wifi no longer working on ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid)

Under Ubuntu 9.10, wifi worked out of the box by enabling Broadcom STA wireless driver (System / Administration / Hardware Drivers / activating “Broadcom STA wireless driver”).

Under Ubuntu 10.4, when I try to activate the driver, the following error occurs: “Sorry, installation of this driver failed. Please have a look at the log file for details: /var/log/jockey.log” => I no longer can use my wifi card (which worked great on ubuntu 9.10).

Here is corresponding bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/511379

What’s interesting is jockey.log content:

2010-01-22 23:01:35,364 WARNING: modinfo for module wl failed: ERROR: modinfo: could not find module wl
2010-01-22 23:01:35,365 WARNING: /sys/module/wl/drivers does not exist, cannot rebind wl driver

I will try to update this post as soon as a solution is provided.

[update]

Here is the update:

  1. ensure you have installed package ‘bcmwl-modaliases’ : sudo apt-get install bcmwl-modaliases
  2. restart your computer: sudo shutdown -r now

That should work.

sources

37 Responses to “wifi no longer working on ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid)”

  1. Ade Goodyer says:

    Hi,

    After upgrading to Ubuntu 10.04 I had the exact same problem!

    To solve it I simply went to Synaptic Package Manager

    Typed “broadcom”

    Right clicked on “bcmwl-kernel-source” and marked it for re-installation

    Then went back to the hardware drivers where I could now activate the broadcom driver without any problems!

    No idea what caused this but it has seemed to fix it for now…

  2. remy says:

    Thank you so much!!!

    I just followed your instructions and wifi is back on tracks.
    I don’t know why it worked, but it worked.

    Thx again

  3. Jeremy Shadow says:

    Thanks! It worked for me too. Been trying for over an hour to get this working.

  4. Leibniz says:

    I encountered the same problem. After a little reading, I learned that the b43 driver was supposed to have been updated/enhanced and is now [apparently] the driver of choice for broadcom wifi hardware with Kubuntu 10.04. This would explain the removal of the wl driver as standard, anyway.

    That said, I have been tinkering with that driver (remove broadcom, apt-get install b43-fwcutter) and the module loads just fine, but if doesn’t find my hardware! :(

    I think that I will need to reinstall the broadcom- packages and reinstall the hardware STA driver…. dang…

  5. Greenfieldwi says:

    Ade – perfectly simple solution which worked on my Dell Insprion 1521…now if only I can remember to bookmark this solution for my next upgrade….

  6. C-guy says:

    hi, Ade Goodyer!

    I tryed to fix the problem, but i don’t have the option to reinstall it…what to do? plz help!!!

  7. admadi2008 says:

    I use CQ40 and having similar issue on the wireless after installed the new version of 10.04 and so far I have no solution yet to fixed

  8. remy says:

    try to install ‘bcmwl-modaliases’ package (sudo apt-get install bcmwl-modaliases)

  9. remy says:

    try to install ‘bcmwl-modaliases’ package

  10. pavleb says:

    Following Leibniz, I have reinstalled bcmwl-kernel-source and it did not solve the problem. Afterwards I reinstalled the following in one batch:
    bcmwl-kernel-source
    b43-fwcutter
    bcmwl-modaliases

    and installed:
    broadcom-sta-common (since I have BCM4312 on my HP 6720s)

    Reboot and everything is back online.

  11. totziens says:

    The Hardware Driver activation method worked for me initially when Ubuntu 10.04 (Linux 2.6.32.21-generic) was installed. However, when it’s upgraded to Linux 2.6.32.22-generic, the same problem happened again. Deactivate the driver and re-activate do not help. “sudo apt-get install bcmwl-modaliases” does not help at all too because the version I am having is already the latest one.

  12. RPF says:

    I’m having this issue as well. The bcmwl-modaliases package is already installed on my 10.04 netbook edition. Reinstalling did nothing. I couldn’t find bcmwl-kernel-source when I went looking for it. It did not appear in my Synaptic Package Manager.

    Have no idea whats wrong with my wireless. Works great if I plug in a wire and works great if I boot back over to Windows. Just not working on 10.04.

    Does anyone know how to VIEW available wireless networks? I can’t see any. The only thing I can do is manually configure and obviously I’m jacking that all up.

