Ubuntu
gnome-nettool package

Our wireless network is disabled

Asked by Cedar Keshet

The wireless networks part on the system notification area is grayed out and says wireless is disconnected when I left click and the Enable Wireless check box is grayed out when I right click in same location.
in terminal I typed: sudo lshw -C network and got the following:
  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       product: BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0
       logical name: eth1
       version: 01
       serial: 00:24:2b:55:0c:ca
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=wl0 driverversion=5.10.91.9 latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abgn
       resources: irq:17 memory:f8000000-f8003fff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: NetLink BCM5784M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:08:00.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 10
       serial: 00:22:19:df:9b:0e
       size: 100MB/s
       capacity: 1GB/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm vpd msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=tg3 driverversion=3.99 duplex=full firmware=sb v2.17 ip=192.168.0.101 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100MB/s
       resources: irq:30 memory:fc500000-fc50ffff

I also typed in ~$ iwconfig and got this result. It doesn't look good to me but I have no idea what to do as I am not experienced in this stuff.
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

eth1 IEEE 802.11 Nickname:""
          Access Point: Not-Associated

Then I did this:ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:22:19:df:9b:0e
          inet addr:192.168.0.101 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::222:19ff:fedf:9b0e/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:1940 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1236 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:1859728 (1.8 MB) TX bytes:146010 (146.0 KB)
          Interrupt:17

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:24:2b:55:0c:ca
          inet6 addr: fe80::224:2bff:fe55:cca/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
          Interrupt:17

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:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:240 (240.0 B) TX bytes:240 (240.0 B)
Can anyone please help me. I have installed ubuntu 9.10 for our grandfather on his computer as he got a nasty windows vista virus on it and he is retired, etc. and didn't want to spend any money on fixing it back to windows. I am a rank beginner and don't know too much about Ubuntu but am willing to give it a try.
thank you so very much

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Revision history for this message
Ubfan (ubfan1) said : 		#1

Your 4322 Broadcom chip needs the Broadcom STA driver (aka wl for some reason). Under the system/administrator/additional drivers, wait for the window to appear and activate the broadcom sta driver. Hopefully, that will do the trick. However, if the activation of the STA does not change the current wireless default config (which is probably for the b43 driver), you will have to change it manually.
In /etc/moddprobe.d/blacklist.conf , add the line
blacklist b43

I'm not sure if the broadcom firmware is pulled directly from the wl.ko modules (the STA driver), but if you need the firmware, you will get complaints in the logs, so look for them:
dmesg | fgrep b43

You can add the firmware manually if necessary with the package manager (firmware-b43-...) but lets hope that's not necessary since that may also pull back the unwanted b43 driver.

Revision history for this message
Cedar Keshet (notjuniper) said : 		#2

Thank you for your very quick answer, I will give it a try in tomorrow as I
am all booked up today. Thankfully Grandpa doesn't need his laptop as its
senior center day and he is busy with that.
Respectfully,
Cedar Keshet

On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 10:18 PM, Ubfan <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Your question #146502 on yelp in ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/yelp/+question/146502
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Ubfan proposed the following answer:
> Your 4322 Broadcom chip needs the Broadcom STA driver (aka wl for some
> reason). Under the system/administrator/additional drivers, wait for the
> window to appear and activate the broadcom sta driver. Hopefully, that will
> do the trick. However, if the activation of the STA does not change the
> current wireless default config (which is probably for the b43 driver), you
> will have to change it manually.
> In /etc/moddprobe.d/blacklist.conf , add the line
> blacklist b43
>
> I'm not sure if the broadcom firmware is pulled directly from the wl.ko
> modules (the STA driver), but if you need the firmware, you will get
> complaints in the logs, so look for them:
> dmesg | fgrep b43
>
> You can add the firmware manually if necessary with the package manager
> (firmware-b43-...) but lets hope that's not necessary since that may
> also pull back the unwanted b43 driver.
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
>
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/yelp/+question/146502/+confirm?answer_id=0
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/yelp/+question/146502
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>

Revision history for this message
Cedar Keshet (notjuniper) said : 		#3

The Broadcom STA driver is activated. When I went to the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf file and tried to add the line blacklist b43 and save it, I got the message that I didn't have permissions necessary to do that. I am logged in as a user but not as root. Could this be a problem?

Revision history for this message
Cedar Keshet (notjuniper) said : 		#4

Also, I am not sure how to log in as root or if it will let me. This would be helpful to know how to do this.
Again, thanks so very much for your help.

Revision history for this message
ahambidge (ahambidge) said : 		#5

Hello,

You can install the Broadcom drivers from the Synaptic Manager. Just search using Broadcom.

Regards,

Allan :)

Revision history for this message
Ubfan (ubfan1) said : 		#6

File edits may usually be done by using sudo vi filename.

Revision history for this message
Cedar Keshet (notjuniper) said : 		#7

Thanks everyone for your input. i am still having woes.
I went into terminal and the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf file and tried to add the line blacklist b43 but nothing happened. It wouldn't let me type in any entries. I also noticed that there was two lines saying:

# replaced by b43 and ssb.
blacklist bcm43xx

I also tried the synaptic manager, searched using Broadcom and installed it. Restarted the machine, still no wireless connection.
Does anyone know of a way I can get the file online and then install it with System-Administration-Windows Wireless Drivers and use the Install New Drivers button?
thanks again

Revision history for this message
Ubfan (ubfan1) said : 		#8

There are multiple drivers for Broadcom chips, not all work with some chips. Your chip requires the Broadcom STA driver (named wl for some reason). The b43 driver will not work according to the wireless docs I've seen. The b43 is probably the default, so to suppress it:
cd /etc/modprobe.d
sudo vi blacklist.conf
<put the insert with the other broadcom bcm43xx to keep them together>
insert mode type i
blacklist b43
<ESC>
ZZ
Should add the line to the file

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