Saturday, April 3, 2010

Broadcom Wireless Driver Fix In Lucid

For yet another release, Ubuntu 's Driver Manager is unable to properly install the Broadcom Wireless driver.

Some users are getting a permission error, telling them that they are not authorized to perform this action:

broadcom error

or Ubuntu is just not recognizing the card:

28 - Hardware Drivers Error

The Broadcom wireless card that came with the Dell Mini 9/10 or Vostro A90 does work in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx. You just have to manually install it.

Manually installing the driver can be done two ways:
Connect to the internet via a wired connection. Then go to Synaptic Package Manager (System>Administration>Synaptic Package Manager)
30 - synaptic reload
- Click the Reload button in the upper left corner of Synaptic to refresh your repository index.

Screenshot-Synaptic Package Manager
- Then install the bcmwl-kernel-source package

OR: after connecting to the internet via a wired connection in a terminal type:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get --reinstall install bcmwl-kernel-source
-Reboot the machine. Afterwards you will see the driver installed and working.

broadcom fixed

Have a question or problem that this article doesn't cover?
Ask our Ubuntu Mini 9 Google Group for help.

21 comments:

Unknown said...

Worked like a charm. Thanks for the clear directions.

Unknown said...

Worked like a charm. Thanks for the clear directions.

Unknown said...

Got a BADSIG error when trying to update. Found something online that helped me fix it. Method 1 is what worked for me after unsuccessfully trying Method 2. http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-fix-the-ubuntu-gpg-error-badsig.html

rudy_mills said...

I'm just curious, but why would Lucid recognize my card when booted from USB (just after downloading the iso) and then not recognize it after installing to my SSD? Any ideas?

redDEAD said...

rudy,

It's been that way since 8.04. It's not a bug it's a feature.

Real reason, the driver is on the Live CD for testing but not available if you installed without being connected to the net. It should recognize the card if you install connected to the net.

Unknown said...

Great HOW TO: worked first time - thanks

Matty G said...

The same problem I was having with wireless in Karmic is still my problem in Lucid. Most of the time, wireless won't get an ip address from the wireless-router, despite the wireless-router being perfectly happy to do it for anybody else. It is also chronically slow most of the time. I'm beginning to worry that ubuntu and the dell mini 10v just don't play nicely.

BB said...

Tried it several times on Dell mini 10v and HP mini and both does not work.

However, Ubuntu 10.04 work flawlessly on my daughter's EEEPc 900.

Any advice welcome.

redDEAD said...

Do we have the same hardware profile?

http://www.ubuntumini.com/2009/03/my-dell-mini-9-hardware-profile.html

Matty G said...

There's a few slight differences, but I can't tell if they're significant enough to make the two incompatible.

You can find it here:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1462498/Dell%20mini10v%20specs.html

redDEAD said...

Your wifi card:
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n

My wifi card:
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g

Don't know what else to tell you. They are not the same. I don't know how well the proprietary driver for N-Wireless Broadcom drivers works. Hit up the Google Group of Ubuntu forums.

BB said...

finally managed to get Dell Inspiron Mini netbook 10v and HP netbook connected with wifi.

Google and the answers are all there.

Unknown said...

Thanks, it worked perfectly on my Gateway LT3003a.

Google+ Guy said...

Thanks for the how-to. I just updated to Lucid today and this worked without a problem.

The wireless works, but I'm encountering something odd. I'm wondering if others have had this happen as well. (I'm on a Dell Mini 9, if it matters.)

The wireless has no problems detecting and connecting to access points, but for some reason I'm seeing the red exclamation point on my wifi icon even though I'm currently connected. I took a screenshot and uploaded it here for all to see:

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/4951/lucidwifiissue.png

At the time that screenshot was taken I was connected to the access point listed as "anygate" without issues. It did give me the whole "discovery service disabled blah blah" that it always gives me no matter where I connect to.

Any ideas? Thanks again for the how-to.

redDEAD said...

the,

might be as easy as uninstalling/reinstalling the broadcom driver or network-manager but more than likely a bug with the package.

Try uninstalling/reinstalling the broadcom package and rebooting. If that doesnt work try uninstalling/reinstalling the network manager packages (remember to have a hardline connection because wifi isnt going to work).

If it doesnt work report the bug on launchpad.

calm chambers said...

Thanks so much. Ubuntu is greatly improved for ease of use compared to early days, but thanks to people like you who post solutions, this became such an easy fix. Cheers

Unknown said...

The,

Same issue here...I can connect but get the red exclamation point. I'll try reinstalling the driver as recommended above.

Mike Mize said...

Beauty! My wireless nets show up just fine now. Thanks for the tip.

304 said...

worked perfectly... for dell inspiron 14...

Pipps said...

Brilliant! I had to do this twice, but the second time (from the terminal instead of within Synaptic) it then worked perfectly. I didn't even need to reboot!

asoralvin said...

Absolutely musical. You changed another person's life for the better...mine. That was after you helped my wife in your explanation stop fretting from her $^^%%&**mini 9 that she had loved until the upgrade. Peace reigns again...for a while.