Wifi. Possible to reinstall only drivers from CD?

[fdrake]

are you dual booting or just ubuntu in the macbook?

sometimes a clean shutdown helps to reset the adapter to its default state.


if you are able to connect please mark this thread as "SOLVED".

[ALinuxWindowsBalance]

If you have your manufacturer's driver reinstall disc, DuckDuckGo the driver name and see if you can find a better driver. I have an old D610 laptop that the WiFi cuts out after a while(An hour) and I traced it back to a bad driver, So I called Dell, and I got a driver replace disk. I used Ndiswrapper to bind the driver, and presto! It worked!

[MyTinFoilHat]

are you dual booting or just ubuntu in the macbook?

sometimes a clean shutdown helps to reset the adapter to its default state.


if you are able to connect please mark this thread as "SOLVED".

Just straight-up Ubuntu here.

[MyTinFoilHat]

If you have your manufacturer's driver reinstall disc, DuckDuckGo the driver name and see if you can find a better driver. I have an old D610 laptop that the WiFi cuts out after a while(An hour) and I traced it back to a bad driver, So I called Dell, and I got a driver replace disk. I used Ndiswrapper to bind the driver, and presto! It worked!

Interesting... While I didn't use it in solving this problem, I at least know that I can grab the driver elsewhere-
HA! I just got that. I love the fact that you mentioned DuckDuckGo-ing the driver name. Personally I ixquick or startpage all my queries.

[MyTinFoilHat]

If anyone has any suggestions for verifying this wifi solution will stick, I'm happy to flag this solved.


Thank you to everyone that responded.

[Bashing-om]

MyTinFoilHat;

Just for your info: I had not abandoned you, have continued to monitor this thread. I had nothing to add to what was advised, so said nothing(in accordance to forum policy).

At this time I still have little of value to offer. If all your log files do not indicate a problem, I would say you are home free. - Glad you are up on wireless -

best regards

[MyTinFoilHat]

MyTinFoilHat;

Just for your info: I had not abandoned you, have continued to monitor this thread. I had nothing to add to what was advised, so said nothing(in accordance to forum policy).

At this time I still have little of value to offer. If all your log files do not indicate a problem, I would say you are home free. - Glad you are up on wireless -

best regards

No worries. I hadn't thought that at all. I realize that people here volunteer their time and I'm deeply grateful for any help that I can get, as it's available. What's more, apart from earning a living, I don't have anywhere in particular to go. I can always read other things and learn while I wait.

As a related side-bar to this, I had another new development:

I finished doing my back up, restarted, and had a brief moment of "UH-OH!" when I clicked on the updates - which, promptly went through their routines. I did notice a few errors coming up during the process (and got crash reports which I submitted)... I want to say that it was related to the linux-sta-dkms (?) I wish I remembered exactly, but I think panic took over - which is why I am having issues remembering the exact module that was freaking out.

Simultaneously, I suddenly remembered that I hadn't followed-up on fdrake's suggestion to run

sudo rfkill list all

Should I do that now?
rfkill enables/disables wireless devices, so I'm thinking 'no'... at least not now that the wifi is working.

I know there's a way to trek back through the logs to review these messages at my leisure. I just don't know the process yet.

At any rate, wifi is still working. I'm just wondering if there might be some "post-resolution" steps to clean up any peripheral things that may cause issues (or illicit more kernel messages about modules that don't belong).

[DuckHook]

There is something to be said for leaving well enough alone, but IMO it is still important that you fix all those competing drivers.

Synaptic is a high-level package manager just like apt. If you prefer its GUI interface over apt, then it is also a good choice.

The first order of business is still to delete all competing drivers and their packages. In particular, this includes b43, b43-fwcutter and broadcom-sta-dkms. The b43 packages install a driver for older broadcom chips and simply cannot work on your chip. It will just foul up your WIFI. The sta driver is not part of bcmwl-kernel-source and I suspect that you downloaded all of these packages as part of your previous attempts to fix. None of them are good to have around.

