Another wireless problem: unable to detect wireless networks with BCM4306

**rsavage** · November 18th, 2012

I think you need to look for a simple solution:

Right click on the network applet icon and toggle(turn off and on) 'Enable Networking', 'Enable Wireless' and 'Enable Notifications'. Make sure you have them all ticked. If you've had a failed suspend then they can untick themselves.

Still no wifi?
Check you have the correct user settings: Go to System -> Administration -> Users and Groups -> Advanced Settings -> User Privileges
Make sure "Connect to wireless and ethernet networks" is ticked. This will add your user to the netdev group. You will need to reboot for this to take effect. Note, it is not always necessary to join the netdev group.

**carl4926** · November 18th, 2012

Did you try the 'wl' proprietary driver?

**wildmanne39** · November 18th, 2012

Hi, was there any errors when you ran the commands I gave you? It should have worked but I figure there is a conflict because of all the other methods you have tried.

Please do:

Code:

sudo apt-get purge --remove firmware-b43-installer firmware-b43legacy-installer firmware-b43-lpphy-installer

Then:

Download the b43 zip file to a flash drive then drag and drop the file to your ubuntu desktop. Right-click it and select Extract Here. Open a terminal and do:

Code:

cd Desktop
sudo mv b43/* /lib/firmware
sudo rmmod -f b43
sudo rmmod -f ssb
sudo modprobe b43

if it still does not come on then delete the text info file in your home folder and run the script again and attach the file here so we can see what condition your wireless is in after the changes.
Thanks

**Muiske** · November 18th, 2012

Hello all,

This is incredible: the problem is solved, thanks to the solution rsavage posted. It was just that - the right privileges in my account settings were not enabled. All I had to do was tick the box right next to 'connect to wireless and ethernet networks', reboot and it worked. Thank you rsavage!!

But, besides that I feel incredibly stupid right now for not knowing these options could be changed at all, I wonder what caused this privileged to be revoked in the first place. Because when I installed Xubuntu 10.04, I had access to wireless networking. Something must have disabled it, probably during updating of the software, but why and how? All the effort I put in fixing this is unbelievable, while in the end it was just a matter of a few clicks here and there.... Let's hope it continues to work now.

It is solved now, anyway. I wish to convey my gratitude to Wild Man, carl4926 and flash63 for providing me with helpful suggestions and putting so much effort in helping me on the way. Thank you all!

/ Harm.

PS: @Wild Man; no, there were no errors after entering the commands. That is because I made sure that after installing new firmware, I removed the old version consequently.