Wifi. Possible to reinstall only drivers from CD?

[MyTinFoilHat]

When I installed Ubuntu, everything simply worked: wired connection, wifi, display, keyboard, etc. - it all worked.

Currently, I'm having issues with my wifi driver. I can't see or gain access to wifi. I know the card works. It worked until 2 days ago. I've explained this issue in another post in the appropriate forum. Here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...5#post12512965

I've checked out several posts similar to mine (before posting my question), but can't seem to get things to work right. Either I'm misunderstanding something, missing a step, or am simply not "getting it". I'm feeling quite stupid right now, actually and my frustration may also be getting in the way of understanding the problem and the solution. In any case, the problem still persists and I'm wondering if someone, anyone can help me out.

My thought is this: Since I know that the wifi will work when Ubuntu is installed, perhaps I could reinstall Ubuntu to get back those drivers, settings, etc that did work. Problem is, I don't want to lose everything currently on my laptop. So, now I have a question about reinstalling Ubuntu or only those drivers I need that I know work.

How do I reinstall Ubuntu (specifically those "default" settings, drivers WITHOUT overwriting or removing any of the apps and customization I've taken great pains to setup on my laptop? I merely want those "default" drivers (that worked) to be reinstalled. Is there a way?

Thank you!

[Bashing-om]

MyTinFoilHat;

Wireless issues are not in my sphere of knowledge, however in response to your query:
Drivers are replaceable in ubuntu. Might I suggest not to be too hasty in blaming a driver (often the case, updates can break a "proprietary" driver). Take a deep breath, relax for a moment, and start all over from the beginning in the process to isolate the fault . Have a read in the tutorial, follow the guidance, and let us all see where you are at then. Sound good ?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...gGuide/Devices

will'n to help

[DuckHook]

There has been an outbreak of recent threads dealing with suddenly broken WIFI. I suspect that a bad recent update may be the cause. If so, then a reinstall won't help because it will get you working only until you update, which most will want to do almost immediately.

Have looked at your recent thread (don't be surprised if Forum Admins admonish you for double posting). In addition to that info, please post output of the following:

ifconfig
iwconfig
lsmod | egrep -i 'wl|ssb|b43|brcm|bcma'
cat /etc/modules
grep blacklist /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

In your case, bluetooth tethering may be the cause or it may be coincidental. To cover off this possibility, go to Network Manager and see if WIFI is on. If so, what does Connection Information show?

Will know more once requested output is posted.

[MyTinFoilHat]

MyTinFoilHat;

Wireless issues are not in my sphere of knowledge, however in response to your query:
Drivers are replaceable in ubuntu. Might I suggest not to be too hasty in blaming a driver (often the case, updates can break a "proprietary" driver). Take a deep breath, relax for a moment, and start all over from the beginning in the process to isolate the fault . Have a read in the tutorial, follow the guidance, and let us all see where you are at then. Sound good ?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...gGuide/Devices

will'n to help

Thank you very much. I appreciate your time. I'm going to read that momentarily and will post back here.

[MyTinFoilHat]

There has been an outbreak of recent threads dealing with suddenly broken WIFI. I suspect that a bad recent update may be the cause. If so, then a reinstall won't help because it will get you working only until you update, which most will want to do almost immediately.

Have looked at your recent thread (don't be surprised if Forum Admins admonish you for double posting). In addition to that info, please post output of the following:

ifconfig
iwconfig
lsmod | egrep -i 'wl|ssb|b43|brcm|bcma'
cat /etc/modules
grep blacklist /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

In your case, bluetooth tethering may be the cause or it may be coincidental. To cover off this possibility, go to Network Manager and see if WIFI is on. If so, what does Connection Information show?

Will know more once requested output is posted.

Thank you. Yes, hopefully the bluetooth thing was coincidence, but I won't be taking tinkering with that again anytime soon.

