Broadcom Wireless STA driver (wl) Ubuntu 9.10/10.04

[earthpigg]

in case anyone using a Dell Mini 9 comes across this:

i was able to get wifi working on 10.04 without ever plugging into wired internet after installing from thumb drive.

1) install ubuntu 10.04 from thumb drive.
2) boot normally.
3) insert the thumb drive you just installed from.
4) open the file manager, go to the thumb drive, and navigate to pool/restricted/b/bcmwl, and double click on the .deb in there. it will tell you it needs 3 dependancies - make a mental note of which three.
5) navigate back to pool/main, find those deps and install them.
6) install the .deb in pool/restricted/b/bcmwl
7) reboot

[caffeinepill]

in case anyone using a Dell Mini 9 comes across this:

i was able to get wifi working on 10.04 without ever plugging into wired internet after installing from thumb drive.

1) install ubuntu 10.04 from thumb drive.
2) boot normally.
3) insert the thumb drive you just installed from.
4) open the file manager, go to the thumb drive, and navigate to pool/restricted/b/bcmwl, and double click on the .deb in there. it will tell you it needs 3 dependancies - make a mental note of which three.
5) navigate back to pool/main, find those deps and install them.
6) install the .deb in pool/restricted/b/bcmwl
7) reboot

Even this didn't work for me (Ubuntu 10.04 64 bit), although I see many people have had success with this method!. I was getting various errors when I attempted to install (and several attempts to re-install) the bcmwl-kernel-source package manually via synaptic.

Assuming you have attempted to install bcmwl-kernel-source and its dependencies manually, received errors during its install and synaptic is showing bcmwl-kernel-source as 'installed'... this may solve the problem.

Go into synaptic and...

completely remove bcmwl-kernel-source AND dkms

then, whilst still in synaptic

install bcmwl-kernel-source


For me this did the trick, I'm not sure why. (removing dkms was the golden ticket). I then went back into Hardware Drivers and driver was showing as activated but not in use. All it took then was a quick reboot and

Hope this helps someone!

[wandalalakers]

Earthpigg

XOXO

It worked for me.
I really didn't want to have to use ndis wrapper stuff.

Caffeinepill,
I put down your info for future reference also in case pigg's didn't work.
I'm usng a Dell D620 with a broadcom wireless.

[Mike.Flintjer]

Problem using Broadcom Wireless in Ubuntu 9.10/10.04 because it is not supported by b43 driver ?

Assuming you have tried all normal installation procedures like using the Hardware Drivers tool and you still do not have a working WiFi setup this is what you must do:

1. Download the Broadcom drivers: http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php
2. Unpack and modify the ‘src/wl/sys/wl_linux.c‘:
Line 35 (after #include <linux/etherdevice.h>) add:

#include < linux/sched.h >

3. Compile the code with: make
4. Copy the new driver: sudo mv wl.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless
5. Update dependencies: sudo depmod -a
6. Modify the blacklist to include the ‘b43′ and ’ssb’ drivers /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf (Add below the bcm43xx blacklist)

The part above you probably have seen a few times while googling for the answer. But there is a small problem, as you would have noticed, the ‘ssb‘ driver cannot be blacklisted. It is included in the initrd as I remember from the ubuntuforums. To solve this issue modify the /etc/rc.local to include before the exit(0):

rmmod ssb
modprobe wl

Now on startup the ssb gets removed and after that the new wl gets inserted. Adding wl to the /etc/modules will not help because the removing needs to be done first.
So with the /etc/rc.local modification everything happens in the correct order for perfect WiFi.

This was tested multiple times on a MacBook Pro with the Broadcom 4328 chipset and should work for all chipsets not supported by the b43 drivers.

Update:
Not all systems include the 'linux/sched.h' file. Install the 'linux-headers-generic' package if you get errors. The generic package is a meta package that should install the propper package for your kernel. If it isn't working install with

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

WOO-HOO!! This worked!! I can't friggin believe it...IT WORKED!!

I do have to inform the group about one thing though...the par to fthe instructions that say to modify the etc/rc.local file....You cannot edit this file without having root privileges! That means you can open it, but you cannot save the edits once you get them inserted....

If the author could post the work-around to edit that file, that would be cool...not sure if needed though, as i haven't restarted the computer a few times to check viability of all instructions....

================================================== ================================
EDIT:
OK, after making it work once, I had to make sure it wasn't a fluke...so I uninstalled Ubuntu, wiped the partition and re-installed. Re-did the instructions...and found a problem. These instructions by themselves did not work. I went and installed from the repositories the fakeroot, ndiswrapper (and the subs that go with that), ndisgtk....pretty much anything that had ANYTHING to do with networking and/or wireless LAN. Then I re-did the instructions and rebooted the comuter...SUCCESS!! WirelessLAN up and running, and i am typing this from inside Ubuntu and happier than a puppy with two peckers....and am now finding myself basking in my geekiness!!

GO OPEN SOURCE, GO LINUX!!

[screamm]

This worked for me on Desktop Edition 32-bit (should work on 64-bit aswell):

-Install fresh Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (I saw some errors in terminal background where wireless driver is mentioned

2: Updated everything everything in update manager after finished install (needed reboot)

3: Go to System -> Administration -> Hardwaredrivers

4: Broadcom B43 should show up in the list. Mark it and activate.

5: Reboot and voila.

Hope this helps some atleast.

[temujin23]

Thanks screamm. I tried multiple fixes from this thread and others until I finally just wired the machine and completed your 5 easy steps.

[Marite]

Guys - i did it!!
This crappy STA error was bugging me for 3 days.
As i am so green in this technical thing, first in my life i had to go through a million of treads regarding this missing wireless thing and i had no solution for my case.
1 - i did saw an inactive STA in System/Administration/Hardware drivers but i couldn't activate it
2- i checked Synaptic package manager and there wasn't this bcmwl-kernel-source, but there at least was bcmwl-modaliases
3 - i reinstalled the last one bcmwl-modaliases
4 - rebooted computer
5 - in Hardware drivers appeared B43 as already active, but wireless wasn't working anyways
6 - though i removed B43
7 - rebooted again
8 - tried to activate STA and got message "/var/log/jockey.log"
9 - tried again and got message "Sorry, the Jockey backend crashed"
how da heck could i know, that i have to go to Synaptic manager / Settings / Repositories / and mark a tickbox in Ubuntu softwear "Proprietary drivers for devices (restricted) !!!??? This small step solved all my problems
10 - bcmwl-kernel-source appeared in synaptic
11 - i acivated all of it, rebooted
12....and vuala!! Wireless was there!!

[hashbrowns]

Thanks for the answer here. Clear, detailed, and concise...the open source world needs more devs like you!

I just "rescued" my boss's inspiron 1525 that he had updated to 10.04 at my behest through the alt CD. Then he blamed me for the wifi not working ah well.

Everything's good now though; didn't need to read beyond the first post. I had already tried the b43-fwcutter from another forum post but that was quite complicated and spawned so many fw versions I didn't know where to start.

Thanks again!

[maxthegold]

Does anybody else see a problem with fixes for a network/internet access problem that contain instructions install stuff with apt-get. My wireless card does not work so I do not have Linux access to the internet, how do I fix that?

[mwildam]

Go into synaptic and...
completely remove bcmwl-kernel-source AND dkms
then, whilst still in synaptic
install bcmwl-kernel-source

After trying this I wasn't able to re-install any of those any more.