No ethernet or wireless - Mint Mate 13 32bit - BCM4401-BO

[milkfloat]

I installed Mint 13 32bit on a laptop, which subsequently would not connect to wireless. I plugged an ethernet cable into the router so I was able to search for fixes, none of which worked. Now on a second attempt, the ethernet cable is no longer detected.

After trying a few fixes, I tried

sudo modprobe b43

which means that wireless routers are now detected, but none will connect; the network manager keeps trying to connect to my default router but with no success.

I searched for fixes on this forum, but none have worked. Please note that because neither cable nor wireless will work I can't connect to the internet to directly download drivers etc. Nor can I paste the results of queries from the terminal!

mintwifi returns this:

Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)

Any suggestions?
Thanks

[xenopeek]

For BCM4311 wifi you should install the package: firmware-b43-installer. What is your wired chip? You can find out with the following what network chips you have:

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inxi -N

[milkfloat]

Thanks,

inxi -N gives this result:

card 1: Broadcom BCM4401-BO 100Base-TX
Card 2: Broadcom BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
driver b43-pci-bridge

According to software centre, firmware-b43-installer is already installed, and supports BCM4311 (but not BCM4401).

There are two other firmware-b43 options on Software Centre (lpphy-installer and legacy installer) but neither of them mention support for BCM4401.

I hope that's useful information. Thanks.

[xenopeek]

Let's focus on the ethernet here first, the Broadcom BCM4401-BO. I've found a couple of related posts;
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=134789#p722587
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... comments/6
http://askubuntu.com/questions/14970/broadcom-bcm4401-b0-100base-tx-issues

So if you install the Broadcom STA driver for your wireless, that will have disabled your ethernet. You can check if this is the case for you in the terminal.

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cd /etc/modprobe.d
grep b44 *

Does it show any results? If so please share.

[milkfloat]

Thanks xenopeek,

That doesn't bring up anything at all in the Terminal, except the 'b44' part is displayed in red font instead of white.

Shall I simply uninstall broadcom-sta-common, as suggested in your link?

[AlbertP]

Yes, you need to uninstall STA and remove the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-bcm43.conf file if that still exists:

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sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-bcm43.conf

Then cable should be working again (after reboot); if wireless is not working, please make sure firmware-b43-installer is installed.

[milkfloat]

Thanks AlbertP,

I followed those instructions to remove /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-bcm43.conf file , and removed STA.

Terminal showed that /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-bcm43.conf file did not exist and therefore could not be removed. After a reboot, ethernet and wireless are still not detected.

Any other options?

[AlbertP]

Can you post the output of inxi -N again?

Make sure bcmwl-kernel-source and broadcom-sta-source packages are uninstalled too.

[milkfloat]

Can you post the output of inxi -N again?

Make sure bcmwl-kernel-source and broadcom-sta-source packages are uninstalled too.

Sure, inxi -N results are:

Card-1 Broadcom BCM4401-BO 100 Base-TX
Card-2 Broadcom BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
driver: b43-pci-bridge

bcmwl-kernel-source and broadcom-sta-source packages are both uninstalled.

Thanks

[AlbertP]

That was your output the previous time - what I want to know is if this has changed. Please run inxi -N again and copy/paste the output exactly. It appears you didn't copy it exactly last time since there is a newline in your output that does not exist in normal inxi output.

[milkfloat]

That was your output the previous time - what I want to know is if this has changed. Please run inxi -N again and copy/paste the output exactly. It appears you didn't copy it exactly last time since there is a newline in your output that does not exist in normal inxi output.

Hi AlbertP,

Yes, the output was the same both times I posted the result of inxi -N. I can't copy and paste exactly as the problem laptop has no internet connection, I am typing this message from a different computer so I type the output as it appears in Terminal.

To confirm, inxi -N output is still:

Card-1 Broadcom BCM4401-BO 100 Base-TX
Card-2 Broadcom BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN 
driver: b43-pci-bridge

[AlbertP]

Are you sure that no driver at all appears behind Card 1, the BCM4401?

Please try this in terminal:

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sudo modprobe b44

[milkfloat]

Are you sure that no driver at all appears behind Card 1, the BCM4401?

Please try this in terminal:

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sudo modprobe b44

I just tried that command; it prompts for password, then nothing.

[AlbertP]

That's true, but does ethernet start working after you run that?

[milkfloat]

Sorry, I wasn't near my router when I last tried that. Ethernet connection is now working.

However, wireless is still not detected. What's the next step for enabling wireless?

Thanks

[AlbertP]

Please run these commands and post any output you get, then we can see what is happening with the wireless:

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sudo modprobe b43
dmesg|grep b43

[milkfloat]

Please run these commands and post any output you get, then we can see what is happening with the wireless:

Code: Select all

sudo modprobe b43
dmesg|grep b43

Ok, just tried that. Wireless networks are detected, but when the requesting a network address the computer attempts to connect but eventually returns a 'wireless network - Disconnected' error.

Thanks

[AlbertP]

Could you try to reinstall the firmware-b43-installer package:

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apt install --reinstall firmware-b43-installer

[milkfloat]

Could you try to reinstall the firmware-b43-installer package:

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apt install --reinstall firmware-b43-installer

I reinstalled the firmware using this line. Wireless would still not connect, so I restarted the computer after the reinstall. Wireless networks are detected but will not connect, and ethernet is now not detected.

I have to run

sudo modprobe b44

when I restart the computer before ethernet will work. Is there no way I can connect to ethernet without resorting to code each time?

[AlbertP]

Please run this in terminal (replace gedit with pluma on MATE editions):

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gksudo gedit /etc/modules

In that text editor please add:

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b44

Then save and exit, and reboot the computer.