[SOLVED] Wifi won't restart after a log-out/in

[frenchian]

Please be patient, I'm not a technical giant....

I have a Dell Inspiron 1564 laptop, with a Broadcom wifi card - a BCM4312. Before I installed Kubuntu 11.04, I had Ubuntu 10.10, onto which I had added KDE 4.6 (.2?). The wifi worked perfectly, with the Broadcom STA driver.

Now I have Kubuntu 11.04. Driver and Network manager are as supplied, and they work whenever I boot up the system. However, if I log-off/on (restart KDM?), wifi doesn't work.

Now, this isn't the end of the world - a restart just takes a bit longer than a log-off/on. But it worked before, so I'd like to solve this.

If anyone can help, I'll be grateful

Tx

[GreyGeek]

Re: Wifi won't restart after a log-out/in

You posted this question a week ago on the Chakra website: http://chakra-project.org/bbs/viewtopic.php?pid=34368

And you found a step-wise procedure here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Broadcom_wireless

The advice given at Chakra would be the advice I'd give here. There is a menu option called:
Kmenu --> System --> Hardware drivers. Use it to load the Broadcom STA driver.

If it doesn't show your system or automatically install b43-fwcutter then open your package manager (I hope you have synaptic installed (sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends synaptic))
and locate it, then install it. If it isn't in your main then it will be in the restricted repostiory.

[frenchian]

Re: Wifi won't restart after a log-out/in

You posted this question a week ago on the Chakra website: http://chakra-project.org/bbs/viewtopic.php?pid=34368

And you found a step-wise procedure here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Broadcom_wireless

The advice given at Chakra would be the advice I'd give here. There is a menu option called:
Kmenu --> System --> Hardware drivers. Use it to load the Broadcom STA driver.

If it doesn't show your system or automatically install b43-fwcutter then open your package manager (I hope you have synaptic installed (sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends synaptic))
and locate it, then install it. If it isn't in your main then it will be in the restricted repostiory.

Thanks for the reply, GreyGeek.

The problem I had with Chakra was slightly different - the wifi connection was random and unpredictable. With Kubuntu, I have a reliable wifi connection (touch wood), unless I log out/in, which causes me to lose it. This makes me think it's something that happens (or doesn't happen) with log out/in, compared to restart, and not a problem with the driver.

Following your advice, I've checked my system and it shows that I'm running the STA driver at the moment.

I've re-read the thread you linked to. It's very comprehensive, and confirms I should be using the STA driver. Because of that, and because wifi works unless I log off, I'm loath to replace the STA with the B43 driver, as the author had to do. If I was still in the Chakra situation, with intermittent wifi, that'd be different, but as things stand at the moment, I'm merely inconvenienced.

Thanks for your advice, though. I appreciate the support.

Cheers

PS. Yes, I prefer Synaptics to KPackageKit as well

[GreyGeek]

Re: Wifi won't restart after a log-out/in

I believe your problem is related to this bug. Note a possible fix in response #5.

[frenchian]

Re: Wifi won't restart after a log-out/in

Well, I don't know what changed - I didn't do anything - but the problem has gone away. WiFi now works after a logoff/on, as well as after a restart.

*GreyGeek, thanks for the pointer. I was just on the point of following the advice..................

*Teunis, you may well be right. I'm current on all updates and while I don't remember a "Eureka" moment, something has changed over the last few days.

Thank you both for your interest, and help.

Cheers

[derekreilly]

Re: Wifi won't restart after a log-out/in

ignore