Broadcom Wireless STA driver (wl) Ubuntu 9.10/10.04

**isevere08** · July 23rd, 2010

Hey there!

Thank you for the post. I guess it's no surprise, but I have just the same issue with my laptop. I've been fighting with the wifi problem for three days now and could not solve it at all. I even tried to re-install it for four times. Now, however, I can have wifi but only for 10-20 minutes after I shut down my computer and leave it alone for a few hours.

Yet this does not make me happy. Since I am a new user of linux, I can't quite understand what you did starting from the fourth step. Could you PLEASE explain it for such dummies as I am

**Sepero** · July 24th, 2010

isevere08 is another victim of a system (ubuntuforums on vBulletin), which does not make thread solutions intuitive or easy to find.

I've done all I can.
isevere08, please view post #53
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...5&postcount=53

**ghinix** · July 26th, 2010

This is the process I've attempted for Dell Vostro 1400 Ubuntu 10.04. Broadcom BCM4312 rev 01.. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...nternet access

Unfortunately no success, yet!

Ethernet and internet is available(would be great to make this work too) but is not being detected, therefore I'm unable to make all the updates necessary directly via internet access, so I'm using a LIVE USB to download and transfer what's needed and using the No Internet access process above.

p.s. I'm a complete Ubuntu UBER NOOB.
thanks in advance.

**ghinix** · July 26th, 2010

ok, Wonderful! I was able to manually configure Ethernet and update ubuntu 10.04 broadcom bcm4312 drivers using System > Administration > Hardware Drivers.
Success!
Thanks so much!!!

p.s. is one of the greatest feeling to not have to see microsoft or mac logos LAWL

**solaralchemy** · July 31st, 2010

Man this wireless issue has caused me to triple partition my hard drive. I am running mint 7. I tried mint 9 in live mode and encountered the broadcom sta driver fuss. So I thought if installed it on a partition and tried it out the problem would be solved,,,
nope same issue. I let it go for a while and just kept to mint 7 on my other partition. Then I thought maybe Ubuntu 10:04 would not have the same problem so installed it on a third partition and lo and behold same bull@#$^! So I have mint 7 mint 9 and ubuntu 10 on my computer! Thankfully i had the foresight to not do a complete install and I am able to still get on to the internet with mint 7.
I am also glad to see some solutions offered in #39. I do not have any access to wired internet right now and that was one of the solutions offered on the mint forum. This all has been rather frustrating but i'm sure several people have been feeling this way.
cheers

**gfd_2** · August 22nd, 2010

Originally Posted by owhno

Problem using Broadcom Wireless in Ubuntu 9.10/10.04 because it is not supported by b43 driver ?

Assuming you have tried all normal installation procedures like using the Hardware Drivers tool and you still do not have a working WiFi setup this is what you must do:

1. Download the Broadcom drivers: http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php
2. Unpack and modify the ‘src/wl/sys/wl_linux.c‘:
Line 35 (after #include <linux/etherdevice.h>) add:

#include < linux/sched.h >

3. Compile the code with: make
4. Copy the new driver: sudo mv wl.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless
5. Update dependencies: sudo depmod -a
6. Modify the blacklist to include the ‘b43′ and ’ssb’ drivers /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf (Add below the bcm43xx blacklist)

The part above you probably have seen a few times while googling for the answer. But there is a small problem, as you would have noticed, the ‘ssb‘ driver cannot be blacklisted. It is included in the initrd as I remember from the ubuntuforums. To solve this issue modify the /etc/rc.local to include before the exit(0):

Code:

rmmod ssb
modprobe wl

Now on startup the ssb gets removed and after that the new wl gets inserted. Adding wl to the /etc/modules will not help because the removing needs to be done first.
So with the /etc/rc.local modification everything happens in the correct order for perfect WiFi.

This was tested multiple times on a MacBook Pro with the Broadcom 4328 chipset and should work for all chipsets not supported by the b43 drivers.

Update:
Not all systems include the 'linux/sched.h' file. Install the 'linux-headers-generic' package if you get errors. The generic package is a meta package that should install the propper package for your kernel. If it isn't working install with

Code:

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

This worked GREAT! THANK YOU!

I have been trying to setup Linux, Ubuntu, Mandriva, Puppy and other distros for the last 3 years but there was no workable way to get my Broadcom card working... from ndiswrapper through all the various forms kludgey workarounds.

I found Lucid Puppy (Puppy 5) had wireless support so I initially installed that, then tried Ubuntu 10.04 only to find my wireless not working.

I was tempted to bail and return to Puppy but figured I'd give these instructions a shot... viola, wireless is up and running.

The only thing I would add is that to edit the files mentioned I had to run “sudo gedit” so I would be able to open the file as Admin.

Now for the Linksys wireless print server...

**chochies** · October 15th, 2010

Originally Posted by owhno

Problem using Broadcom Wireless in Ubuntu 9.10/10.04 because it is not supported by b43 driver ?

Assuming you have tried all normal installation procedures like using the Hardware Drivers tool and you still do not have a working WiFi setup this is what you must do:

1. Download the Broadcom drivers: http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php
2. Unpack and modify the ‘src/wl/sys/wl_linux.c‘:
Line 35 (after #include <linux/etherdevice.h>) add:

#include < linux/sched.h >

3. Compile the code with: make
4. Copy the new driver: sudo mv wl.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless
5. Update dependencies: sudo depmod -a
6. Modify the blacklist to include the ‘b43′ and ’ssb’ drivers /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf (Add below the bcm43xx blacklist)

The part above you probably have seen a few times while googling for the answer. But there is a small problem, as you would have noticed, the ‘ssb‘ driver cannot be blacklisted. It is included in the initrd as I remember from the ubuntuforums. To solve this issue modify the /etc/rc.local to include before the exit(0):

Code:

rmmod ssb
modprobe wl

Now on startup the ssb gets removed and after that the new wl gets inserted. Adding wl to the /etc/modules will not help because the removing needs to be done first.
So with the /etc/rc.local modification everything happens in the correct order for perfect WiFi.

This was tested multiple times on a MacBook Pro with the Broadcom 4328 chipset and should work for all chipsets not supported by the b43 drivers.

Update:
Not all systems include the 'linux/sched.h' file. Install the 'linux-headers-generic' package if you get errors. The generic package is a meta package that should install the propper package for your kernel. If it isn't working install with

Code:

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

Can someone please explain steps 3 through 6, I do not know how to compile code with make. I'm completely new to Linux. I installed Ubuntu 10.04 on my HP Pavillion DV9410US after having replaced a virus infected hard drive mostly because I am a broke college student & Ubuntu is free.

Thanks,
El Choch