I've checked the Network and Network Connections. I'm wired on Auto Ethernet via Interface: Ethernet (eth0), Driver: sky2, Speed: 100Mb/s

As for the other stuff, here's what I see:

ifconfig

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr: [[REDACTED by OP]  
          inet addr:[REDACTED by OP]  Bcast:[REDACTED by OP] Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: [REDACTED by OP] Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:4682 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:3373 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:4005296 (4.0 MB)  TX bytes:546379 (546.3 KB)
          Interrupt:17 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:200 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:200 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:17941 (17.9 KB)  TX bytes:17941 (17.9 KB)

iwconfig

eth0      no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

lsmod | egrep -i 'wl|ssb|b43|brcm|bcma'

Was this supposed to have a human readable output for me to share?

cat /etc/modules

# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.

loop
lp
rtc

grep blacklist /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

blacklist evbug
blacklist usbmouse
blacklist usbkbd
blacklist eepro100
blacklist de4x5
blacklist eth1394
blacklist snd_intel8x0m
blacklist snd_aw2
blacklist i2c_i801
blacklist prism54
blacklist bcm43xx
blacklist garmin_gps
blacklist asus_acpi
blacklist snd_pcsp
blacklist pcspkr
blacklist amd76x_edac

I see that entry blacklist bcm43xx. I'm guessing that's something to do with it...

ADDITIONAL:

I've also popped into the Software Sources/Additional Drivers and can see that I have

Broadcom Corporation: BCM4321 802.11a/b/g/n. This device is using an alternative driver. Using Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver source from bcmwl-kernel-source (proprietary)

[DuckHook]

Something seems to have nuked your wireless driver. Don't know if it was bluetooth episode or update. This is actually rather good news. Would much rather deal with missing driver than a balky driver installed but not cooperating.

To answer your questions:

1. lsmod would not return anything because you have no module loaded.

2. blacklisting bcm43xx is okay provided that another module takes its place. You don't want two modules competing for the same WIFI chip. When the original working module was loaded, bcm43xx was blacklisted, which is expected behaviour.

Okay. Let's try fixing it. Please follow instructions here. Solution was provided to same problem a few days ago, so no point posting twice.

Post back to let us know how it goes.

[MyTinFoilHat]

Something seems to have nuked your wireless driver. Don't know if it was bluetooth episode or update. This is actually rather good news. Would much rather deal with missing driver than a balky driver installed but not cooperating.

To answer your questions:

1. lsmod would not return anything because you have no module loaded.

2. blacklisting bcm43xx is okay provided that another module takes its place. You don't want two modules competing for the same WIFI chip. When the original working module was loaded, bcm43xx was blacklisted, which is expected behaviour.

Okay. Let's try fixing it. Please follow instructions here. Solution was provided to same problem a few days ago, so no point posting twice.

Post back to let us know how it goes.

Thank you very much! I appreciate your letting me know about lsmod. It helps me to understand better.

I've started the steps you outlined in the other post and am concerned I may have hit a small bump in the road.

I made it as far as Step 7...

Code:

sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source

to install the proper driver.

This is how that went...

user1@compooter:~$ lsmod | egrep -i 'b43|ssb|wl|bcrm|bcma'
user1@compooter:~$ sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source
[sudo] password for user1: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  module-assistant
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove it.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  bcmwl-kernel-source
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/1,181 kB of archives.
After this operation, 3,609 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Selecting previously unselected package bcmwl-kernel-source.
(Reading database ... 161996 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking bcmwl-kernel-source (from .../bcmwl-kernel-source_5.100.82.112+bdcom-0ubuntu3_amd64.deb) ...
Setting up bcmwl-kernel-source (5.100.82.112+bdcom-0ubuntu3) ...
Loading new bcmwl-5.100.82.112+bdcom DKMS files...
First Installation: checking all kernels...
Building only for 3.5.0-23-generic
Building for architecture x86_64
Module build for the currently running kernel was skipped since the
kernel source for this kernel does not seem to be installed.
ERROR: Module b43 does not exist in /proc/modules
ERROR: Module b43legacy does not exist in /proc/modules
ERROR: Module ssb does not exist in /proc/modules
ERROR: Module bcm43xx does not exist in /proc/modules
ERROR: Module brcm80211 does not exist in /proc/modules
ERROR: Module brcmfmac does not exist in /proc/modules
ERROR: Module brcmsmac does not exist in /proc/modules
ERROR: Module bcma does not exist in /proc/modules
FATAL: Module wl not found.
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.5.0-23-generic

I believe the module-assistant mentioned at the beginning may have been the result of a previous attempt to fix...

So, I got the new bcmwl-kernel-source, but the build (as you can see) was skipped. Is that the "bad thing" I'm guessing it to be?
There is, of course, all the ERROR messages, too.