  13. remy says:

    thanks for the steps, I’m pretty sure they will be useful to a lot of people

  14. remy says:

    what you might need to do is:

    1. purge bcmwl-modaliases (sudo apt-get remove –purge bcmwl-modaliases)
    2. reinstall it and try to install broadcom-sta-common as suggested by pavieb (sudo apt-get install bcmwl-modaliases broadcom-sta-common)
    3. reboot

    good luck

  15. remy says:

    to be able to view (and install source pacakges) you may want to go to:

    1. System / Administration / Update Manager
    2. then click on ‘settings’ button at bottom of the window
    3. within ‘ubuntu software’ tab, ensure ‘Source code’ is checked
    4. click on ‘close’ and then on ‘check’

    once your package list has been updated, try to follow instructions given in reply to totziens (ie. purge bcmwl-modaliases && install broadcom-sta-common)

    good luck

  16. mike harris says:

    Ok, I’m pretty green to linux. Just installed Ubuntu 10.04 to my Dell mini9 and of course the wireless isn’t working. When I go to terminal and type sudo ap-get -purge bcmwl-modaliases I get and error that ‘command line option ‘p’ [from -purge] is not an option. Am I not typing in something correctly?

  17. remy says:

    there is a double dash in front of ‘purge’ option, when I write it on the blog it appears as a single dash only.

    In fact you can directly input “sudo apt-get purge ” it does the same, without this double dash issue

  18. mike harris says:

    gotcha – yeah that worked. Now I’m trying to re-install. When I just type ‘sudo apt-get install bcmwl-modaliases broadcom-sta-common’ I get an error that bcmwl-modaliases has no installation candidate. I’m assuming I need to install from an install package somewhere? Perhaps from the install cd?

  19. remy says:

    when I run “apt-cache policy bcmwl-modaliases” I have the following output:

    bcmwl-modaliases:
    Installed: 5.60.48.36+bdcom-0ubuntu3
    Candidate: 5.60.48.36+bdcom-0ubuntu3
    Version table:
    *** 5.60.48.36+bdcom-0ubuntu3 0
    500 http://es.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid/main Packages
    100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

    This package is on the ‘main’ depot => ensure this depot is enabled:

    1. go to System / Administration / Software Sources
    2. under ‘Ubuntu Software’ tab, ensure first entry is checked (Canonical supported Open Source software (main))
    3. click on close
    4. on your terminal, run “sudo apt-get update”
    5. then check if the package can be found : “apt-cache policy bcmwl-modaliases”
    6. then install it: “sudo apt-get install bcmwl-modaliases”

    +++

  20. mike harris says:

    well, this doesn’t look like a good thing:

    michael@michael-laptop:~$ apt-cache policy bcmwl-modaliases
    bcmwl-modaliases:
    Installed: (none)
    Candidate: (none)
    Version table:

  21. remy says:

    could you run “cat /etc/apt/sources.list” and paste your content?

  22. remy says:

    That’s really really really weird… I’m using your sources.list file and I am able to access bcmwl-modaliases package

    remy@rdlaptop:~$ apt-cache policy bcmwl-modaliases
    bcmwl-modaliases:
    Installed: 5.60.48.36+bdcom-0ubuntu3
    Candidate: 5.60.48.36+bdcom-0ubuntu3
    Version table:
    *** 5.60.48.36+bdcom-0ubuntu3 0
    500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid/main Packages
    100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

    I suppose you did it while wiredly connected to the internet and that “sudo apt-get update” was a success, that’s really strange.

    You might try to run “sudo jockey-gtk” and see if any wireless driver shows up. If none is displayed, this page here might be usefull : http://www.ubuntumini.com/2009/11/broadcom-wireless-driver-fix-in-karmic.html. In case a driver is installed, don’t forget to reboot your computer.

    I’m really worried about you not being to access the package, given the configuration you should access it, and debian (ubuntu) is pretty robust on this. I’m pretty sure we’re missing something…

    I hope it will helped.

  23. mike harris says:

    Actually this machine hasn’t been on the internet yet. I just upgraded the hard drive on it and installed Ubuntu 10.04. I’m going to do a re-install. Other people have told me to try some things so I’m sure I’ve jacked it up at this point. Nothing really to lose by starting over.

