WiFi doesn't work - Broadcom BCM4318

Questions about Wi-Fi and other network devices, file sharing, firewalls, connection sharing etc
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JohnCC

Re: WiFi doesn't work - Broadcom BCM4318

Post by JohnCC »

Another vote of appreciation to chili555 :-) and other users explaining their difficulties.

Amazing how similar our experiences.
I am visiting Holland, helping a friend with her Asus E2333 (ex-WinXP).
Cutting a long story short: I followed the instructions:
a. sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source
b. apt-get install linux firmware-nonfree
[sudo apt-get purge madwifi-source returned a message: "unable to locate package madwifi-source"

a. & b. seemed to run perfectly - with an added benefit that the shut-down hang I had been experiencing seems to have been cured (too early to celebrate . . . )

After removing the Ethernet cable, & rebooting, I got an Error message: "8.586103 Error calling CWAP" (any idea what it means?)
After 4 seconds delay the Log-in window popped up, and asked for the password - and I was able to log in.

Unfortunately, The WiFi still does not function - the connection icon is not present.
Curiously, I have a USB Wi-Fi Adapter stick which works OK when I put it into a USB socket, without any configuration hassles.

So I figured the problem with the internal Broadcom Adapter may also have something to do with the Drivers.
Accordingly I went to Admin/Driver manager.
Sure enough, it shows
"Broadcom Corporation: A6U notebook embedded card
Version 6.30.2223.141 +bdcom-0ubuntu1
"Device is not working"
... AND the radio button "do not use this device" was checked

I attempted to correct this situation, as well as editing Control Center/Network Connections: to show the Wi-Fi security and Password,

But again, unfortunately, after re-booting - the system still does not connect to the Broadcom Wireless Adapter.

On checking the Admin/Driver Manager, the "Broadcom Corporation: A6U notebook embedded card
Version 6.30.2223.141 +bdcom-0ubuntu1 Control Center/Other/Network Connections is back to showing "Device is not working""

Again, corrected this setting, back to selecting the Broadcom adapter.
Now I get an error during shutting down:
"modem manager [655] : Caught signal 15, Shutting down" and it hangs right there until I press the OFF button for 5 seconds.

This time on re-starting, I get pages of green DOS-style text, which mercifully progresses to the Log-in Pop-up.

This time, after re-booting, I check the Admin/Driver Manager, and I do not see any entry for the Broadcom Adapter.

This is getting to be hard work .... :-(

Anyone got any ideas?
I hope I was able to give enough info for diagnosis.
I am also new to Linux Mint 16 - so please understand if I omitted any vital details needed for diagnosis.

Thanks a million in advance = John
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chili555
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Re: WiFi doesn't work - Broadcom BCM4318

Post by chili555 »

On checking the Admin/Driver Manager, the "Broadcom Corporation: A6U notebook embedded card
Version 6.30.2223.141 +bdcom-0ubuntu1 Control Center/Other/Network Connections is back to showing "Device is not working""
That is still bcmwl-kernel-source. Try to remove it again:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source
Afterwards, do nothing except reboot and tell us the result.
JohnCC

Re: WiFi doesn't work - Broadcom BCM4318

Post by JohnCC »

Rebooting is now OK, no need to interfere. Still at shutdown the message:"Caught signal 15, Shutting down", but not written in red.
In Driver Manager there still is the not-activated bcmwl-kernel-source v 6.30.223.141 with the comment " Device is not working". Thought that would disappear from Driver Manager after the purge action (several times)?

And the WiFi. After several reboots with the internet cable taken out I tried the linux-firmware-nonfree installation, without success.
PCI-ID is 14e4:4318 rev 02, so the above mentioned should make it work.
Any suggestions?

Thanks you for your help.
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chili555
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Re: WiFi doesn't work - Broadcom BCM4318

Post by chili555 »

with the internet cable taken out I tried the linux-firmware-nonfree installation, without success.
You need an internet connection to download the firmware. Please temporarily hook up the ethernet.
JohnCC

Re: WiFi doesn't work - Broadcom BCM4318

Post by JohnCC »

Thank you for your patience and help.

Sorry I didn't report more detailed, but that's what I did.Only the rebooting was without cable.

