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**Snowhog** · May 11, 2014, 08:16 PM

Try installing linux-firmware-nonfree. Read through http://askubuntu.com/questions/40464...his-old-laptop

**claydoh** · May 11, 2014, 08:28 PM

broadcom sucks rancid donkey bollocks. And then they make so many revisions to their chipsets, I find it amazing anyone anywhere can get them working

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2214110
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...Driver/bcm43xx
You get the idea of how complicated it can be with these chips.

It is also fairly cheap to find a well-supported intel card for your laptop on ebay or elsewhere for well under 20 dollars. Sad to have to say it, but it is a good alternative to fighting with the drivers all the time, and is a very easy swap to do.

**Snowhog** · May 11, 2014, 08:50 PM

Well, I guess I'm one of the lucky ones.

This is on my 64-bit HP Pavilion g7.

**Qqmike** · May 11, 2014, 09:37 PM

Maybe helpful? -->
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...d_Linux_3.8.2B

**sithlord48** · May 12, 2014, 06:36 AM

after booting the live disc is the card turned on? does the machine have a hardware or software switch to enable/ disable wifi . Be sure its on or it won't be seen.

**mmmmna** · May 17, 2014, 07:59 PM

Don't take me as angry, I just think I've pointed this out before...

Originally posted by claydoh View Post

broadcom sucks rancid donkey bollocks. And then they make so many revisions to their chipsets, I find it amazing anyone anywhere can get them working
...
snip
...
It is also fairly cheap to find a well-supported intel card for your laptop on ebay or elsewhere for well under 20 dollars. Sad to have to say it, but it is a good alternative to fighting with the drivers all the time, and is a very easy swap to do.

Wow, where to begin.

My 2 systems have had the same wireless devices with Kubuntu 11.xx through 14.04. I had joined these forums for this exact situation: Get the broadcom stuff to work. So, yes, wifi was configured (post-install) fine for each of the devices in at least one earlier Kubuntu, so, to be frank, I see the problem is that the setup process (script, etc) seems to have lost the method to configure them, over time.

By following the Ubuntu Help docs (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...Driver/bcm43xx), I've usually solved the 'non-configured' problems for other releases (releases which could not configure the hardware at all by the installation script AND not by applications given), but IMO, that help doc is not a very complicated process, compared to the remaining installation script decisions like:

whether ACPI should be configured on after installation (which chipsets, which work-arounds);
How many graphics chipsets? Is this a Cirrus graphics chipset? What resolution? How many monitors? On which graphics chipset in the box is the user seeing the installation dialogs?;
how many hard disks;
are we starting cron jobs after installation? which ones?
USB mouse? Which?
numlock on or off (cough-cough);
etc.

From what I've seen in the help docs, that is practically a plan for the decision tree for an installation script. I believe I've written Excel Macros that are as complex as that help document. And to add insult to the injury of not configuring the broadcoms after installation, several versions of Kubuntu actually supported the hardware perfectly in the live session, so why in hell does the hardware FAIL to be configured AFTER installing FROM the live session that worked fine? Is anyone else seeing this as an oversight, or just me? Anyways, I see it like this: telling people to go buy a different card that makes a script writers life easier seems to be serving the needs of the very few, at the expense of the existing users. Besides, I had no option for the Inspiron 1545, the wifi is a laptop isn't as easy to swap out as they could be.

Summary: Kubuntu installers HAVE been able to configure these Broadcom wifi devices in the past, why not configured today?

Originally posted by sithlord48 View Post

after booting the live disc is the card turned on? does the machine have a hardware or software switch to enable/ disable wifi . Be sure its on or it won't be seen.

Well, I knew that. The desktop wifi has no switch, and the laptop always has the wifi turned on, unless an installer script subroutine decided to disable it. Which would be silly, because if the installer finds the wifi set to on, why would any installer routine elect to disable it? I'd suggest a test for those situations to see whether turning off (the wifi by a script decision) will cause the internet access to cease. If ceases the internet access, then the device might need to be active AFTER installation (ask the user).

You know, there was a time when I used the live CD method to determine if the installed system would work. Evidently, users can't test a distro this way any more. 10's of thousands of Broadcom chips being used with Linux, but we have to change?

Sigh. With every new Kubuntu release, I hope for the return of automated Broadcom setup.

**mmmmna** · May 17, 2014, 08:03 PM

Another part of the problem is where the installation of the distribution assumes the only wifi to configure is the active wifi. Why not allow proper configuration of the Broadcom by downloading via the SMC? Seems to not work, but everything I need is installed, according to Synaptic.

**jglen490** · May 19, 2014, 08:16 PM

Sorry, don't have much to offer, but I did run a BCM43xx based wifi card on my old laptop (now retired). Through most of the Kubuntu installs on that platform, I had to manually install the BCM packages (via ethernet) and then manually run b43-fwcutter which would download and extract the appropriate firmware. Then with a recent release (with IIRC 10.04 or 11.04) the process just happened automagically on upgrade. I'm on a desktop now with a Ralink-based wifi card - and it just works. Looks like if I were to resurrect my old Thinkpad T20, I would again have to manually find and download the BCM firmware and driver for 14.04. And that would be a step backwards and a darn shame, assuming the actual firmware and drivers for that older BCM chip were still available.

Again, I don't have much to offer, but maybe this thread will attract attention from the powers that be.

**scoon** · May 19, 2014, 08:43 PM

Hey there,

I am using the driver manager for my broadcom driver. I have a dell inspiron 1545 with the broadcom wifi chip and have attaced a screen shot for you to see.
lspci -v reports the following:

Code:

0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1397 WLAN Mini-Card
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
        Memory at f69fc000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: wl

Whenever I have a problem with this card, I reboot my router. Honestly, I don't know why this works but it consistently gets my wifi back on track. Just for kicks, try rebooting your router and see if that doesn't clear things up.

Attached Files

Announcement

Live KDE doesn't see nor set up BCM4306, BCM4312 in 2 systems.

Live KDE doesn't see nor set up BCM4306, BCM4312 in 2 systems.

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