1. In synaptic search first for broadcom again, then followed by b43.

2. We wish to not only uncheck the following packages, but to do so by choosing the option "mark for complete removal". This is Synaptic's version of the --purge option in apt. We must get to a clean slate.
a. bcmwl-kernel-source
b. broadcom-sta-dkms
c. b43-fwcutter
d. firmware-b43-installer
After checkmarking all boxes for complete removal, apply.

3. To keep to the GUI tools, exit Synaptic and open Update Manager. You must exit Synaptic completely before opening Update Manager, or the next step will fail.

4. In Update Manager, click the "check" button. This has the same effect as sudo apt-get update. If anything needs to be updated click "install updates". Close Update Manager.

5. Reboot.

6. Open Synaptic and search for broadcom again.

7. Check only bcmwl-kernel-source and nothing else. Apply.

8. Reboot.

You should now have only the wl driver loaded in kernel space. To check, do:

lsmod | grep wl

**Repeat: this is optional at this time. You may simply want to print these instructions and not implement until WIFI goes MIA again.**

[fdrake]

No worries. I hadn't thought that at all. I realize that people here volunteer their time and I'm deeply grateful for any help that I can get, as it's available. What's more, apart from earning a living, I don't have anywhere in particular to go. I can always read other things and learn while I wait.

As a related side-bar to this, I had another new development:

I finished doing my back up, restarted, and had a brief moment of "UH-OH!" when I clicked on the updates - which, promptly went through their routines. I did notice a few errors coming up during the process (and got crash reports which I submitted)... I want to say that it was related to the linux-sta-dkms (?) I wish I remembered exactly, but I think panic took over - which is why I am having issues remembering the exact module that was freaking out.

Simultaneously, I suddenly remembered that I hadn't followed-up on fdrake's suggestion to run

sudo rfkill list all

Should I do that now?
rfkill enables/disables wireless devices, so I'm thinking 'no'... at least not now that the wifi is working.

I know there's a way to trek back through the logs to review these messages at my leisure. I just don't know the process yet.

At any rate, wifi is still working. I'm just wondering if there might be some "post-resolution" steps to clean up any peripheral things that may cause issues (or illicit more kernel messages about modules that don't belong).

my commands only lists the status of your adapters it tells you why they don't show up; if they have been disabled by a physical switch(or in the bios) or by a software. it's a way to check things before installin and moving stuff around.

[MyTinFoilHat]

There is something to be said for leaving well enough alone, but IMO it is still important that you fix all those competing drivers.

Synaptic is a high-level package manager just like apt. If you prefer its GUI interface over apt, then it is also a good choice.

The first order of business is still to delete all competing drivers and their packages. In particular, this includes b43, b43-fwcutter and broadcom-sta-dkms. The b43 packages install a driver for older broadcom chips and simply cannot work on your chip. It will just foul up your WIFI. The sta driver is not part of bcmwl-kernel-source and I suspect that you downloaded all of these packages as part of your previous attempts to fix. None of them are good to have around.

1. In synaptic search first for broadcom again, then followed by b43.

2. We wish to not only uncheck the following packages, but to do so by choosing the option "mark for complete removal". This is Synaptic's version of the --purge option in apt. We must get to a clean slate.
a. bcmwl-kernel-source
b. broadcom-sta-dkms
c. b43-fwcutter
d. firmware-b43-installer
After checkmarking all boxes for complete removal, apply.

3. To keep to the GUI tools, exit Synaptic and open Update Manager. You must exit Synaptic completely before opening Update Manager, or the next step will fail.

4. In Update Manager, click the "check" button. This has the same effect as sudo apt-get update. If anything needs to be updated click "install updates". Close Update Manager.

5. Reboot.

6. Open Synaptic and search for broadcom again.

7. Check only bcmwl-kernel-source and nothing else. Apply.

8. Reboot.

You should now have only the wl driver loaded in kernel space. To check, do:

lsmod | grep wl

**Repeat: this is optional at this time. You may simply want to print these instructions and not implement until WIFI goes MIA again.**

On step 5 right now. I've made sure I read, reread, and re-reread the instructions (and nicely written explanations!)... I'll be back in a moment or so to proceed.

(THANK YOU!!!)