I even went ahead and did the modprobe wl - which gave me a

 FATAL: Module wl not found.

I'm not sure what to do next. I'm also trying to think - and to see what you see to help me understand. So, if I'm understanding this process so far, we've removed the bcmwl-kernel-source and rebooted. We reinstalled it, but there are problems - specifically with modules in /proc/modules... things missing... and wl is nowhere to be found (on my machine). Have I got that right?

Thanks for your help and patience. I deeply appreciate it.

[DuckHook]

You instincts are good. It's just a small bump. You are missing the Linux headers that system needs in order to do the build. Do:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic

Then do the prior process and you should be able to build and install.

BTW, this missing critical stuff makes me think that the culprit was initially a bad update.

[DuckHook]

To answer your larger questions:

The process involves unloading all modules from memory, completely deleting all previous module packages in case either they or their config files are corrupted, downloading the newest module package from the repositories, building and installing it. Some commands were checks to make sure that we had in fact squished all of the little buggers.

The module package is called bcmwl-kernel-source, but this is not what the module itself is called. The package builds the actual module, and in your case, the module you want is simply called wl. The others can be ignored. Ubuntu needs to know what build resources to use in building the module, and it does this by referencing linux-headers-generic. If your linux-headers-generic is missing or is mismatched to your kernel, then it won't know what resources to use, and bcmwl-kernel-source can't build the module. However, the script for building the module will continue to run merrily along, ignoring the fact that no module was built, until the end, where it suddenly realizes that it has no module to attach to the kernel. This is the "Fatal: Module wl not found".

The broadcom chipset family is an infamous one in all Linux distros. Its drivers must use proprietary blobs and therefore cannot be included into the kernel. The solution that distro developers came up with was to append it to the kernel as a driver module. This way, the base kernel remains untainted. This is why every broadcom WIFI chipset requires some extraneous driver. In some of my older laptops, it's b43 and b43legacy, which require an even more convoluted installation routine that involves extracting firmware out of the chipset itself and building it into the blob. Thank your stars that you have a newer chip that doesn't require such additional nonsense.

If this doesn't work then I've misread the situation and will have to try other things. Let us know how it goes.

[MyTinFoilHat]

You instincts are good. It's just a small bump. You are missing the Linux headers that system needs in order to do the build. Do:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic

Then do the prior process and you should be able to build and install.

BTW, this missing critical stuff makes me think that the culprit was initially a bad update.

Thanks. I'm honestly trying to get a full grip on how this system works, so I'm motivated to understand and not just follow cli instructions.

You've just provided me with yet another bridge to understanding, as it relates to the problem.

This just got interesting as you'll see below:

While processing this:

sudo apt-get update

I got this:

