Vostro 2420 BTX, UBUNTU Linux No WiFi Connection

Question

joyceh@joyceh-Vostro-2420:~$ lshw -C network
WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
PCI (sysfs)  
  *-network UNCLAIMED     
       description: Network controller
       product: Broadcom Corporation <===== This should show something like Wireless 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0+LE
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:07:00.0
       version: 01
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:f7c00000-f7c07fff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:09:00.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 07
       serial: 78:45:c4:b7:1b:6b
       size: 100Mbit/s
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=full firmware=rtl8168e-3_0.0.4 03/27/12 ip=192.168.0.105 latency=0 multicast=yes port=MII speed=100Mbit/s
       resources: irq:41 ioport:e000(size=256) memory:f0004000-f0004fff memory:f0000000-f0003fff
WARNING: output may be incomplete or inaccurate, you should run this program as super-user.

I can download the driver http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/04/DriverDetails/Product/vostro-2420?driverId=K61NN&osCode=W764&fileId=3080884333  but how do I install it in Ubuntu??

trenthillsmike · Answer

Problem solved. Note this is for Ubuntu 12.04

In Synaptic, search for BCM. Make sure that the following are installed:

bcmwl-kernel-source
firmware-b43-installer
wireless--bcm43142-dkms
b43fwcutter

Then download from here - http://jas.gemnetworks.com/wireless-bcm43142/

or

Install via apt (and get potential updates):

sudo apt-get install wireless-bcm43142-dkms

To get the source used to debuild the dkms package:

apt-get source wireless-bcm43142-dkms

For standard 11.10 64bit ubuntu, see http://wielki.tk/vostro/

It is possible that this may not work for others because these were the last things that I did after a fair bit of hacking flailing about. Nothing worked up to this point but it may be that something I did before this is required for this to work. Note also that if this seems like I know what I'm doing, I DON'T!!!!!!!!

trenthillsmike · Answer

This is after the fixes that I installed.

joyceh@joyceh-Vostro-2420:~$ lshw -C network
WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
PCI (sysfs)  
  *-network               
       description: Wireless interface
       product: Broadcom Corporation
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:07:00.0
       logical name: wlan0
       version: 01
       serial: 64:27:37:fc:b6:01
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=wl0 driverversion=6.20.55.19 (r300276) ip=192.168.0.104 latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abg
       resources: irq:19 memory:f7c00000-f7c07fff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:09:00.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 07
       serial: 78:45:c4:b7:1b:6b
       size: 10Mbit/s
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=half firmware=rtl8168e-3_0.0.4 03/27/12 latency=0 multicast=yes port=MII speed=10Mbit/s
       resources: irq:41 ioport:e000(size=256) memory:f0004000-f0004fff memory:f0000000-f0003fff
WARNING: output may be incomplete or inaccurate, you should run this program as super-user.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

Vostro 2420 BTX, UBUNTU Linux No WiFi Connection

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