[SOLVED] How I fixed the broadcom STA wireless driver problem in 9.10

[jordbrill]

Originally Posted by superticky I have solved the issue for me. Steps: - load the ubuntu 9.10 live with pen drive. - after ubuntu loaded completely, go to hardware drivers - select STA proprietary (the second one on the list) - activate and it will work. - now install the ubuntu into hard drive. - after ubuntu is installed, go to hardware drivers - only one will appear, which is the one we need. - activate buy it wont work (its okey for now) - now Go to pool/restricted/b/bcmwl on Ubuntu Live USB pen drive. Double click into the .deb file in there, and REINSTALL that package. - go now again to hardware drivers. - Now you can activate Broadcom STA driver, most cases you will see its already activated. - now Wifi should work. it worked for me on a hp mini. please note: i founded another bug, after you have internet, if you do update/upgrade all, the new version of firefox wont work, it will say "bus error". Thanks.

THANK YOU SO MUCH! this fixed my issue completely on my HP Mini 110!!!!

I cannot thank you enough!!!

[sroland81]

I have an HP 6735s Laptop and installed a fresh copy of Karmic and went to Hardware Drivers and activated STA driver... then when restarted the Wireless LED does not even change to blue (on), it stays red (off)... In Hardware Drivers nothing appears.... and i got no wireless... lspci shows no wireless device BCM4311 like it used to be in Jaunty... what can i do about it?

Thanks,

Santiago.-

[eighto2]

Originally Posted by lexpenrose Ok, there's about 1 million people with the same problem : Broadcom STA Wireless driver problems since 9.10 ( worked for everyone in 9.04 ) Here's how to "FIX" it , more like a triple bypass : First of all , set your router to use WEP 40 bit, because WPA is seriously bugged still with Ubuntu - Just after installing Ubuntu 9.10, make sure you use a WIRED internet connection ( using your onboard NIC , not wireless obviously since it doesn't work ) - Issue a "sudo apt-get update" on the terminal to update all the drivers etc. - Then go to System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers And select the Broadcom Wireless STA Driver and click Activate. That's the only way I got this working , I'm sure there's 100 other ways but at least this is a guaranteed way for people to fix their problems ( provided they have access to wired internet )

Amazing, I've been going nuts over this for days. This is HUGE! Thanks

[Rifester]

I don't know if this will help anybody, but my broadcom 4311 card worked fine in the BETA version of 9.10. I cannot get it to function at all in the released version. I have clean installed the beta version and am now upgrading to the current release and my wireless is working. Something must have gotten messed up between beta and release for those of us who have to use the STA wireless driver.

[profgeek]

I downloaded ubuntu unr 9.10, running it on a lenovo ideapad s10 (the first model). I downloaded it fine, noticed the wireless problem, followed instructions and managed to install the bcmkernel from the USB pool.

Now the wireless driver shows up as a propriety driver in "Hardware Connections," but simply refuses to activate, no matter what I do. I type in my password to authenticate, it begins trying to activate, closes the window, and leaves me back at the authentication screen.

I've tried reinstalling and rebooting like 10 times, used a wired connection to get updates, etc.

Nothing.

This is my first linux experience, and may well be my last. If wireless doesn't work, what's the ******* point? Might as well use windows.

[efflandt]

Bootable Ubuntu 9.10 live/install on USB stick (booted on Dell Inspiron 6400 w/4311) does have the STA driver, but not activated. When activated, it said I needed to reboot, (actually had to shutdown, and cold boot). Driver then said activated, but not in use.

I found wl.ko under /lib/modules/2.6.31-14-generic/updates/dkms/
Not sure if necessary, but I did sudo depmod -a (may be necessary if manually copying wl.ko to a system).
sudo modprobe -v wl
Then previously configured, but not working wireless, suddenly started working.
But it did not auto load on reboot. and had to do sudo modprobe wl again.

Note that ifconfig showed that MAC as eth2 (no wlan0), so I not sure if searching for wireless networks works or not (I could not find that). I was at a hotel and had booted to WinXP first, so had already configured Network Connections, Wireless in Ubuntu to the specific SSID.

I probably should put this somewhere in the USB stick's init scripts, if I figure out how to not auto login ubuntu user, but for now I just added this to ubuntu's ~/.profile to auto load the module (if not already loaded) if the USB stick boots on a PC with that Broadcom device:

# load Broadcom wireless module if Dell laptop
if lspci | grep -q BCM4311; then
        lsmod | grep -qw wl - || sudo modprobe wl
fi

So now the bootable USB stick auto loads wl module if that device is present.

[CaKiwi]

Post #1 worked for my Linksys WPC54GS wireless adapter (Broadcom BCM4318 chip set)

[pcdoctor]

ProfGeek, I sent you a PM.

[DanH42]

Using Netbook Remix 9.10 on an HP mini 1000, when I open Hardware Drivers, the list is empty ("No proprietary drivers are in use on this system"). Also, wired Ethernet doesn't work. Any clues?

EDIT: I used a USB network card to get the update, now everything works great. Thanks

[pmenefee]

Unfortunately my solution was to go back to 9.04. It works.
I have a desktop out in my workshop, and no way to connect except via wireless from my home network. After I upgraded to 9.10, I spent quite a bit of time trying to get a connection established, only to read on this forum that it just wasn't going to happen. I pulled out the 9.04 CD and installed. Wireless works just fine and I'm connected again.

This is a big deal for me and I really can't believe that a new version of Ubuntu would be released that just didn't connect. Come on guys, I know nothing is perfect, but surely wireless connectivity would be high on the list of things to double check before you release a new version. I bet we lost a lot of users with this one.