Wireless does not work Broadcom BCM57785

[ximenacardinali]

Hello, I have a notebook Acer Aspire E1-531 with a Broadcom Card BCM57785, and today after some upgrades which I don't remember what it was and a reboot, the computer lost all wireless connection. Even though I can connect on a wired connection.

Here is some info:

• Distribution; Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
• Kernel Version: 3.2.0-56-generic
• iwconfig does not show wireless interfaces
• The module tg3 is loaded
• rfkill does not throw any output
• I have installed: bcmwl-kernel-source

Attached is the output of all commands!

I will really appreciate if someone can give me hand on this. I'm realy stuck and I have tried thousand things already!

[chili555]

Your data only includes Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM57785 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe which is, as the name implies, an ethernet card, not wireless. Please show us:

lspci -nn | grep 0280

[ximenacardinali]

Sorry about that! Here is the output:

lspci -nn | grep 0280
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:4727] (rev 01)

[chili555]

Ahhh! A controversial device to get going. We may have some tweaking to do. Let's start with:

sudo modprobe wl
dmesg | grep wl
iwconfig

[ximenacardinali]

hehe Don't tell me about it! It's eating my brain!

Here is the output:

root@magnets:~# modprobe wl
root@magnets:~# dmesg | grep wl
[   21.731586] wl: module license 'MIXED/Proprietary' taints kernel.
 [   21.736682] wl 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[   21.736691] wl 0000:03:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[   21.774905] INFO @wl_cfg80211_attach : Registered CFG80211 phy
root@magnets:~# iwconfig 
 lo        no wireless extensions.


eth1      IEEE 802.11abg  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=off   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
           Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off


          
eth0      no wireless extensions.

root@magnets:~#

[chili555]

Looks pretty normal so far; let's dig deeper:

rfkill list all
sudo iwlist eth1 scan

Running as root, are we? Tsk, tsk!

[ximenacardinali]

hehe, you're right

Here:

volkan@magnets:~$ rfkill list all
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: yes
    Hard blocked: no
1: brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN
     Soft blocked: yes
    Hard blocked: no
volkan@magnets:~$ sudo iwlist eth1 scan
[sudo] password for volkan: 
eth1      Interface doesn't support scanning : Network is down

volkan@magnets:~$

[chili555]

Please try:

sudo rfkill unblock all
sudo iwlist eth1 scan

[ximenacardinali]

Hello There, sorry for the delay.

I did what you told me and also, I downloaded the "official" driver from the broadcom page: http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php and I ran the following commands:

1. Remove the following modules:

rmmod b43
rmmod brcmsmac
rmmod ssb
rmmod bcma
rmmod wl

2. Then, I added them to the Blacklist:

echo "blacklist ssb" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
echo "blacklist bcma" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
echo "blacklist b43" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
echo "blacklist brcmsmac" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

3. Install the following modules and the driver:

modprobe lib80211 
modprobe cfg80211
insmod wl.ko

4. Then I added them to /etc/modules:

echo "lib80211" >> /etc/modules
echo "cfg80211" >> /etc/modules
echo "wl.ko" >> /etc/modules

Then, I had to "Enable Wireless" on the Network Manager, and the wifi start working.
I ran the scan that you told me, and the output is attached,
scan.txt


But now, I have a really annoying problem: The wifi connection cuts every now and then, and it's really getting me mad. I'm always doing something on the web and suddenly the connection cuts, and it's kind of happening more often than I would like. Any ideas of what can be the problem?

[chili555]

4. Then I added them to /etc/modules:
Code:

echo "lib80211" >> /etc/modules
echo "cfg80211" >> /etc/modules
echo "wl.ko" >> /etc/modules

First,the terminology is wl and not wl.ko. Second, I hope you don't actually have quotation marks around these, they are not needed. Check:

cat /etc/modules

Last, please run:

modinfo wl | grep depends

Is cfg80211 a dependency of wl? Is it a dependency of lib80211? I don't know for sure because I haven't compiled the downloaded version. I doubt it is the superior of the Ubuntu version available in the repositories. Time will tell.

Depending on your findings, I suggest you adjust /etc/modules and reboot.