Solution to Broadcom 43xx Card Problem (12.04 - Precise Pangolin)

[auftable]

@Cbviewer
Ok, what kind of wlan will you use? If you use it only at home or other private networks, try b43/44 first. Only if that fails or if you also want to have access to a wlan with user accounts, for example at a university, try the STA driver.
Only for b43/44:
Find out your wlan chipset: http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Dr...ported_devices .
Install, for example b43-fwcutter and firmware-b43(-lpphy if low power version)-installer with synaptic. Before, deinstall packages beginning with "broadcom-sta-", if installed. Reboot, try "sudo modprobe b43". If only then something works in the network manager, write a "#" in front of every line in /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-common.conf (edit with sudo gedit).

Btw., what's you current status at all? Error messages you get? What is network messenger showing?

[sid1950]

Thanks for all the help. I tried a number before getting my WiFi back. The best help came from this link http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Dr...ported_devices which identified which driver would work, and has some useful instructions.

My hardware is a Dell Inspiron 1521 AMD Turion x64 Dual core 1.6Ghz, 4Gb RAM, 120Gb hdd. The wireless adapter is Broadcom BCM 4311.

I had Ubuntu 10.04 installed, along with VBox 4.1.4. I had tried 11.04 in a VM, and decided to take the plunge and upgrade. Upgrade went fine using an ethernet cable, but the wifi disappeared as soon as I had activated the STA driver. I tried several fixes from this thread and ended up with no networking at all! That was with the b43 LP-PHY driver. In every case I found that with the driver removed, the card was visible, but showing as disabled, to the network manager utility on the task bar, which also showed Wireless Networking Enabled. With the driver activated the card was not visible and the Wireless Networking Enabled/disabled function had gone.

After trying various solutions over 3 days, I gave up and did a clean install from a CD using the x86_64 version. This time when I activated the STA driver it all worked fine. The bug seems to be in the download for the upgrade. My 64bit CD image is dated 5 Oct 2011. I'm going to do tests with my old Inspiron 1300 to see if I can replicate this, as it has the same 4211 card.

Again thanks to all those who took the time to post fixes.

[auftable]

I think there was a dialog when upgrading wanting me to chose either to keep the old version or chose the new version of a configuration file, and it was something with "network-manager" in it. Maybe that's why STA was deactivated when upgrading but works from a fresh 11.10 system. This could also explain sid1950's problems and solution.

[poltr1]

Summarizing my install experience on a Dell Latitude D630 running Oneiric and the built-in Broadcom 4311 wireless device:

0) Connect to a network via a wired connection.
1) Installed firmware-b43-lpphy-installer via sudo apt-get install. Got some type of "installation failed; device not found" error message.
2) Ran update-manager, which populated the software center.
3) Removed firmware-b43-lpphy-installer and installed firmware-b43-installer via the software center.
4) Commented out the blacklist b43xx line in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf.
5) Executed "sudo modprobe b43". (Yeah, I could have rebooted.)

Clicked on my network status icon and I can see -- and connect to -- my wireless network. Success!

[Updated at 13:01 to add: But upon reboot, I have to type in "sudo modprobe b43" to enable my wireless adapter, every time I start an Ubuntu session. I think there's something else I need to do so that it would come up automatically. But I don't know what that is.]

[manco1911]

I have an Acer Extensa 4420 with a Brodacom BCM4311 integrated.
After a couple of hours searching around.. i decided to ask the forum/search the forums (dont know why this was not my first choise, it usually is.. ).

I did exactly what poltr1 said and worked flawlessly. I dont know if ill have to "modprobe" my card on reboot, since i havent rebooted yet.

i will update on that.

BTW @poltr1, you could make a small script and run it on system startup.. its not perfect, but it would solve the issue for now..

Thaks for the mini tutorial !!
i love this forum

[bkratz]

Summarizing my install experience on a Dell Latitude D630 running Oneiric and the built-in Broadcom 4311 wireless device:

0) Connect to a network via a wired connection.
1) Installed firmware-b43-lpphy-installer via sudo apt-get install. Got some type of "installation failed; device not found" error message.
2) Ran update-manager, which populated the software center.
3) Removed firmware-b43-lpphy-installer and installed firmware-b43-installer via the software center.
4) Commented out the blacklist b43xx line in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf.
5) Executed "sudo modprobe b43". (Yeah, I could have rebooted.)

Clicked on my network status icon and I can see -- and connect to -- my wireless network. Success!

[Updated at 13:01 to add: But upon reboot, I have to type in "sudo modprobe b43" to enable my wireless adapter, every time I start an Ubuntu session. I think there's something else I need to do so that it would come up automatically. But I don't know what that is.]

You should be able to automagically load the b43 module at boot by adding it to the modules loaded at boot time. You could add it manually to /etc/modules or in the terminal do (one time):

sudo su 
echo b43 >> /etc/modules 
exit

This will require your password which will not be echoed to the screen, just press enter when done then try a reboot.

[bkratz]

I have an Acer Extensa 4420 with a Brodacom BCM4311 integrated.
After a couple of hours searching around.. i decided to ask the forum/search the forums (dont know why this was not my first choise, it usually is.. ).

I did exactly what poltr1 said and worked flawlessly. I dont know if ill have to "modprobe" my card on reboot, since i havent rebooted yet.

i will update on that.

BTW @poltr1, you could make a small script and run it on system startup.. its not perfect, but it would solve the issue for now..

Thaks for the mini tutorial !!
i love this forum

If you are using Ubuntu 11.10 you may have one additional file (folder) that is "blacklisting" the b43 driver. See this page for details.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...11_Natty_11.04

See the last two lines.

[manco1911]

@bkratz
Thanks for the tip, but for i didn't had to "modprobe" again upon reboot.

maybe this is because i have an integrated card and not a usb-boundle ?

anyway, thanks.

This kind of things can be hard for a new user, this was a laptop i just made a fresh install for a friend.. but happily it didnt discourage her..

i guess this is the kind of thigs everyone says: first step, search the forums lol

[sky5564]

My problem with this driver was that it was extremely slow, It did actually work but just terribly slow.

I think im going to black list all the linux broadcom drivers for my card and try to install the windows driver via ndis wrapper.

i will post my success or failure here in this thread just in case anyone else is having the same problem i did.

[poltr1]

If you are using Ubuntu 11.10 you may have one additional file (folder) that is "blacklisting" the b43 driver. See this page for details.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...11_Natty_11.04

See the last two lines.

Running "sudo apt-get remove --purge bcmwl-kernel-source" fixed it. I also added b43 to /etc/modules for good measure. Thank you bkratz!