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View Full Version : [ubuntu] Upgrading to 9.10 killed my Wifi!


Skyline969
March 31st, 2010, 04:07 AM
Ok, I installed Ubuntu 9.04 on my laptop, and all was fine, except the sound was very low. Oh well, I decided to upgrade to 9.10, and the sound issue was fixed... but now my Wifi is dead! I checked the drivers, and the restricted Broadcom driver is "installed but not being used." I have a Dell Inspiron 1525. What can I do to get my Wifi to work again? Perhaps a hardware rescan or something else that I have no idea how to do? I noticed that when I unplug my Ethernet cable, the icon on the top changes to a Wifi signal icon, but with no bars, but when I right click there is no option to enable Wifi. I hope that helps a little.

Sorry, total Ubuntu idiot here. I'm surprised I even installed Ubuntu with the setup I had to do (all manually setting partitions to dual-boot with Ubuntu all on my extended partition).

If anyone could shed some light on this, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!
Slim Odds
March 31st, 2010, 04:28 AM
I'm curious why so many people seem to be updating to 9.10 with 10.04 so close to be released.

You might want to try 10.04 because I believe that there has been a lot of work done on the wireless.
Skyline969
March 31st, 2010, 04:36 AM
I'm curious why so many people seem to be updating to 9.10 with 10.04 so close to be released.

You might want to try 10.04 because I believe that there has been a lot of work done on the wireless.

I'll be upgrading once it comes out completely. Something about an Ubuntu beta makes me kinda iffy about installing it, so once it's completely ready for release I'll upgrade.

However, do you have any idea why my wireless wouldn't be working now?
Slim Odds
March 31st, 2010, 04:42 AM
I'll be upgrading once it comes out completely. Something about an Ubuntu beta makes me kinda iffy about installing it, so once it's completely ready for release I'll upgrade.

However, do you have any idea why my wireless wouldn't be working now?

Sorry, no. When I bought a laptop recently I made sure that it had an Intel 5100 chipset. Those work great.

But, then again, I'm also using 10.04.

The beta is actually pretty darn good. The only issue is the numerous daily updates at this point.

Did you do some forums searches? That is a pretty common problem.
coffeecat
April 1st, 2010, 01:36 PM
I checked the drivers, and the restricted Broadcom driver is "installed but not being used."

I've no direct experience of broadcom, but I know they can be a pain because of the Broadcom licensing issues. Just a guess, but I should imagine the driver didn't get automatically updated because of said licensing issues, and the Jaunty version of the driver doesn't work with the Karmic kernel. That's a supposition - not necessarily a fact. :)

Anyway... try reinstalling the STA driver (bcmwl-kernel-source) or the b43-fwcutter package, whichever you installed in Jaunty. Useful link:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx
Skyline969
April 1st, 2010, 02:45 PM
I've no direct experience of broadcom, but I know they can be a pain because of the Broadcom licensing issues. Just a guess, but I should imagine the driver didn't get automatically updated because of said licensing issues, and the Jaunty version of the driver doesn't work with the Karmic kernel. That's a supposition - not necessarily a fact. :)

Anyway... try reinstalling the STA driver (bcmwl-kernel-source) or the b43-fwcutter package, whichever you installed in Jaunty. Useful link:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx
Alright, get this. I turned off my laptop for the night, and the next day when I turned it on my wifi worked. Just magically. I don't even think I did any updates (don't remember). Ah, gotta love Ubuntu for that. :P
coffeecat
April 1st, 2010, 03:04 PM
Just magically.

That's Linux for you. :wink: It's the other way around in Windows. You turn off your laptop for the night and next morning when you boot up something is not working. Just magically. :lol:
Skyline969
April 1st, 2010, 06:34 PM
That's Linux for you. :wink: It's the other way around in Windows. You turn off your laptop for the night and next morning when you boot up something is not working. Just magically. :lol:

Still haven't turned on my laptop again today. It might have been a fluke in Ubuntu, and now nothing will work. ;)
I'll find out as soon as class is over, I guess.