  24. KH says:

    I have dell 1450 usb wireless. broadcom 4309. I have done evevrything.
    reinstalled all the above suggetsions. device shows under lsusb in terminal. but not in Wifi Radar or hardware Drivers.

  25. remy says:

    try: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=405552

    (replace lspci with lsusb once your key has been plugged in)
    if it does not work, you might be interested in using ndiswrapper, usually it does a pretty good job and relies on windows drivers (other solutions do not rely on windows drivers => they are more ‘native’)

  26. [...] I found this thread and followed their advice to reinstall all the key packages (all one line in the [...]

  27. Grant S says:

    To do what Ade Goodyer said to do you have to be connected to the Internet. I followed what he said after I had an internet connection and it works. To get an internet connection hook your intenet router’s cord up to your laptop, then hit the reset button on your router. The reset button is a little button that will have to be hit with a pen or another small object

  28. Halidi says:

    i’m using Compaq CQ20 412TU, i have trouble in using ubuntu 10.04: no wireless driver detected automatically, this is not found when i’m using ubuntu 9.04, the wireless working properly.. how to solve this problem??? thanks for any solutions!

  29. Roger Salvini says:

    Thank you, it works for me.

    Dell Vostro 1500 – Ubuntu 10.04

  30. Admirim says:

    It worked for me. Thanks a lot!

  31. David Booth says:

    On Dell Studio 15 laptop, Ubuntu 10.04, reinstalling or installing these worked for me:
    [[
    bcmwl-kernel-source
    b43-fwcutter
    bcmwl-modaliases
    ]]

    I did it through the Synaptic Package Manager. Thanks for the help!

  32. sati says:

    I just installed Ubuntu 10.04 for netbook on HP Compaq Mini 735. It is on dual boot witn Windows XP in another partition. On Windows no problem to connect to internet wireless and DSL and cable. On Linux, no internet access whatsoever – no wireless, no cable, nothing. Since I do not have internet access i can not install or update anything that necessitates internet connection. I have connection on another computer if i need, that is how i am writing this. I am a beginner with ubuntu/linux, but need simplified instructions what to do. I can use the terminal now if necessary. What to do? Help?

  33. Dario says:

    ok so I followed these steps so I could fix the Wireless probelm on my laptop

    purge bcmwl-modaliases (sudo apt-get remove –purge bcmwl-modaliases)

    reinstall it and try to install broadcom-sta-common as suggested by pavieb (sudo apt-get install bcmwl-modaliases broadcom-sta-common)

    reboot

    which were mentioned above… for some reason after I did this I ended up haveing not internet at all on my laptop. Not even wired. at the begining I thought it was some problem with ubuntu, but now I installed Windows again on it and I have the same problem. No Wireless, or Wired Internet. Any suggestions?

  34. HEATGRIFF says:

    I have a dell d620 and I’m having the same issues with my wireless, I’ve tried all these solutions and none seem to work. I am green to Linux, but I have really enjoyed using it so far, much better than Windows. I just need to get my wireless working. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

  35. KAM says:

    I tried the same steps, but ubuntu gets hang, and then it never boots up. Specially when I try to instal the bcmwl-kernel-source.

  36. Victor says:

    I installed Broadcom STA wireless and the ATI/AMD proprietry FGLRX graphics driver. The broadcom is the one that is currently active while the other one is not being used, I just installed it in case. I have the green light that the broadcom is currently in use, i can also see the wireless network that i have set up, but everytime i try to connect it fails. Im 100% sure i typed in the correct password!! Can anyone please tell me why my wireless isn’t working??

  37. CrazyCajun says:

    Upgraded from 9.04 to 10.04. Using USB wifi Belkin F5D7050 802.11G adapter. Worked great under 9.04. Now, IF it connects, it stays connected for 1-20 seconds, then disconnects.
    I went to Network Manager Applet 0.8 which reports the SSID and network of the connection (which I had to add manually) and also an ifupdown (wlan) interface which can not be edited or deleted.
    I am hesitant to do the Broadcom update since this isn’t a broadcom card that I know of.
    What I would like is for the wifi to connect when booted and stay connected. Is that going to be possible with 10.04 in the current status.
    No connection makes if difficult to get updates, as well as use the machine.
    Thanks.

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