[SOLVED] HP530 can't see Broadcom wireless networks

donreid · 02-25-2018, 05:13 PM

I have a HP530 laptop on which I have installed Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon 64 bit before sending it to a school in Africa. The software does not recognise the Broadcom BCM4312 wireless network controller but accesses the internet successfully via a wired ethernet connection.

I have tried using WICD instead of Network Manager but have now deleted that and reverted back to Network Manager. In both, no wireless networks are detected and the wireless function cannot be initiated by pressing the Wireless button, which works fine under Windows.

The most promising avenue I have pursued is to edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and comment out the line
blacklist bcm43xx
but that did not change anything.

I have installed various changes in software and Intel firmware recommended by Administration/Driver Manager but to no avail.

Help!!

BW-userx · 02-25-2018, 06:05 PM

Code:

lspci -vnn | grep Broadcom

to get your card then you got to get type of Broadcom card it is to know what firmware to install for it first.
post back what that command shows you, you might have to use all lower case.

syg00 · 02-25-2018, 07:33 PM

Mint should pull in the proprietary drivers it needs. Open the menu, select "Administration" then "Driver Manager" - see if it gives you the option to use the Broadcom driver.

donreid · 02-26-2018, 03:55 AM

The command returns the following message:
10:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY [14e4:4315] (rev 01)

Driver Manager provides the options shown on the attachment. I have tried them all and none of them work.

I was hoping that commenting out the blacklisted bcm43xx would fix it but it didn't.

Shadow_7 · 02-26-2018, 05:26 AM

A lot of times the firmware is not installed by default. Checking dmesg might shine some light on what's going on. And various other /var/log/ things or journalctl depending on what's installed.

donreid · 02-26-2018, 05:48 AM

Sometimes Linux really surprises me. Ever since I ran
lspci -vnn | grep Broadcom
I have been able to see wireless networks and have now successfully connected wirelessly. I had a similar experience with a printer problem recently - running a query solved the problem. Can anyone explain that?

Thanks for all the help. Problem solved.

syg00 · 02-26-2018, 06:02 AM

Coincidence. The Driver manager did it's job, you merely tripped over the timing.

Enjoy.