No Wifi on Dell Inspiron 1501 after re-install of dual boot Ubuntu 12.04

[chili555]

I suggest you do:

sudo fuser -cuk /var/lib/dpkg/lock; sudo rm -f /var/lib/dpkg/lock

And then:

sudo fuser -cuk /var/cache/apt/archives/lock; sudo rm -f /var/cache/apt/archives/lock

And finally:

sudo apt-get remove --purge bcmwl-kernel-source broadcom-sta-common broadcom-sta-source

Reboot.

sudo apt-get install --reinstall linux-firmware-nonfree

[ljmartz]

sudo fuser -cuk /var/lib/dpkg/lock; sudo rm -f /var/lib/dpkg/lock

Caused laptop to lockup. Do I hard boot and try again?

[chili555]

sudo fuser -cuk /var/lib/dpkg/lock; sudo rm -f /var/lib/dpkg/lock

Caused laptop to lockup. Do I hard boot and try again?

Yes. If it still locks up,then reboot and try only:

sudo rm -f /var/lib/dpkg/lock
sudo rm -f /var/cache/apt/archives/lock

I am starting to suspect much bigger problems here than just wireless.

[ljmartz]

sudo fuser -cuk /var/lib/dpkg/lock; sudo rm -f /var/lib/dpkg/lock

Continued to cause lock up.

Ran

sudo rm -f /var/lib/dpkg/lock
sudo rm -f /var/cache/apt/archives/lock

Both ran without issue. No data returned.

[chili555]

Both ran without issue. No data returned.

Good! So now how about all the remainder?

[ljmartz]

Do I skip

sudo fuser -cuk /var/lib/dpkg/lock; sudo rm -f /var/lib/dpkg/lock

and start with

sudo fuser -cuk /var/cache/apt/archives/lock; sudo rm -f /var/cache/apt/archives/lock

Or do I do the complete list of code starting with

sudo fuser -cuk /var/lib/dpkg/lock; sudo rm -f /var/lib/dpkg/lock

[chili555]

If the rm commands ran without issue, you are ready for:

sudo apt-get remove --purge bcmwl-kernel-source broadcom-sta-common broadcom-sta-source

Reboot.

sudo apt-get install --reinstall linux-firmware-nonfree

[ljmartz]

Results of

sudo apt-get remove --purge bcmwl-kernel-source broadcom-sta-common broadcom-sta-source

Returned:

E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.

[chili555]

you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.

I suggest you do exactly that.

[ljmartz]

Ran
[CODE][sudo dpkg --configure -a/CODE]

Final output shows:

DKMS: install completed.

Do I now re-boot and run

sudo apt-get install --reinstall linux-firmware-nonfree