Wireless networking in 14.04 completely baffling to me

[tomcloyd]

Is it just Kubuntu, or is Ubuntu also so utterly cyptic? If so, exactly who does Canonical think is going to USE this OS, given that the Internet is now a universal appliance? How can I advise my computer-naive friends and associates to load 'buntu as an alternative to WinXP if I myself, after about 7 years of Kubuntu, still am so easily baffled by what I'm looking at onscreen? I don't get it.

I have a clear install of 14.04 on my netbook. Of course, that wiped out my network settings, which I somehow fuddled through back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Hoping that by now someone, somewhere, had figured out a way to walk actual humans through this wireless setup business, I left-click on the new, improved networking systray icon and immediately see 3 checkboxes which cannot be altered in any way I can discover. One of them, the tooltip informs me, indicates that wireless is disabled (and, no, you can't do anything about it...), which of course is why I'm looking at it in the first place.

I look in the KDE Help center accessible from the default launch menu. Concerning networking, there is stuff there that would doubtless delight a CS major, but does nothing whatsoever for me. There is nothing that I can find which tells me what to do with the networking interface I'm staring at. This is "help" center? For whom?

Mr. Google also appears to know nothing much. I did find something here, but it's hardly official documentation, and besides it's not for humans. It refers to a "Network Manager" - which does not come up in a search either of the default launch menu or the System Settings interface, and it invites me to modify several configuration files. No thanks. I'm already in enough trouble, and besides if I have to do THAT just to get wireless working on 14.04 something's terribly wrong.

So here I am once again, hoping for some help. I can tell you that I do have a static IP address - 74.120.32.78, a Netgear router, and I can easily get a router status page displayed in my browser that give me all kinds of port addresses and names and stuff that out to be useful...to someone. The problem is that the acronyms on the router status page do not well match, or match at all, those on the Connection Editor interface I get when clicking on the wrench in the network icon popup menu.

I await higher wisdom!

[Snowhog]

You see this:

[tomcloyd]

Yes - that's what I'm calling the networking icon popup menu. My wireless checkbox is unchecked and unchangeable. I have one active connection - my wired connection. No available connections are show, doubtless because I have no wireless connectivity.

Here's a screenshot of my router status page, in case that might be helpful in some way.

[kubicle]

My wireless checkbox is unchecked and unchangeable.

If it's unchangeable, it usually means the wlan chip is not functional. There are a few possible reasons for this, but the most common is that the chip needs additional drivers/modules or firmware installed to function.

Could you post the output of 'lspci' and 'iwconfig', these should help troubleshooting the issue.

[tomcloyd]

OK, here's that output

tomc@LT:~$ lspci00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GSE Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GSE Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7-M Family) SATA Controller [IDE mode] (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY (rev 01)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR8132 Fast Ethernet (rev c0)
tomc@LT:~$ 
tomc@LT:~$ 
tomc@LT:~$ iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.


eth1      no wireless extensions.


tomc@LT:~$

This is an HP Mini-110, and it does require special drivers, from Broadcom. I ran the Driver Manager, and it appears to find them and install them. I hope that's evident above.

Here's the article where I learned about the driver problem.

Thanks!

[GreyGeek]

Broadcom Corporation BCM4312

Last weekend I installed Trusty on a 10 year old Gateway m675 laptop that had a BCM4306 chip. Trusty had installed the "wl" kernel driver for that chip, which didn't work.


Then (using steps from http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2170117 but modified):

sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer

and do the following (some may work... or not)

sudo apt-get remove --purge bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-bcm43.conf
sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-common.conf
sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-dkms.conf

Add
b43
to /etc/modules (insurance that it gets loaded) and reboot. IIRC, depmod -a is (was?) supposed to do the same thing.

That should load the b43 wireless driver.

For those who have a laptop that uses the BCM4306 chip the package to install is

sudo apt-get install firmware-b43legacy-installer

and follow the step above, using b43legacy instead, which should result in the b43legacy module being installed.

