Ubuntu laptop cant use wifi

**deetee** · 03-06-2011

I just got this laptop for free as a hand me down and wanted to reformat it. Didn't get a disk and there was no recovery partition so I decided to try out a free OS. I am liking it for the most part but have had a really hard time getting wifi to work.

Here is what I have figured out so far.

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5705M Gigabit Ethernet (rev 01)
02:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4309 802.11a/b/g (rev 02)

Using Ubuntu 10.10

Assistance would be greatly appreciated!

**MASONTX** · 03-07-2011

Welcome to the forum.
Wifi is one of the most complained about items. There are lots of threads for you to review, but we will need info on your computer, wifi card, and linux version you are running.

***MikeTbob*** · 03-07-2011

Start here and post your results using the code tags as explained in this link also.
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/wir...tart-here.html

**Rubberman** · 03-07-2011

Open System->Administration->Additional Drivers - you should find the drivers for your Broadcom B43 wireless hardware there. That's what you need to install. FWIW, 9.04 would install those drivers automatically, but since they are proprietary, you need to do that manually for 10.10.

**deetee** · 03-07-2011

Originally Posted by MikeTbob

Start here and post your results using the code tags as explained in this link also.

I went to the link, downloaded the simple application and ran it. Got a list of info in a text file. Cannot copy the info into this post because it seems my account is not allowed to post urls yet (which is a good way to stop spam bots). Hopefully I wont get banned for circumventing it.

============ lspci ============
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to I/O Controller [8086:3340] (rev 03)
Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel
Kernel modules: intel-agp
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82855PM Processor to AGP Controller [8086:3341] (rev 03)
Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:24c2] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Latitude D400/D500 [8086:4541]
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:24c4] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Latitude D400/D500 [8086:4541]
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:24c7] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Latitude D400/D500 [8086:4541]
Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
00:1d.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller [8086:24cd] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Dell Latitude D600 [1028:011d]
Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev 81)
Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge [8086:24cc] (rev 01)
Kernel modules: iTCO_wdt, intel-rng
00:1f.1 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller [8086:24ca] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Latitude D400/D500 [8086:4541]
Kernel driver in use: ata_piix
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller [8086:24c5] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:011d]
Kernel driver in use: Intel ICH
Kernel modules: snd-intel8x0
00:1f.6 Modem [0703]: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller [8086:24c6] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Conexant Systems, Inc. D480 MDC V.9x Modem [14f1:5422]
Kernel modules: snd-intel8x0m
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV250 [Mobility FireGL 9000] [1002:4c66] (rev 02)
Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:011d]
Kernel driver in use: radeon
Kernel modules: radeon, radeonfb
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5705M Gigabit Ethernet [14e4:165d] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Dell Latitude D400 [1028:865d]
Kernel driver in use: tg3
Kernel modules: tg3
02:01.0 CardBus bridge [0607]: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ711EC1 SmartCardBus Controller [1217:7113] (rev 20)
Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:011d]
Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus
Kernel modules: yenta_socket
02:01.1 CardBus bridge [0607]: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ711EC1 SmartCardBus Controller [1217:7113] (rev 20)
Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:011d]
Kernel driver in use: yenta_cardbus
Kernel modules: yenta_socket
02:03.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4309 802.11a/b/g [14e4:4324] (rev 02)
Subsystem: Dell Truemobile 1400 [1028:0001]
Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
Kernel modules: ssb

============ lsusb ============
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 046d:c52f Logitech, Inc. Wireless Mouse M305
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

============ lsmod ============
Module Size Used by
usbhid 36882 0
hid 67742 1 usbhid
binfmt_misc 6599 1
radeon 829447 3
snd_intel8x0 25664 2
snd_ac97_codec 99227 1 snd_intel8x0
ac97_bus 1014 1 snd_ac97_codec
arc4 1165 2
snd_pcm 71475 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec
b43legacy 115004 0
snd_seq_midi 4588 0
joydev 8767 0
ttm 56633 1 radeon
snd_rawmidi 17783 1 snd_seq_midi
drm_kms_helper 30200 1 radeon
mac80211 231959 1 b43legacy
snd_seq_midi_event 6047 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 47174 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
pcmcia 35973 0
snd_timer 19067 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 5744 3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
drm 168092 5 radeon,ttm,drm_kms_helper
cfg80211 144694 2 b43legacy,mac80211
yenta_socket 21518 0
ppdev 5556 0
intel_agp 26566 1
pcmcia_rsrc 10566 1 yenta_socket
snd 49038 11 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,sn d_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
parport_pc 26058 1
dell_wmi_aio 1733 0
dcdbas 5402 0
psmouse 59033 0
led_class 2633 1 b43legacy
video 18712 0
pcmcia_core 14657 3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,pcmcia_rsrc
soundcore 880 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 7120 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
serio_raw 4022 0
output 1883 1 video
i2c_algo_bit 5168 1 radeon
shpchp 29886 0
agpgart 32011 3 ttm,drm,intel_agp
lp 7342 0
parport 31492 3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp
tg3 123310 0
ssb 39320 1 b43legacy

============ dmesg-firmware ============
[ 19.044220] b43legacy-phy0 ERROR: You must go to linuxwireless. o r g/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware (version 3).

============ kernel version ============
2.6.35-25-generic

============ ifconfig ============
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0d:56:e2:ca:83
inet addr:192.168.1.78 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::20d:56ff:fee2:ca83/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:1594 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1691 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1501444 (1.5 MB) TX bytes:350389 (350.3 KB)
Interrupt:11

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:12 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:12 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:720 (720.0 B) TX bytes:720 (720.0 B)

============ iwconfig ============
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=0 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off

And for Rubberman

Open System->Administration->Additional Drivers - you should find the drivers for your Broadcom B43 wireless hardware there. That's what you need to install. FWIW, 9.04 would install those drivers automatically, but since they are proprietary, you need to do that manually for 10.10.

I tired to activate the driver shown there but it said system error. I also noted that it said "Supported chipsets:- BCM4301- BCM4303- BCM4306/2" and mine I believe is bcm4309.

**deetee** · 03-09-2011

bumping thread

**Rubberman** · 03-09-2011

Ok. Your wired ethernet seems to be healthy. The message from dmesg about the firmware is probably the key thing. Some of these "legacy b43" boards need proprietary firmware downloaded to the device in order to work properly. The messge said:

============ dmesg-firmware ============
[ 19.044220] b43legacy-phy0 ERROR: You must go to linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware (version 3).

which is the relevant/necessary information.

**deetee** · 03-10-2011

That page had a lot of info... I seemed to pick the wrong thing to try to install and it failed. Could you narrow it down a bit?

***MikeTbob*** · 03-10-2011

Sorry about losing track of this thread.
From what I can tell, this device is not supported by b43 or legacy, you need the wl driver. Your device is 14e4:4324 which the link above says is not supported and the WL driver as an alternative but on the WL page, it says it isn't supported either.
http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/README.txt
Maybe I'm just reading it wrong.

**deetee** · 03-12-2011

Originally Posted by MikeTbob

Sorry about losing track of this thread.
From what I can tell, this device is not supported by b43 or legacy, you need the wl driver. Your device is 14e4:4324 which the link above says is not supported and the WL driver as an alternative but on the WL page, it says it isn't supported either.
Maybe I'm just reading it wrong.

So my laptop cannot get wireless at all with Ubuntu? Is there another linux OS I could/should be using instead?

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