Limey Newbie with WiFi Problems

Hello.

Apologies if this post is in the wrong place or if there's an obvious answer to my question. I have downloaded and installed the free Zorin package on an old Windows 7 laptop as part of an experiment to find out which flavour of Linux is the most manageable for someone new to it. I really like the look of Zorin but after two days of struggling I simply can't get the Wifi to work. It's frustrating because both Linux Mint and PCLinuxOS were fine on the same machine al;though I did I have similar problems with Ubuntu 11.10.

As far as I can tell the correct Broadcom driver is installed and activated and my wireless settings are identical to those that I used for Linux Mint.I have also set myself up with Administrator level rights and when I checked earlier today I had given myself permission to access the internet. One oddity though is that the overlapping screen icons in the top right hand navigation bar - which I take to be the icons for WiFi have a red circle with a white x in it showing and the left click menu now only shows VPN Connections, Enable Networking (which is ticked) and Edit Connections as options. I seem recall that something like 'Enable Wifi - or maybe Internet Access' used to be there.

All help appreciated because I really do like the look of Zorin and would be sad to give it up in favour of Linux Mint.

Thanks in advance, Bill

First of all, open terminal and post the results of:

Code:

lspci

Code:

rfkill list

Code:

sudo lshw -c network

Also please advise if you have fully updated your system. If not, plug an ethernet cable and perform a complete update and reboot.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1617

Usually after a complete update these things are fixed by themselves. Otherwise, we will assist you to get it working.

Swarf lets first see if it will be fixed after an update, and if not I am expecting to see the results of the commands I written in my 1st post so as to determine exactly the model of the wireless card. I have something in mind but I am waiting to see the exact model before posting.

Many thanks. I will try all of these things and will report back. The machine is a Hewlett Packard Pavillion DV6000 by the way - quite old but still working very nicely.

Best, Bill

Bill73 wrote:Many thanks. I will try all of these things and will report back. The machine is a Hewlett Packard Pavillion DV6000 by the way - quite old but still working very nicely.

Best, Bill

Please post the results of the 3 terminal commands.

madvinegar wrote:

Bill73 wrote:Many thanks. I will try all of these things and will report back. The machine is a Hewlett Packard Pavillion DV6000 by the way - quite old but still working very nicely.

Best, Bill

Please post the results of the 3 terminal commands.

I have made a little search and I have seen that your wireless card is BCM4311. If this is the case (we can confirm that if you post the result of "lspci") do the following to get it working:

1) Go to additional drivers and DE-activate the broadcom STA driver. That is, the broadcom STA driver must NOT be enabled.
2) Restart.
3) Plug an ethernet cable to get internet and open synaptics package manager.
4) Download and install the packages: "b43-fwcutter" and "firmware-b43-installer".

Hopefully you will see the blue light of your wireless working...

Please keep me advised.

Brilliant.Thanks. I'll do that this morning - and report back. Might take a while because I have other things to do first.

B.

Hi all,

Apologies for hijacking this thread but I appear to have exactly the same symptoms on an old Dell D620 laptop that I have. The system identified that additional drivers were required and (using a cable) it downloaded and activated the Broadcom driver. However, wireless does not appear to be activated.

Is anyone able to confirm that the above fwcutter fix is applicable for my machine or do you need further information from somewhere?

I should add that using a LiveCD for Legacy OS 4 Mini ( Puppy 4 Series Kernel 2.6.25 based) I get perfect WiFi connection "out-of-the-box"

Barrie
(also a Limey - but a Celtic Limey )

essenby wrote:Hi all,

Apologies for hijacking this thread but I appear to have exactly the same symptoms on an old Dell D620 laptop that I have. The system identified that additional drivers were required and (using a cable) it downloaded and activated the Broadcom driver. However, wireless does not appear to be activated.

Is anyone able to confirm that the above fwcutter fix is applicable for my machine or do you need further information from somewhere?

I should add that using a LiveCD for Legacy OS 4 Mini ( Puppy 4 Series Kernel 2.6.25 based) I get perfect WiFi connection "out-of-the-box"

Barrie
(also a Limey - but a Celtic Limey )

Please open terminal and post the results of

Code:

lspci

Code:

rfkill list

Code:

sudo lshw -c network

Just made a research for your laprop too and it seems you have the same bcm4311 driver.

Try the steps I listed above and let me know if it worked.

I'm at work at the moment but I'll definitely do that this evening.

Thanks for the help.


Barrie

As requested here are the outputs :-

Code:

*****D620:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 01)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 3 (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 01)
03:01.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ601/6912/711E0 CardBus/SmartCardBus Controller (rev 40)
09:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5752 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)
0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11a/b/g (rev 01)

Code:

*****D620:~$ rfkill list
0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
   Soft blocked: no
   Hard blocked: no

Code:

*****D620:~$ sudo lshw -c network
[sudo] password for *****:
  *-network UNCLAIMED     
       description: Network controller
       product: BCM4311 802.11a/b/g
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:0c:00.0
       version: 01
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:efdfc000-efdfffff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: NetXtreme BCM5752 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:09:00.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 02
       serial: 00:18:8b:ce:64:de
       capacity: 1Gbit/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=3.116 firmware=5752-v3.19 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair
       resources: irq:44 memory:efcf0000-efcfffff

I'm guessing the relevant lines are those referring to the infamous BCM4311 ?


Barrie

Indeed you have the bcm4311 as i suspected.

Follow the steps I outline below and let me know if it worked.

1) Go to additional drivers and DE-activate the broadcom STA driver. That is, the broadcom STA driver must NOT be enabled.
2) Restart.
3) Plug an ethernet cable to get internet and open synaptics package manager.
4) Download and install the packages: "b43-fwcutter" and "firmware-b43-installer".

Thanks - will try tonight and report back.

Barrie

Apologies for the delayed response -very busy weekend

However I'm happy to report that the b43-fwcutter fix worked like a charm. Many thanks for you patience and understanding.


Barrie

essenby wrote:Apologies for the delayed response -very busy weekend

However I'm happy to report that the b43-fwcutter fix worked like a charm. Many thanks for you patience and understanding.


Barrie

I am very glad that I helped my friend! I was 99% certain that my instructions would get it fixed for you, but - as you never know with computers - I was really waiting for your answer.

Know I am waiting for the responce of Bill73 as well.

I am trying to hit two birds with one stone...


Swarf, give me half the jewels for now and the rest when Bill73 confirms that all is ok...