Situation now is: driver is visible and activated in Driver Manager: linux-firmware-nonfree 1.14ubuntu1.
So that's OK I think.
But still no WiFi.
Connection is edited with the right SSID, password, etc.
Now I'm stuck.
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chili555
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Re: WiFi doesn't work - Broadcom BCM4318

Post by chili555 »

Do you have a wireless interface, ideally, wlan0?

Code: Select all

iwconfig
Is the switch set to enable or disable wireless?

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rfkill list all
Are there conflicting modules loaded?

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lsmod | grep -e wl -e b43
Are there any informative clues in the log?

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dmesg | grep -e b43 -e wl
JohnCC

Re: WiFi doesn't work - Broadcom BCM4318

Post by JohnCC »

Problem SOLVED!
Despite all your assistance and other tips and trics from the forum I never got a wireless connection with my Broadcom 4318.
Completely desperate I formatted the hard disk, installed Mint 17 MATE plus b43 and without any delay had a wireless connection.

Thank you again for your help.
servershaman

Re: WiFi doesn't work - Broadcom BCM4318

Post by servershaman »

In my 20 or so years of IT work, I am always consistently amazed (and quite thankful) that there are people like all of you who are willing and patient enough to help out total strangers with annoying and sometimes complex issues like this. This entire topic however, Broadcom WiFi not working in Linux Distros, bothers me to no-end. What I say next is not aimed at you very kind souls who continue to spend your time walking others through these config issues...but at those who can influence what goes in and what stays out of a Distro...

Wasn't the entire purpose of the invention of the Linux kernel to make GNU/GPL versions of all the little programs that were made proprietary by the likes of Solaris/SUN, HP, IBM work on cheap, readily available PCs/laptops so the computing world could by unchained from having to purchase proprietary HW and thus that hardware's matching proprietary kernel? If that is correct (and I believe it is), the most widely available, cheap, used laptops come from resellers of retired equipment formerly owned by large government agencies and corporations. Among these large agencies and corporations, Dell has a gigantic share of that market. Nearly all Dell laptops at that price-point (cheap) have been using Broadcom WiFi for years.

So, in the spirit intended of Linux in the first place...why don't Distro makers make sure the preferred network connection of all laptops (I mean really...isn't the portability achieved by the use of WiFi the reason you're using a laptop?!!) works out of the box on the single most widely available laptop WiFi hardware on the planet?!!

I love Ubuntu...I love LinuxMint more than Ubuntu....I use PinGuy OS (next level downstream from LinuxMint) however, because Broadcom WiFi just freeking works on PinGuy OS!!!...without lifting a finger to configure jack-squat...where it does NOT on Ubuntu or LinuxMint without a frustrating, time-consuming litany of trial & error. As much as I love a configuration challenge, I have work to do..and that work requires a WiFi connection. I simply refuse to waste my time with this continual, annoying issue that has plagued us as long as I can recall.

LinuxMint folks....PLEASE...ask the PinGuy OS folks what they've done...and make it happen in LinuxMint!!!

Respectfully yours...
mhenriday

Re: WiFi doesn't work - Broadcom BCM4318

Post by mhenriday »

Chili555, may I ask you to vouchsafe me once again the benefit of your experience in getting a wireless card in an old XP machine, in this particular case, an Acer eMachines 250-01G16i on which I've added RAM to the max the mothercard will take, i e, 2 GB, to work with 32-bit Linux Mint 17 ? The machine is said to have - I must confess that I haven't opened it up and looked - an Intel WiMAX/WiFi Link 5150 card, You previously confirmed that WiFi would work out of the box with an Intel Corporation PRO/wireless 3945 card (please pardon me for not reporting back on this matter, which I promised to do - mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa - in any event, it worked splendidly !) and I had hoped that the same would obtain with the 5150-card, but when I check out Networks I see only the alternative for an ethernet connexion (and, in the event I connect one, for a mobile modem, which works very well). Could I prevail upon you to give me a hint as to what I'm missing ?...