Removing the bcmwl-kernel-source is required, and so is removing the blacklist on b43legacy, if it is set in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf as
blacklist bcm43xx

[tomcloyd]

Thanks, GG! Will give it a try, shortly. Looks promising.

[sithlord48]

check that its not turned off via a software (fn+ F2 is common) or a hardware switch.

[tomcloyd]

Uh oh. Yeah. Good thing to check. Thanks!

[kubicle]

Last weekend I installed Trusty on a 10 year old Gateway m675 laptop that had a BCM4306 chip. Trusty had installed the "wl" kernel driver for that chip, which didn't work.


Then (using steps from http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2170117 but modified):

sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer

and do the following (some may work... or not)

sudo apt-get remove --purge bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-bcm43.conf
sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-common.conf
sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-dkms.conf

Add
b43
to /etc/modules (insurance that it gets loaded) and reboot. IIRC, depmod -a is (was?) supposed to do the same thing.

That should load the b43 wireless driver.

For those who have a laptop that uses the BCM4306 chip the package to install is

sudo apt-get install firmware-b43legacy-installer

and follow the step above, using b43legacy instead, which should result in the b43legacy module being installed.

Removing the bcmwl-kernel-source is required, and so is removing the blacklist on b43legacy, if it is set in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf as
blacklist bcm43xx

The bcm43xx is an old driver (removed from the kernel in version 2.6.26) and separate from either b43 or b43legacy. Blacklisting (or removing blacklisting) bcm43xx should make no difference in newer kernels.

https://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx

[GreyGeek]

The bcm43xx is an old driver (removed from the kernel in version 2.6.26) and separate from either b43 or b43legacy. Blacklisting (or removing blacklisting) bcm43xx should make no difference in newer kernels.

https://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx

Agreed, but removing it doesn't hurt.

[Guest]

tomcloyd;
I couldnt agree more - I am an experienced PC user - with only a little linux experince.
I had exactly this issue too - and it totally baffled me. Surely Linux should detect wireless hardware easily and set it up.

Anyway - after much searching i found a simpe way of working.
Connect the ethernet so the computer is connected to the net:
Use 'System Settings' and then look towards the bottom of the panel for 'Driver Manager' and click it.
It then searches for the drivers and the one for my HP G61 appeared 'Broadcomm' I think it was, and the system started downloadeing and installed the driver.
The click on to WiFi symbol ( the dot and arcs pointing up ) - and you should see your routers wifi ID listed, eneter the WPA password and you are done.
Hope that works for you
Mal

[sithlord48]

@Mal_3
ahh well thats your problem there you have a broadcom chipset. they do not provide any chipset info or provide any opensource driver for their devices. complain to your chip maker its all their falut for not releasing a driver that we can distrubitute.the driver manager is there to install the properitary drivers that can't be placed on the disc

[kc1di]

b43 may work But I have the same card and bcmwl-kernel-source is the one that works best for me. That is the WL/STA driver.
Works great on my dell laptop. There used to be an additional driver tool that took care of that for me , but don't know if it's available any longer.
good Luck.

also this page may be of help to you:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BroadcomSTA(Wireless)

I might add the the problem is not Kubuntu's or Ubuntu's because the manufacturer's do not release their drivers as open source so the devs can not modify them to work with linux. The situation is getting better and more manufacturer's are releasing or at least building and releasing drivers for their cards. But the reason they can't be loaded at install is due to copy write and license problems. Which if you have one of their cards makes it a pain, but that is life as it is today. So if you want to complain to anyone it should be to the card manufacturers. Though Broadcom has gotten better over the years.

[sithlord48]

there is a new tool that does it even better . fixing the nightmare laptop i had last night i can confirm that at least for broadcom-kernel-source supported devices. i was able to enable the driver and use the wifi directly from the live disc.