Broadcom 4311 +11.10

[Clinic]

Hello all, I've been using ubuntu on my netbook for a while and have been loving it, so I decided to install on my main lappy. I'm now struggling with the wireless since the upgrade to 11.10. Wireless used to work fine under lucid, but not anymore. Thus, as a good little geek I googled and searched the forums, but efforts have come to naught. I stil can't get the wretched wireless going under 11.10.

Here's my lshw -C network output:

  *-network               
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: MCP65 Ethernet
       vendor: nVidia Corporation
       physical id: 6
       bus info: pci@0000:00:06.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: a3
       serial: 00:1e:68:2c:5c:c1
       size: 100Mbit/s
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 66MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=forcedeth driverversion=0.64 duplex=full ip=192.168.1.5 latency=0 maxlatency=20 mingnt=1 multicast=yes port=MII speed=100Mbit/s
       resources: irq:20 memory:f2487000-f2487fff ioport:30e0(size=8)
  *-network UNCLAIMED
       description: Network controller
       product: BCM4311 802.11a/b/g
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
       version: 01
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:f2000000-f2003fff

The hell, no driver, and i've already run

sudo apt-get --reinstall install bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo modprobe -r b43 ssb wl
sudo modprobe wl

as well as removing any reference i can find in blacklist files to b43.

What am I doing wrong? Please help!

[computerandu]

I was having trouble with 11.04 and 4311. Then I tried some solution suggested in Ubuntu Forum which worked for me. I wrote the steps in my blog and seems it worked for many more people. Give it a try:

http://www.computerandyou.net/2011/0...-ubuntu-11-04/

[garvinrick4]

Install synaptic

sudo apt-get install synaptic

open synaptic and type bcm in search:
Install the two marked and remove any that is installed other than these two in bcm. Take wired out and reboot.

[dave0109]

On my Dell laptop with a Broadcom 4311, the BCM drivers did not work. I had the same problem as you, both with 11.04 and 11.10. Try removing the BCM ones, then installing the b43 drivers, as below:

sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer

[Clinic]

Install synaptic

sudo apt-get install synaptic

open synaptic and type bcm in search:
Install the two marked and remove any that is installed other than these two in bcm. Take wired out and reboot.

Thank you so much, fixed it!

I would never have thought it was so simple; I think I confused myself by reading all different (and sometimes conflicting) posts, wiki entries and tips'n'tricks pages.

[garvinrick4]

Thank you so much, fixed it!

I would never have thought it was so simple; I think I confused myself by reading all different (and sometimes conflicting) posts, wiki entries and tips'n'tricks pages.

Yes sometimes a nice graphic helps to understand. Welcome to the Forums hope to see you around. Enjoy your Ubuntu.

[pauldy]

Thanks this helped me too. I have one thing to add though I had installed the STA drivers that added a file to the /etc/modprobe.d directory called broadcom-sta-common.conf. In it were lines to ignore the b43 driver. The file had to be deleted completely as renaming it with a different extension still loaded it.

[hellslinger]

This is probably known to people here, but I want to point out that these two drivers are different. STA is the one made by the manufacturer and the other is the open-source reverse-engineered driver. Last I knew, there were differences in how they behaved and worked. Perhaps a bug report should be filed for the STA package maintainers so that the can make the appropriate fixes.

[itguy2012]

Hi all,
The post from gavinrick4 worked for me as well.
I had to remove the STA driver, reboot, and edit the blacklist.con to rem out the line blacklisting the bcm43xx.
Finally, a post I read post to install the wicd network manager, in wicd it didnt automatically find it so I put in the preferences -- genreal tab --- wlan0. When I hit refresh it found my wireless and has been running fine ever since.
Hope this helps.

C

[MARP1961]

This also worked for me. I have never managed to get STA working on my Dell. B43 Firmware installer from Synaptic plus a reboot after a completely fresh install seems the most reliable.

Strangely, Additional Drivers seems to cause the problem in that it only offers STA and if you go ahead and install it, it causes problems with B43 (blacklisting issues). I seem to remember that in Lucid Lynx both were offered. What has changed? Why do people with these common wifi cards continue to have problems with Ubuntu?

When I briefly tried Fedora on my son's Dell with his Broadcom card I didn't need to do any fixing. How do Fedora manage this?