One thing I dislike about ubuntu is that every time they release a new version, things get messed up. This happened to me when I upgraded my ubuntu to 7.10 as well.
Ubuntu Logo
So I immediately upgraded my ubuntu to 8.10. Connecting to the Internet(wireless) is always an issue among the users. I should say “newbie/inexperienced users”. I couldn’t connect to the internet because my wifi driver was disabled. Ubuntu the system itself has not provided me with good information to enable it. It tells you how you can check whether it’s enabled or disabled, and that’s it. If it’s disabled, it doesn’t tell you how to enable it. Anyways, you need to go on to their support forums and see if someone has already posted about the issue you are having and chances are someone already have. So next step would be to see if your product matches with theirs. If it doesn’t match, you keep searching on forums and eventually you will have to post your own topic. Sometimes, you don’t even get a response to your post. This literally can take hours.
This is one of the things that I want to see in ubuntu. They should either make ubuntu come with everything ready to work or they should prepare better documentation for common cases. Anyhow, here is what I did to get my wireless working again.
Thanks to “Ayuthia” for his helpful posts.
sudo modprobe -r b43 b44 ssb wl
sudo modprobe ieee80211_crypt_tkip
sudo modprobe wl
sudo modprobe b44
sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
If you are like me, who doesn’t understand much from linux and ubuntu, you are going to need to search the ubuntu forums to find the right piece of code to execute in terminal. It’s pretty much try and fail until you find the right one.
Those five command lines fixed my problem but everytime I reboot ubuntu, it would require me to execute them again and to fix that problem, you need to edit “rc.local” file in the system. To do that;
You need to edit “rc.local” and add following code at the end.
Open terminal and type this
gksudo gedit/etc/rc.local
and add this just before “exit 0″
modprobe -r b43 b44 ssb wl
modprobe ieee80211_crypt_tkip
modprobe wl
modprobe b44
/etc/init.d/networking restart
After you save, you can restart your system. If you need further instructions, you should go ahead and post at ubuntu support forums. Also, here is my product info.
*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:0b:00.0
logical name: eth1
version: 01
serial: 00:16:cf:71:b1:f1
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=wl ip=192.168.1.101 latency=0 module=wl multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg
As said, different devices require different installations. So good luck on searching the forums.
All day working on this damn card, and thank you thank you thank you your commands did it.
cheers
It keeps telling me that my ssb module is in use when I try to enter the first five commands.
Hey – Thanks! I had this exact same problem and the documentation of was no use.
@Zephyr, Did you try to access that file manually?
I’m good now; I enabled my wireless card by installing the Broadcom B43 Legacy driver.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
I’ve been struggling to get my wireless to work with Ubuntu. After trying many suggestions, your’s was the trick that finally worked!!!
God freaking bless you.
Thank you
I have never said this to a guy before, but I LOVE YOU! I was about to slit my wrists, I was so frustrated with trying to get the wireless working with Ubuntu. This fixed it!
hi there, i understand the rc.local file is in the etc folder. however when i access it and try to open it in terminal, terminal doesnt come up. in gedit, i cannot save the file coz it says i dont have the permission.im the only user of this computer i dunno who else can!! what can i do? im on a compaq presario v3000 using the bcm 4311 card.
when i run hardware test it says this:Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)
Intel Corporation PRO/100 VE Network Connection (rev 02
any solution? thanks so much though!
Hey,
I found a way of putting wireless to work very simple.
See:
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware
I got this link from the command “dmesg” on a HPNX6110 laptop (Broadcom 4306) and solve the issue in 5 minutes following those instructions.
Bye!
With Jaunty on an HP Pavilion dv9000, after many wasted hours scouring the forums and messing around with their suggestions, I found simply doing this fixed wireless with my hardware:
Launch System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers
Select the “Broadcom B43 wireless driver”
Press Activate (Wait a very long time…)
Reboot
This tip came from:
http://aldeby.org/blog/index.php/howto-ubuntu-linux-on-hp-pavilion-dv2000-dv6000-dv9000-series-laptops#wireless
Better documentation up front is really needed here. Just working out of the box would be better. This is one area where Ubuntu continues to disappoint in an otherwise excellent distro.
Hello Adam Bernstein
Thanks a million for the post above. worked like a charm. Just couldn’t believe there was such an easy option after working all day long to get this issue resolved. After reading your post it took less than 5 minutes get my problem solved. Once again thanks.
Adam,
I went down the same road and you are correct. I tested it with the live CD before installing to my drive. It works great, I didn’t need to reboot. My security is WPA-PSK, I choose WPA Personal.
Thanks.
Adam,
Just a big thank you!! the information you put was spot on. I was searching for solution for days! and for once I didn’t have to open the terminal!!
shame this straightforward info was nowhere on ubuntu help pages!
thanks again!
Thanks a lot, saved me some time. I reinstalled my laptop today (Ubuntu 9.04 desktop) and got this problem, strange that I didn’t got it when I first installed 9.04?!
Adam,
Thank you for resolving this dreadfully time-consuming nuisance. But in my case (9.04 on a Dell XPS M1330 with a WUBI install under Vista 64-bit) the Hardware Drivers display for my Broadcom BCM4328 802.11a/b/g/h version 3 with a b43-pci-bridge driver read that it was already activated. Taking a hint from your suggestion, I deactivated, then reactivated and waited… not so long. Then rebooted and all became well.
Thank you so much for this post! I have been searching for weeks on how to get my wireless working but to no avail. I stumbled across this and it works perfectly. If you are like me and just learning Ubuntu this is for you..
Dell XPS M1330
broadcom wireless card
That ws really helpful…:-)
though v didnt gt wat we actually did it fiXed my problem ………..
ThanXXXX A LOTTTT!!!!
I was really struggling to get the wireless card working but it works now thank you!!!!
i have the IEEE 802.11bg and Im having the same problem but when i type the first command it states that FATAL: Module wl not found.
i cant get any further than there.
any thoughts?