Broadcom BCM4313 stopped working after Pangolin install (incl. on older ubuntu)

[michaelmestre]

I have a very strange problem with my wireless card.
I was running a 11.04 version of Ubuntu with no problem whatsoever.
I installed a new Pangolin on another partition. Everything was working fine.
Then after a few hours, the Broadcom BCM4313 stopped working.. not only on Pangolin, but also on 11.04.

In both cases, the interface seems to be there, but cannot be activated. It is not hardware disabled (in such a case, the system displays this as such), but trying to switch it on produces no effect

It is possible that the card itself stopped working properly, but I suspect a firmware problem due to the Pangolin driver.
The wired connection works fine.

Is there any way I can get my wireless interface back online ?

Thank you very much for your help.

PS: the interface shows up in lspci -nn as:
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4727] (rev 01)

[praseodym]

Hi,

please show

lsmod
iwconfig
rfkill list

[chili555]

If kindly old Dr. Chili were the kind of person to curse, he'd start now. Your device is claimed by three competing drivers. We have some work to do. First, let's try to get bcmwl-kernel-source going:

sudo su
apt-get install --reinstall bcmwl-kernel-source
echo "blacklist bcma" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
echo "blacklist brcmsmac" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
echo wl >> /etc/modules
exit

If all this goes without drama, reboot and let us have your report.

I think there is a very slight possibility that one of the two that we blacklisted is correct. I hope I'm wrong.

[michaelmestre]

praseodym:
Sure. Here you go:

lsmod
-----------------------------------------
Module Size Used by
snd_hda_codec_hdmi 31775 1
bnep 17830 2
rfcomm 38139 0
bluetooth 158438 10 bnep,rfcomm
parport_pc 32114 0
ppdev 12849 0
snd_hda_codec_idt 60251 1
hp_wmi 13652 0
sparse_keymap 13658 1 hp_wmi
uvcvideo 67203 0
videodev 86588 1 uvcvideo
lib80211_crypt_tkip 17275 0
snd_seq_midi 13132 0
intel_ips 17753 0
psmouse 72919 0
serio_raw 13027 0
snd_hda_intel 32765 7
wl 2646601 0
snd_hda_codec 109562 3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep 13276 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_rawmidi 25424 1 snd_seq_midi
lib80211 14040 2 lib80211_crypt_tkip,wl
snd_pcm 80845 4 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_seq_midi_event 14475 1 snd_seq_midi
radeon 733693 0
joydev 17393 0
snd_seq 51567 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer 28931 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 14172 3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
snd 62064 23 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel ,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_rawmidi,snd_pcm,snd_s eq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
ttm 65344 1 radeon
soundcore 14635 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 14108 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
wmi 18744 1 hp_wmi
hp_accel 25728 0
i915 414603 8
lis3lv02d 19268 1 hp_accel
input_polldev 13648 1 lis3lv02d
drm_kms_helper 45466 2 radeon,i915
mac_hid 13077 0
drm 197692 6 radeon,ttm,i915,drm_kms_helper
mei 36570 0
i2c_algo_bit 13199 2 radeon,i915
video 19068 1 i915
lp 17455 0
parport 40930 3 parport_pc,ppdev,lp
usb_storage 39646 0
usbhid 41906 0
hid 77367 1 usbhid
r8169 56321 0
-------------

iwconfig
-------------
lo no wireless extensions.

eth1 IEEE 802.11 Access Point: Not-Associated
Link Quality:5 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 invalid crypt:0 invalid misc:0

eth0 no wireless extensions.
-------------

rfkill list

-------------
0: brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: yes
1: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
2: hp-bluetooth: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no

[michaelmestre]

chili555:

I performed the steps you wrote down, and it seems that nothing has changed.

[chili555]

How about these steps?

sudo modprobe -r hp-wmi
sudo rfkill unblock all

If it works, we can tweak a file and make it permanent.

[michaelmestre]

I tried that, and now it seems that it says "hardware disabled" all the time even when I press the Wireless Disable/Enable key on my keyboard.

[praseodym]

This module is only shown with "rfkill":

echo "blacklist brcm80211" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Reboot.

[michaelmestre]

This module is only shown with "rfkill":


Reboot.

No change, still not working.

[michaelmestre]

My problem was solved by reactivating Bluetooth, which I had turned off.
Wireless then became available again (my laptop is an HP Pavilion DM4, by the way).



This may be a bug.. Bluetooth and WIFI shouldn't be linked, or at least if they are linked in hardware, the user should be notified about the need to reactivate one to be able to use the other.