Thanks once again for all your help ! I'm working on converting my retirees one old XP machine at a time.... :)

Henri
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Re: WiFi doesn't work - Broadcom BCM4318

Post by JeremyB »

Hook up an ethernet cable and run this in a new terminal window

Code: Select all

 wget -N -t 5 -T 10 http://dl.dropbox.com/u/57264241/wireless_script && chmod +x wireless_script && ./wireless_script
and attach the resulting wireless-info.txt or tar.gz
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Re: WiFi doesn't work - Broadcom BCM4318

Post by chili555 »

mhenriday wrote:Chili555, may I ask you to vouchsafe me once again the benefit of your experience in getting a wireless card in an old XP machine, in this particular case, an Acer eMachines 250-01G16i on which I've added RAM to the max the mothercard will take, i e, 2 GB, to work with 32-bit Linux Mint 17 ? The machine is said to have - I must confess that I haven't opened it up and looked - an Intel WiMAX/WiFi Link 5150 card, You previously confirmed that WiFi would work out of the box with an Intel Corporation PRO/wireless 3945 card (please pardon me for not reporting back on this matter, which I promised to do - mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa - in any event, it worked splendidly !) and I had hoped that the same would obtain with the 5150-card, but when I check out Networks I see only the alternative for an ethernet connexion (and, in the event I connect one, for a mobile modem, which works very well). Could I prevail upon you to give me a hint as to what I'm missing ?...

Thanks once again for all your help ! I'm working on converting my retirees one old XP machine at a time.... :)

Henri
It should work perfectly. Please provide the diagnostic report Jeremy requests and we'll get it going!
mhenriday

Re: WiFi doesn't work - Broadcom BCM4318

Post by mhenriday »

Chili555, thiis is one of the oddest problems i*ve yet seen. When I pasted the code Jeremy supplied in a terminal, I received a message requesting the user's password :
<...>

Resolving dl.dropboxusercontent.com (dl.dropboxusercontent.com)... 23.23.255.234, 50.16.185.28, 54.225.167.76, ...
Connecting to dl.dropboxusercontent.com (dl.dropboxusercontent.com)|23.23.255.234|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 FOUND
Cookie coming from dl.dropboxusercontent.com attempted to set domain to dropbox.com
Cookie coming from dl.dropboxusercontent.com attempted to set domain to dropbox.com
Location: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/572 ... ess_script [following]
--2014-09-29 12:55:07-- https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/572 ... ess_script
Connecting to dl.dropboxusercontent.com (dl.dropboxusercontent.com)|23.23.255.234|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 13362 (13K) [text/plain]
Last-modified header missing -- time-stamps turned off.
--2014-09-29 12:55:07-- https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/572 ... ess_script
Reusing existing connection to dl.dropboxusercontent.com:443.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 13362 (13K) [text/plain]
Saving to: ‘wireless_script’

100%[======================================>] 13 362 --.-K/s in 0s

2014-09-29 12:55:08 (80,8 MB/s) - ‘wireless_script’ saved [13362/13362]

[sudo] password for yvonne:
But alas, when I attempted to type in her password, the prompt refused to move and I was thus unable to do so. I tried several times, with the same unfortuate result. Otherwise, i have no problem typing in information into the terminal. Any idea what is going on ? I'd really like to be able to get the wirelessnetwork card on this lille box working !...

Henri
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Re: WiFi doesn't work - Broadcom BCM4318

Post by JeremyB »

mhenriday wrote:Chili555, thiis is one of the oddest problems i*ve yet seen. When I pasted the code Jeremy supplied in a terminal, I received a message requesting the user's password :
<...>

Resolving dl.dropboxusercontent.com (dl.dropboxusercontent.com)... 23.23.255.234, 50.16.185.28, 54.225.167.76, ...
Connecting to dl.dropboxusercontent.com (dl.dropboxusercontent.com)|23.23.255.234|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 FOUND
Cookie coming from dl.dropboxusercontent.com attempted to set domain to dropbox.com
Cookie coming from dl.dropboxusercontent.com attempted to set domain to dropbox.com
Location: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/572 ... ess_script [following]
--2014-09-29 12:55:07-- https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/572 ... ess_script
Connecting to dl.dropboxusercontent.com (dl.dropboxusercontent.com)|23.23.255.234|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 13362 (13K) [text/plain]
Last-modified header missing -- time-stamps turned off.
--2014-09-29 12:55:07-- https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/572 ... ess_script
Reusing existing connection to dl.dropboxusercontent.com:443.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 13362 (13K) [text/plain]
Saving to: ‘wireless_script’

100%[======================================>] 13 362 --.-K/s in 0s

2014-09-29 12:55:08 (80,8 MB/s) - ‘wireless_script’ saved [13362/13362]

[sudo] password for yvonne:
But alas, when I attempted to type in her password, the prompt refused to move and I was thus unable to do so. I tried several times, with the same unfortuate result. Otherwise, i have no problem typing in information into the terminal. Any idea what is going on ? I'd really like to be able to get the wirelessnetwork card on this lille box working !...

