[MOVED]: Topic: Dell Mini Wireless

Have 30 Dell minis that have become paperweights at work. Playing with Zorin as a solution. Created the bootable stick, everything loads wonderfully. Wired, I have all the internet I want. Wireless... none. I went to the software center, and searched for bcm (because i believe these were shipped with broadcom). I played with the broadcom wireless drivers, and though i can see my wireless networks, and it says they are connected, I simply can't get on the web.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Mpyre

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:21:70:f6:77:42
inet addr:10.44.64.242 Bcast:10.44.79.255 Mask:255.255.240.0
inet6 addr: fe80::221:70ff:fef6:7742/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:34853 errors:0 dropped:26 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:7555 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:9788178 (9.7 MB) TX bytes:1058745 (1.0 MB)
Interrupt:43 Base address:0xe000

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:364 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:364 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:36346 (36.3 KB) TX bytes:36346 (36.3 KB)

First of all lets see first what is your wireless card and what is the driver you need.
Please post the results of:

Code:

lspci
lsusb
sudo lshw -c network
sudo rfkill list all

lspci gives the following...

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GSE Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GSE 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 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 02)
02:00.0 System peripheral: JMicron Technology Corp. SD/MMC Host Controller
02:00.2 SD Host controller: JMicron Technology Corp. Standard SD Host Controller
02:00.3 System peripheral: JMicron Technology Corp. MS Host Controller
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY (rev 01)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 02)

lsusb gives

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 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 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 064e:a118 Suyin Corp.

sudo lshw gives...

*-network UNCLAIMED
description: Network controller
product: BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
version: 01
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:f0200000-f0203fff
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller
vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0
logical name: eth0
version: 02
serial: 00:21:70:f6:77:42
size: 100Mbit/s
capacity: 100Mbit/s
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=full firmware=N/A ip=10.44.64.242 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=MII speed=100Mbit/s
resources: irq:43 ioport:2000(size=256) memory:f0610000-f0610fff memory:f0600000-f060ffff memory:f0620000-f063ffff

finally rf kill gives...

0: compal-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
1: compal-bluetooth: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

Do the following.
With wired connection on, open terminal and write:

Code:

sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source

and then restart
If you don't see your wireless on, open terminal and write

Code:

sudo modprobe wl

This should spring your wireless to life.
Reboot and check if the wireless is loaded at startup. If not, do the following:
Open terminal and write

Code:

gksudo nautilus

Navigate to etc>modules
Open the file "modules"
At the end of the file, on a separate line, add the word

wl

Save, exit, reboot and hopefully your wireless will be loaded automaticaly on every startup.

modprobe reply...

FATAL: Module wl not found.
FATAL: Error running install command for wl

Just keep one thing to mind. Your bootable stick must have persistent space in order to save the changes. Otherwise you would need to perfom

Code:

sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo modprobe wl

every time you boot.

Why you don't install the OS? You can try Zorin Lite.

ok. i'll try zorin lite. thanks so much for your time. i'll let you know what happens.

Just a reminder that you need internet connection when you run the above commands (wired ethernet connection).
When you install zorin lite, do a full update, restart and there is a chance that the wireless will operate automatically.
If not, follow my above guide.
To fully update the system, get internet connection (wired through ethernet) and run the following commands in terminal

Code:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Just following up on this, it seems that the wireless BCM card 4312 but with ID 4315 may be working better with the b43 driver.
Therefore, open terminal and give:

Code:

sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter firmware-b43-lpphy-installer