No wifi or wired connection with Broadcom BCM 94311

[Krusidull]

Hello
I've been using Ubuntu alongside with windows for a long time but now I did a clean LinuxMint installation on my old Acer laptop (Travelmate 7520). Mint seems very nice and most things works but I have no wired or wifi connection. The laptop also refuses to shut down normally, but that's an issue for another thread on the forum I guess.

1. I Can get access with the help of my mobile phone through usb-connection.
2. Since i had a Soft block when running "rfkill list all" I followed an advice to run "rfkill unblock all" but still have no connection.

Any clues?

[JeremyB]

Show us the result from

Code: Select all

lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 net

[Krusidull]

Hi
Here's the result, (without running connection through my mobile phone):


05:00.0 network controller [0280] : Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN [14e4:4311] (rev 01)
Subsystem: AMBIT Microsystem Corp. Device [1468:0422]
Kernel driver in use: wl


(by the way, how do I do "copy/paste" text in the terminal?)

[JeremyB]

Hi
Here's the result, (without running connection through my mobile phone):


05:00.0 network controller [0280] : Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN [14e4:4311] (rev 01)
Subsystem: AMBIT Microsystem Corp. Device [1468:0422]
Kernel driver in use: wl


(by the way, how do I do "copy/paste" text in the terminal?)

To get the wifi going

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source

and you will need an internet connection for this

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer

Reboot

To copy and paste in terminal you can highlight in terminal with the mouse and use the right click to select copy, or CTRL + ALT + c, and use CTRL + ALT + p to paste in terminal

Linux isn't detecting a wired network controller, is it enabled in BIOS? Or did you miss something?

[Krusidull]

The newest b43-firmware was already installed, and in the bios there are no options for the network, except for enabling/disabling "wake on lan".
I have external buttons for bluetooth and network but nothing happens when using them.
Perhaps the network hardware is broken? It is strange that the wired network is out of order too I think.
How can I find something like "device manager" in Mint?

[JeremyB]

The newest b43-firmware was already installed, and in the bios there are no options for the network, except for enabling/disabling "wake on lan".
I have external buttons for bluetooth and network but nothing happens when using them.
Perhaps the network hardware is broken? It is strange that the wired network is out of order too I think.
How can I find something like "device manager" in Mint?

Nothing quite like Device Manager for Mint, there is hardinfo

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install hardinfo

Show the new

Code: Select all

lspci -nnk | grep -iA2

[AlbertP]

Perhaps you can also post the output of:

Code: Select all

inxi -N
rfkill list

Maybe inxi does detect the ethernet.

[Krusidull]

Hello again. Here are the results from the terminal:

lspci -nnk | grep -ia2
Usage: grep [OPTION]... PATTERN [FILE]...
Try 'grep --help' for more information.

inxi -N
Network: Card: Broadcom BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN driver: wl

rfkill list
0: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

[Krusidull]

Also had this result when running "hardinfo":

hardinfo
sh: 1: /lib/libc.so.6: not found
sh: 1: gnome-about: not found

** (hardinfo:3046): CRITICAL **: update_field: assertion 'iter != NULL' failed
sh: 0: -c requires an argument
sh: 0: -c requires an argument

(hardinfo:3046): GLib-CRITICAL **: Source ID 13596 was not found when attempting to remove it

(hardinfo:3046): GLib-CRITICAL **: Source ID 14354 was not found when attempting to remove it

(process:3285): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_slice_set_config: assertion 'sys_page_size == 0' failed

[JeremyB]

Hello again. Here are the results from the terminal:

lspci -nnk | grep -ia2
Usage: grep [OPTION]... PATTERN [FILE]...
Try 'grep --help' for more information.

inxi -N
Network: Card: Broadcom BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN driver: wl

rfkill list
0: acer-wireless: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

Not sure what the problem is with hardinfo. And I wouldn't be surprised if the network card is broken

[AlbertP]

You still have the Broadcom STA driver installed. If you enabled this driver in Driver Manager please disable it there.

@ JeremyB: this driver is not only available as bcmwl-kernel-source, also as broadcom-sta-dkms in the repository. Why there are two different packages, I don't know. I think Driver Manager installs the latter.

[Krusidull]

In Synaptic package manager some "STA driver" packages is shown when searching for Broadcom, but I don't know if they are used because I cannot delete them.

However, under the tab "installed files" in synaptic the "Broadcom-sta-dkms" shows this:
/etc
/etc/modprobe.d
/etcmodprobe.d/broadcom-sta-dkms.conf

and the "Broadcom-sta-commmon" shows:
/etc
/etc/modprobe.d
/etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-common.conf

The broadcom-sta-source show no installed files

[JeremyB]

In Synaptic package manager some "STA driver" packages is shown when searching for Broadcom, but I don't know if they are used because I cannot delete them.

However, under the tab "installed files" in synaptic the "Broadcom-sta-dkms" shows this:
/etc
/etc/modprobe.d
/etcmodprobe.d/broadcom-sta-dkms.conf

and the "Broadcom-sta-commmon" shows:
/etc
/etc/modprobe.d
/etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-common.conf

The broadcom-sta-source show no installed files

You should be able to get rid of the STA driver with

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get purge broadcom-sta-common broadcom-sta-dkms

and have wireless when you reboot