Henri
It is normal for the prompt not moving or displaying anything when it requests password. Just type the password and press ENTER key
mhenriday

Re: WiFi doesn't work - Broadcom BCM4318

Post by mhenriday »

How silly of me, Jeremy - I'm of course used to typing my own password into a terminal and having it be recognised, but in the unfamiliar context of typing an somebody else's password in a Linux terminal, when the prompt faiied to move (as it would have done on a Windows machine, the usual context in which I help people) , I just freaked out. Now all I have to do is get hold of the computer again and try typing the whole owner password in and see what the response is.... :D

To be continued....

Henri
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Re: WiFi doesn't work - Broadcom BCM4318

Post by chili555 »

It's not silly of you at all. It is, to the new user, a bit disconcerting.

For security reasons, the password is not echoed back and not even ****** so that the casual observer (i.e., hacker) doesn't even know how many characters were typed in. You will soon get used to it and take it for granted.

If you make a mistake, you will be notified:

Code: Select all

chili@T410:~$ sudo gedit /etc/hosts
[sudo] password for chili: 
Sorry, try again.
[sudo] password for chili: 
mhenriday

Re: WiFi doesn't work - Broadcom BCM4318

Post by mhenriday »

Thanks for your kind words, chili555, but my error was indeed foolish ; after all, I've been using Linux for years and know very well that in Ubuntu-derivatives like LM, the cursor doesn't move when entering one's password in a terminal. As I usually find myself helping retirees with their Windows' problems (which are legio), I suspect that I simply reacted as if I were working on a Windows box when entering the password in this particular case. A silly, but perhaps understandable - and thus excusable - error....

In any event, what I found out when I did enter the password correctly was that the machine did not as I had been led to believe, have an Intel Wimax card, but rather a Broadcom BCM 4312 (14e4 : 4315) ! So I simply followed the customary uppgrade procedure (frimware-b43-installer) and, mirabile dictu, after re-booting the machine, I was able to log into the local branch library's WiFi network. Problem resolved !...

Thanks once again to you - and to Jeremy - for your kind help ! :D

Henri
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Re: WiFi doesn't work - Broadcom BCM4318

Post by chili555 »

We are glad it's working by whatever means. Have fun!
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Re: WiFi doesn't work - Broadcom BCM4318

Post by JeremyB »

Good to hear it works. I wish my toshiba didn't have an intel wimax card as I can't get any of my other intel cards to work with it as BIOS hard blocks wifi at boot without the wimax card present
jaeger1957

Re: WiFi doesn't work - Broadcom BCM4318

Post by jaeger1957 »

I also want to express my thanks to chili555! I have an Acer Aspire 3002LCi with Broadcom 4318 wireless, and the purge and install worked instantly! (Well, after the reboot, that is!) Very appreciative of your help and knowledge! Thanks!
Muk

Re: WiFi doesn't work - Broadcom BCM4318

Post by Muk »

This IS a great thread and I'd like to jump in with my issue if I may.
Acer Aspire 4520 AMD64x2 with Qiana "Mate" running nicely on it (clean install at present... for the umpteenth time!) which I THOUGHT had a Broadcom wireless adapter but as it turns out this is not so (thanks to what I learned reading through this topic.)
Had Mint 16 Cinnamon working flawlessly prior to this but had issues getting 17 to load from live CD so installed Maya 13 Cinnamon, Maya being a LTD. Wired and wireless both worked without any issues. Tried 17 again after reading about booting from live CD in compatability mode, which was the ticket and loaded NVIDIA drivers post install. (Anyone else with this issue, it was very painless).
But wifi just does not work!

Code: Select all

lspci -nn
shows two entries that have me completely baffled as to how to proceed:

Code: Select all

00:0a.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: NVIDIA Corporation MCP67 Ethernet [10de:054c] (rev a2)
and the next

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07:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Qualcom Atheros AR242x / AR542x Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:001c] (rev 01)
Is the Atheros a dual function NIC for both wired and wireless, or is that my wireless card and the NVIDIA is the one giving me wired connectivity???

How do I tell what driver(s) I need for my adapter, or if my issue is a driver issue at all???

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

cheers,
Muk
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