source

install a different broadcom driver with:

Code:

sudo apt install firmware-b43-installer

and possibly make an adjustment to the module

Quote:

In some particular cases, after installing the firmware-b43-installer you need to remove the b43 module, enable it again and even proceed to unblock with rfkill:

Code:

sudo modprobe -r b43
 sudo modprobe b43    
 sudo rfkill unblock all

https://askubuntu.com/questions/5586...=votes#tab-top

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread....9#post13181379

pappo46 · 03-15-2019, 10:16 AM

cordx

Thank you very much. I had done the kernel-source remove/delete before but I did not know about the modprobe:

sudo modprobe -r b43
sudo modprobe b43
sudo rfkill unblock all

I had to apt-get install rfkill, because it wasn't installed, but after that it worked.
Here is my lshw -C network output now:

*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
vendor: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
logical name: wlan0
version: 01
serial: 00:1a:73:1f:c9:de
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless

Many thanks.

Regards

Phillip

cordx · 03-15-2019, 10:20 PM

i'm glad to hear you are up and running. i had to play with modprobe a little in debian to get my wifi going. looks like you got that wlan0 back after all

if you have the chance and inclination to mark the thread as solved, that might help others who wander in with a similar issue.

pappo46 · 03-16-2019, 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cordx

i'm glad to hear you are up and running. i had to play with modprobe a little in debian to get my wifi going. looks like you got that wlan0 back after all

if you have the chance and inclination to mark the thread as solved, that might help others who wander in with a similar issue.

I did mark it solved. Thanks again for your help.