HOWTO: Broadcom 4318 Wireless Cards

[karmickev]

On an Acer Aspire 3630, I made a clean install of Ubuntu 10.04, used Hardware Drivers aka /usr/bin/jockey-gtk to get the driver for my wireless card and rebooted.

Now when I right-click NetworkManager, it shows Activate Wireless greyed out, and I can't select it.

jockey-gtk seems to think that the driver is installed correctly.

lspci -vvnn | grep 14e4
00.0b.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4318] (rev 02)

/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf has:
# replaced by b43 and ssb.
blacklist bcm43xx

Any idea what might be wrong?

Hi,

I'm a novice but this is what worked for me on an acer aspire 3000 with the same wifi card - not sure if all the steps are completely nessesary but i'll include everything just in case:

1) Clean install
2) You should get an "install driver" notification on the status bar - I ignored that for now and applied all the ubuntu updates first.
3) Install the b43 driver either from the status bar icon or admin>hardwaredrivers
4) activate driver in admin>hardware drivers

Now you need the firmware for the wifi card so use fwcutter

5) In terminal use command sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter it automatically fetched and installed firmware in correct location.

6) Then it worked!

As I said - I'm a novice so somebody else could probably point out the difference between what I did and what your doing - you my not need a re-install - maybe just fwcutter???

[Nick_Jinn]

Hi,

I'm a novice but this is what worked for me on an acer aspire 3000 with the same wifi card - not sure if all the steps are completely nessesary but i'll include everything just in case:

1) Clean install
2) You should get an "install driver" notification on the status bar - I ignored that for now and applied all the ubuntu updates first.
3) Install the b43 driver either from the status bar icon or admin>hardwaredrivers
4) activate driver in admin>hardware drivers

Now you need the firmware for the wifi card so use fwcutter

5) In terminal use command sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter it automatically fetched and installed firmware in correct location.

6) Then it worked!

As I said - I'm a novice so somebody else could probably point out the difference between what I did and what your doing - you my not need a re-install - maybe just fwcutter???

That is the PC I have, so I will have to try this...My PC is newer, but I am working on someone elses.

[karmickev]

That is the PC I have, so I will have to try this...My PC is newer, but I am working on someone elses.

This is why unbuntu is so good! This laptop would be rendered useless king ago if it were still running xp!i

[SyCo123]

This is why unbuntu is so good! This laptop would be rendered useless king ago if it were still running xp!i

It was rendered useless because it was running XP

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.
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Someone had to say it

[Nick_Jinn]

Hi,

I'm a novice but this is what worked for me on an acer aspire 3000 with the same wifi card - not sure if all the steps are completely nessesary but i'll include everything just in case:

1) Clean install
2) You should get an "install driver" notification on the status bar - I ignored that for now and applied all the ubuntu updates first.
3) Install the b43 driver either from the status bar icon or admin>hardwaredrivers
4) activate driver in admin>hardware drivers

Now you need the firmware for the wifi card so use fwcutter

5) In terminal use command sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter it automatically fetched and installed firmware in correct location.

6) Then it worked!

As I said - I'm a novice so somebody else could probably point out the difference between what I did and what your doing - you my not need a re-install - maybe just fwcutter???

Trying this not only didnt fix my wireless, but now I cannot connect to the internet at all, even with a different USB wireless card that was previously working.....I cant even click to enable wireless....its dim and it wont let me click on it.

I am using Mint on this computer. Any ideas on what to try next?

[legacymaker]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I have been hitting my head against this problem for two days and after reading this how-to it took me all of two minutes.

[eliadero]

Well the idea is that I never thought it would work...the first part I mean...I installed today the ubuntu 10.10 distribution and it has the drivers included they only need to be activated via System> Additional drivers...it finds the driver and with one click presto!!! to be honest this has been eating away at me for about 1 year and a half...congrats to ubuntu programmers for avoiding a lot of mental health problems of those like me...I admit I am a beginner, but my laptop has the VIP 4318 broadcom wireless card that never seem to work for anyone... as far as I can see the speed of the network is very good, and I do not think I will try the rest, there is no use...I hope this problem will go away...I'm a little nervous because I have to reboot....hope it holds...All this being said I do believe that the days of my XP are numbered.....I liked Ubuntu from the first time and I was very sad not to use it...since I did not have internet, I've renounced exploring the rest........again...thank you...for me this whole idea of free software is the future for our society full of people who want to make money at any cost....the prices for microsoft software is outrageous!

[zdenal]

I had same problems with Broadcom driver on Lucid and Maverick.

In my post

http://polach.cc/broadcom-wifi-adapt...x-on-ubuntu-ii

I summarize some facts so you can check

a) If your Broadcom card is supported by the wl.ko driver
b) Use step by step HowTo to try fix your wireless problem

Hope this helps..

[physeetcosmo]

...I installed today the ubuntu 10.10 distribution and it has the drivers included they only need to be activated via System> Additional drivers...it finds the driver and with one click presto!!!

This is pretty typical of any Linux Distro, if it is within their scope/goal of development. If there is enough demand for a product, the support is developed into the Nix distro.

It's interesting in that all of the INDIVIDUAL devices are not needed to be "supported", just the silicon and configuration of what most people call the "chip set".

To me, being an Electrical Engineer, it is funny to watch companies come out with "new and revolutionary" products, which are really only slightly different than their other products...as far as actual design is concerned.

Glad you are enjoying Ubuntu!

[pazdaniel79]

Hey Guys,

This worked perfectly for me after many hours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsGJ8nuhWTs&NR=1