Unable to download Broadcom STA Wireless Driver

[nipunshakya]

Hi. First tuxGuitar sound and now this driver.
The additional driver feature loads the drivers needed to be activated as usual.
I downloaded and installed graphics driver, but can't get through downloading this wireless driver.
Any help would be very generous of u guys....
when trying to download and activate the wireless driver, i get the following error: (please refer to the pic i attached):D

ThankYou
Regards,WinuxUser

[snowpine]

/var/log/jockey.log is a text file. You can open it with your favorite text editor and copy & paste the relevant info for us to see. :)

If you are a terminal nerd like me you can use:


tail /var/log/jockey.log

Common errors would be: not connected to internet (you'll need a temporary wired connection) or your hardware does not match the list. But those are just guesses until we read the log file. :)

[nipunshakya]

Sir, Currently im connected to internet via wired connection. Here's my jockey.log file attached.

[nipunshakya]

also,
lspci -vnn | grep 14e4 gave the following:

0c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY [14e4:4315] (rev 01)

[snowpine]

According to the Broadcom page in the Ubuntu wiki (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx#Installing_b43_drivers), if you are using 11.04 or newer, you can install the package firmware-b43-lpphy-installer for the BCM4312 LP-PHY chipset:


sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-lpphy-installer

I think STA was the correct driver for your card with 10.10 and older.

[nipunshakya]

yes indeed...it was the correct one. When i had freshly installed ubuntu 11.04 at its release, the download went without a pain. This error occurred after i downgraded from 11.10 to 11.04.. I'll give a try to your suggestion and keep you posted with results.

Thank You.
Regards,WinuxUser

[nipunshakya]

Quick Update: i ran the code snowpine suggested, it went fine, extracted and everything, but still, not working man... :( my driver isn't working still....any idea?

[snowpine]

First let's see if Linux recognizes your interface:


iwconfig

Do you see your wifi details (usually listed as wlan0)?

[carl4926]

I have the same broadcom device and I needed the STA proprietary driver
11.10 works with b43
Kernel 3> has brought some great wireless improvements

Is your current install fully updated, including the kernel?

[carl4926]

You could try manually
http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

[nipunshakya]

First let's see if Linux recognizes your interface:


iwconfigDo you see your wifi details (usually listed as wlan0)?

iwconfig gave me the following :


lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=0 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off

Now i really don't know what all that means...getting this problem for the first time....:confused:

Regards,WinuxUser

[nipunshakya]

I have the same broadcom device and I needed the STA proprietary driver
11.10 works with b43
Kernel 3> has brought some great wireless improvements

Is your current install fully updated, including the kernel?

There was no problem with my driver too back when i was in 11.10. The problem aroused when i downgraded to 11.04. However, The liveCD of the same ubuntu 11.04 from which i installed this OS would surf the internet using the wifi.
I even tried to make another user account, tried from guest account, but all went in vain.:(

Btw, my current install is fully updated(did it las night only)
However, doing
sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get updategave me the following:


winuxuser@MagicBox:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get update
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Ign http://extras.ubuntu.com natty InRelease
Ign http://archive.canonical.com natty InRelease
Get:1 http://extras.ubuntu.com natty Release.gpg [72 B]
Hit http://archive.canonical.com natty Release.gpg
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty InRelease
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates InRelease
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security InRelease
Hit http://extras.ubuntu.com natty Release
Hit http://archive.canonical.com natty Release
Hit http://extras.ubuntu.com natty/main Sources
Hit http://archive.canonical.com natty/partner Sources
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-backports InRelease
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-proposed InRelease
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty Release.gpg
Hit http://extras.ubuntu.com natty/main amd64 Packages
Ign http://extras.ubuntu.com natty/main TranslationIndex
Hit http://archive.canonical.com natty/partner amd64 Packages
Ign http://archive.canonical.com natty/partner TranslationIndex
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates Release.gpg
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security Release.gpg
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-backports Release.gpg
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-proposed Release.gpg
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty Release
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates Release
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security Release
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-backports Release
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-proposed Release
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty/main Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty/restricted Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty/universe Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty/multiverse Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty/main amd64 Packages
Ign http://extras.ubuntu.com natty/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.canonical.com natty/partner Translation-en_US
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty/restricted amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty/universe amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty/multiverse amd64 Packages
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty/main TranslationIndex
Ign http://extras.ubuntu.com natty/main Translation-en
Ign http://archive.canonical.com natty/partner Translation-en
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty/multiverse TranslationIndex
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty/restricted TranslationIndex
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty/universe TranslationIndex
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates/main Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates/restricted Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates/universe Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates/multiverse Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates/main amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates/restricted amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates/universe amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates/multiverse amd64 Packages
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates/main TranslationIndex
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates/multiverse TranslationIndex
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates/restricted TranslationIndex
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates/universe TranslationIndex
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security/main Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security/restricted Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security/universe Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security/multiverse Sources
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security/main amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security/restricted amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security/universe amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security/multiverse amd64 Packages
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security/main TranslationIndex
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security/multiverse TranslationIndex
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security/restricted TranslationIndex
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security/universe TranslationIndex
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-backports/restricted amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-backports/main amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-backports/multiverse amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-backports/universe amd64 Packages
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-backports/main TranslationIndex
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-backports/multiverse TranslationIndex
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-backports/restricted TranslationIndex
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-backports/universe TranslationIndex
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-proposed/restricted amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-proposed/main amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-proposed/multiverse amd64 Packages
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-proposed/universe amd64 Packages
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-proposed/main TranslationIndex
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-proposed/multiverse TranslationIndex
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-proposed/restricted TranslationIndex
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-proposed/universe TranslationIndex
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty/main Translation-en
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty/multiverse Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty/multiverse Translation-en
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty/restricted Translation-en
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty/universe Translation-en
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates/main Translation-en
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates/multiverse Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates/multiverse Translation-en
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates/restricted Translation-en
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-updates/universe Translation-en
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security/main Translation-en
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security/multiverse Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security/multiverse Translation-en
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security/restricted Translation-en
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-security/universe Translation-en
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-backports/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-backports/main Translation-en
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-backports/multiverse Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-backports/multiverse Translation-en
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-backports/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-backports/restricted Translation-en
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-backports/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-backports/universe Translation-en
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-proposed/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-proposed/main Translation-en
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-proposed/multiverse Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-proposed/multiverse Translation-en
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-proposed/restricted Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-proposed/restricted Translation-en
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-proposed/universe Translation-en_US
Ign http://archive.ubuntu.com natty-proposed/universe Translation-en
Fetched 72 B in 40s (2 B/s)
Reading package lists... Done
winuxuser@MagicBox:~$
Can you tell me why there is ign before some of the sites? i guess that means it has ignored to fetch stuffs from there, is it? Why has this occurred?
Seeing this, do u think i should go and give a shot to try manual playing with the kernel stuff to embed my driver within it?? I am totally new to this driver related stuff so please don't mind me asking much questions. Thank You


Regards,WinuxUser

[carl4926]

Have you checked with rfkill?

[nipunshakya]

Have you checked with rfkill?

rfkill listgave me the following:


winuxuser@MagicBox:~$ rfkill list
0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: yes
1: dell-bluetooth: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: yes
2: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
and,
sudo rfkill unblock wifiwould give me nothing...when i hit enter, it just doesn't show any o/p

The whole thing is as:

winuxuser@MagicBox:~$ rfkill list
0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: yes
1: dell-bluetooth: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: yes
2: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
winuxuser@MagicBox:~$ sudo rfkill unblock wifi
[sudo] password for winuxuser:
winuxuser@MagicBox:~$


And, after i turn on my bluetooth, the
rfkill list would output as:

0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
1: dell-bluetooth: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
2: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
winuxuser@MagicBox:~$

[nipunshakya]

One quick question please: While installing ubuntu, i didn't select "download updates while installing" and then just went on with an offline installation. Would that make any difference?