[sudo] password for user1: 
Ign http://extras.ubuntu.com quantal InRelease
Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net quantal InRelease
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal InRelease
Hit http://extras.ubuntu.com quantal Release.gpg
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net quantal Release.gpg
Hit http://extras.ubuntu.com quantal Release   
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates InRelease
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net quantal Release                          
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports InRelease             
Hit http://extras.ubuntu.com quantal/main Sources                     
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security InRelease
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net quantal/main Sources
Hit http://extras.ubuntu.com quantal/main amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal Release.gpg
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net quantal/main amd64 Packages
Hit http://extras.ubuntu.com quantal/main i386 Packages
Hit http://ppa.launchpad.net quantal/main i386 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates Release.gpg
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports Release.gpg [933 B]
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security Release.gpg                     
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal Release                        
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates Release                          
Get:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports Release [49.6 kB]            
Ign http://extras.ubuntu.com quantal/main Translation-en_US                    
Ign http://extras.ubuntu.com quantal/main Translation-en                       
Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net quantal/main Translation-en_US              
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security Release
Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net quantal/main Translation-en               
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal/main Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal/restricted Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal/universe Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal/multiverse Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal/main amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal/restricted amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal/universe amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal/multiverse amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal/main i386 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal/restricted i386 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal/universe i386 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal/multiverse i386 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal/main Translation-en
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal/multiverse Translation-en
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal/restricted Translation-en
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal/universe Translation-en
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/main Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/restricted Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/universe Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/multiverse Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/main amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/restricted amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/universe amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/multiverse amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/main i386 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/restricted i386 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/universe i386 Packages           
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/multiverse i386 Packages         
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/main Translation-en              
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/multiverse Translation-en        
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/restricted Translation-en        
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/universe Translation-en          
Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports/main Sources [14 B]          
Get:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports/restricted Sources [14 B]    
Get:5 http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports/universe Sources [6,783 B]   
Get:6 http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports/multiverse Sources [781 B]   
Get:7 http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports/main amd64 Packages [14 B]   
Get:8 http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports/restricted amd64 Packages [14 B]
Get:9 http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports/universe amd64 Packages [7,393 B]
Get:10 http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports/multiverse amd64 Packages [1,118 B]
Get:11 http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports/main i386 Packages [14 B]   
Get:12 http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports/restricted i386 Packages [14 B]
Get:13 http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports/universe i386 Packages [8,141 B]
Get:14 http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports/multiverse i386 Packages [1,118 B]
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports/main Translation-en            
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports/multiverse Translation-en      
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports/restricted Translation-en      
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports/universe Translation-en        
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security/main Sources                    
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security/restricted Sources              
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security/universe Sources                
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security/multiverse Sources              
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security/main amd64 Packages             
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security/restricted amd64 Packages       
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security/universe amd64 Packages         
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security/multiverse amd64 Packages       
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security/main i386 Packages              
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security/restricted i386 Packages        
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security/universe i386 Packages          
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security/multiverse i386 Packages        
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security/main Translation-en             
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security/multiverse Translation-en       
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security/restricted Translation-en       
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security/universe Translation-en         
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal/main Translation-en_US                   
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal/multiverse Translation-en_US             
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal/restricted Translation-en_US             
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal/universe Translation-en_US               
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/multiverse Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports/multiverse Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security/multiverse Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com quantal-security/universe Translation-en_US
Fetched 76.0 kB in 19s (3,948 B/s)
Reading package lists... Done

Update doesn't seem to out of the ordinary with what I've seen before...

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  module-assistant
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove it.
The following extra packages will be installed:
  linux-headers-3.5.0-23 linux-headers-3.5.0-23-generic
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  linux-headers-3.5.0-23 linux-headers-3.5.0-23-generic linux-headers-generic
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 13.1 MB of archives.
After this operation, 70.0 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal-updates/main linux-headers-3.5.0-23 all 3.5.0-23.35 [12.1 MB]
Get:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal-updates/main linux-headers-3.5.0-23-generic amd64 3.5.0-23.35 [963 kB]
Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal-updates/main linux-headers-generic amd64 3.5.0.23.29 [2,508 B]
Fetched 13.1 MB in 7s (1,684 kB/s)                                             
Selecting previously unselected package linux-headers-3.5.0-23.
(Reading database ... 162051 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking linux-headers-3.5.0-23 (from .../linux-headers-3.5.0-23_3.5.0-23.35_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously unselected package linux-headers-3.5.0-23-generic.

Should I go ahead and autoremove that module-assistant?
And, as I pondered this thought...

BAM!

Crash report
Sorry, but a problem occurred while installing software.
Package: broadcom-sta-dkms

Details:
Package > broadcom-sta-dkms 5.100.82.112-7
ProblemType > Package
Title > broadcom-sta-dkms 5.100.82.112-7:broadcom-sta kernel module failed to build
ApportVersion > 2.6.1-0ubuntu10
Architecture > amd64
DKMSBuildLog > ##long entry here. can't copy & paste. if you want to see, I can transcribe, but it will take time.
DKMSKernelVersion > 3.5.0-23-generic
Date > ##date and time processed
Dependencies > ##massive list of dependencies with version numbers... again, can transcribe if need be, but will take time.
DistroRelease > Ubuntu 12.10
DuplicateSignature > ##extensive text here. DKMS make.log for broadcom-sta...
InstallationDate > Installed on 2013-02-16 (2 days ago)
InstallationMedia > Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.5)
MarkForUpload > True
PackageArchitecture > all
PackageVersion > 5.100.82.112-7
ProcVersionSignature > Ubuntu 3.5.0-23.35-generic 3.5.7.2
SourcePackage > broadcom-sta
Tags > quantal
Uname > Linux 3.5.0-23-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus > No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

Trying to understand this... In short, there's something about the package. Missing dependencies? I see the Crash Report also mentions my LiveCD... (at least it looks like it). Should I remove this from the resources and (maybe) try all this again?