[carl4926]

I can't begin to tell you the PITA I had with this.

Keep trying

rfkill unblock all
Then turn the wireless off and shutdown

DO you have the option to boot windows?
Does the wireless work there
Because for me it would be down in windows too, until I managed to unblock it

Turn the wireless switch back on and power up

Keep trying this. Usually would take me about 4 times.

I put it down to b43
Don't even sniff at it until you are using kernel 3 >

[carl4926]

One quick question please: While installing ubuntu, i didn't select "download updates while installing" and then just went on with an offline installation. Would that make any difference?
In pre kernel 3 versions I turn wireless off on my broadcom machine
Do all the updates and install the proprietary driver.
Then reboot and turn wireless on

[nipunshakya]

In pre kernel 3 versions I turn wireless off on my broadcom machine
Do all the updates and install the proprietary driver.
Then reboot and turn wireless on

My current linux-header is 2.6.38. I remember that i have got only 2 updates of those headers. Back when i tried to repeatedly run the
rfkill unblock all with my bluetooth once turned on and once turned off, it showed me a notification that i was trying to access a hardware which is proprietary and isn't supported by ubuntu and blah blah....

Now i assume that, when i had installed ubuntu 11.04, i should have enabled downloading updates when installing...Coz after that, i made upgrades to all the headers and all, but didn't take a look at my additional drivers stuff and didn't download them back. Now that my headers are all updated, this driver thing isn't getting inside my ubuntu to support wireless. This is my assumption.

[nipunshakya]

I tried a sequel of 12 boots consecutively, but still, no progress... :(

[carl4926]

Was 11.10 a problem that you downgraded?

[nipunshakya]

oh yes...the startup time was not certain...sometimes 3 seconds to boot, and sometimes more than 4 minutes..... and most off all, i wanted to make a fresh installation of my system as my other OS(win 7) was in bad condition too. So, i did a fresh installation :)

[snowpine]

Your card is being recognized (it shows up as wlan0) so let's see which modules are in use:


lsmod | grep b43
lsmod | grep wl

[nipunshakya]

winuxuser@MagicBox:~$ lsmod | grep b43
b43 318638 0
mac80211 294370 1 b43
cfg80211 178528 2 b43,mac80211
ssb 51945 1 b43
winuxuser@MagicBox:~$ lsmod | grep wl
winuxuser@MagicBox:~$

[snowpine]

That looks identical to what I see on my machine (and it works).

However, I am not an Ubuntu user, and it seems like there are frustrating differences in Broadcom support between the different releases, so maybe I am not in a position to say which is better for 11.04 specifically, b43 or wl (sorry). :(

[nipunshakya]

New update: I removed the additional driver thing from my machine. Now, the notification area where all networks are shown now shows me "wireless is disabled by hardware switch" in an uncheckable form. I switched the wi-fi switch from my keyboard, then notification area says "device not ready" in similar form. It stays the same for some time and again gives the previous message. I don't know why is this driver playing with me for so long now..... :(

[carl4926]

winuxuser@MagicBox:~$ lsmod | grep b43
b43 318638 0
mac80211 294370 1 b43
cfg80211 178528 2 b43,mac80211
ssb 51945 1 b43
winuxuser@MagicBox:~$ lsmod | grep wl
winuxuser@MagicBox:~$


b43 will not work for you until you are on kernel 3>

[nipunshakya]

b43 will not work for you until you are on kernel 3>
u mean i need to upgrade to 11.10 for that? or will ubuntu 11.04 provide the upgrade? kernel 3+ released 10 days ago...can't i have that on this very system? I digged here (http://marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl/2011/06/20/linux-3-0-under-ubuntu-natty-11-04/)
but don't know how much i can rely on it....Thanks.

Regards,WinuxUser

[carl4926]

I don't know how to advise you in Ubuntu on a kernel upgrade. I can tell you it is not a move you should take lightly. And if you use a proprietary video driver Eg: nvidia/ati, you should know how to install it manually.

If you want to go this route. I advise you start a new thread. Something like: 'How to upgrade my kernel to 3> and be safe/stable'.

I would expect there to be a ppa or repo to provide such
Ubuntu seems to right out there setting the lead as a distro (and we have such a possibility at openSUSE) so I'm sure Ubuntu will too.

[nipunshakya]

I don't know how to advise you in Ubuntu on a kernel upgrade. I can tell you it is not a move you should take lightly. And if you use a proprietary video driver Eg: nvidia/ati, you should know how to install it manually.


I don't want that hard way either coz im still at intermediate level of using the linux thing and i don't want to mess up so soon. I guess i will wait for some other suggestions rather than give a manual update to my kernel. Afterall, Linus is Linus. Lol.


Thank you.
Regards,WinuxUser

[carl4926]

In the additional drivers section
Does it not offer the Proprietary broadcom driver?

[carl4926]

In the additional drivers section
Does it not offer the Proprietary broadcom driver?
Duh !
Sorry
Post 1. I see the error.

You need to find a way around that, why it is happening....?

[carl4926]

Sir, Currently im connected to internet via wired connection. Here's my jockey.log file attached.

I'm not clever enough to understand this.
I'd go the bug report route, see what you get there...

[nipunshakya]

i was saying that i an using a ADSL wired-line right now as because my wireless is not working.
Im on this same machine that has the issue of wi-fi connection and so using ADSL line to connect to the internet.

[carl4926]

I'm not clever enough to understand this.
I'd go the bug report route, see what you get there...

I mean I can't understand the log file you posted
That you should do a bug report and see if the devs can assist

[nipunshakya]

Ahh, i think i will do that soon, though haven't done that till now....Thanks for your help.

[carl4926]

Please try this


sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Now try installing the driver from the additional drivers

[carl4926]

Check this bug report
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bcmwl/+bug/511379

[nipunshakya]

Is the above code to install new linux-header? i don't know about that command. So please explain about what exactly will that do, then i could proceed without hesitations.

Thank You.
Regards,WinuxUser

[carl4926]

Is the above code to install new linux-header? i don't know about that command. So please explain about what exactly will that do, then i could proceed without hesitations.

Thank You.
Regards,WinuxUser

Read the bug report

It is to install the headers, yes.
In the bug report, this move didn't help everyone. But users there were also installing the driver manually.
And some found the headers already in place.
Another user reports manually using synaptic to force a re-installation of header and broadcom packages.

If necessary, tag on to that bug report yourself.

So, try the code for the headers. You may already have them.

[nipunshakya]

Please try this


sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)Now try installing the driver from the additional drivers


winuxuser@MagicBox:~$ sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
[sudo] password for winuxuser:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
linux-headers-2.6.38-13-generic is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
winuxuser@MagicBox:~$


Now it says its newest. So maybe badluck for me that it doesn't support my wifi drivers...Sad linuxing.:(

[carl4926]

Have you tried downloading and building yourself?
http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

Note the read me

Building this driver requires that your machine have the proper tools, packages, header files and libraries to build a standard a kernel module. This usually is done by installing the kernel developer or kernel source package and varies from distro to distro. Consult the documentation for your specific OS. If you cannot successfully build a module that comes with your distro's kernel developer or kernel source package, you will not be able to build this module either. If you try to build this module but get an error message that looks like this: make: *** /lib/modules/"release"/build: No such file or directory. Stop. Then you do not have the proper packages installed, since installing the proper packages will create /lib/modules/"release"/build on your system. On Fedora install 'kernel-devel' (Development Package for building kernel modules to match the kernel) from the Package Manager (System-> Administration-> Add/Remove Software). On Ubuntu, you will need headers and tools. Try these commands: # apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-generic # apt-get build-dep linux

[nipunshakya]

Looking at that read-me stuff, i wouldn't like to try that out manually. i think it'd be better for me to pick up something else and keep using Ethernet for some days. Thanks for your help though. I really appreciate that...:)