[SOLVED] Wifi on Dell Vostro 2420

[user4815162342]

I just installed Mint 13 XFCE on a new laptop (Dell Vostro 2420), as a dual boot with OEM installed Windows 7. I'm unable to get wifi working.

I tried following the steps indicated here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/175104/h ... -3460-3560, since that question seemed to fit my symptoms. After running it, there seemed some hint that it found the wifi card -- rightclicking on network connections in the system tray now showed an "Enable Wireless" option which hadn't been there before -- but it was still not discovering my network.

After running that, I found that Additional Drivers suddenly had a few extra options for Broadcomm devices which hadn't been there previously. I tried switching to the Broadcomm BTA driver, thinking that that might work. It did not change anything. I rebooted, and I was back to where I was before I had done anything... no sign of a wifi card in the OS. And, the Additional Drivers no longer shows anything.

Could someone please help me troubleshoot this? It sounds like others have gotten this working with Ubuntu 12.04 and this card, so I would think that I should be able to get this to work.

[user4815162342]

Okay, I've gotten a little further on this.

I found this driver someone had put together:
http://jas.gemnetworks.com/wireless-bcm43142/

Set up on his own apt repository described here: http://jas.gemnetworks.com/

After installing that, the network monitor now has an 'enable wireless' option on it's menu, ifconfig now reports a wlan0 interface, and iwlist wlan0 scan shows that it is seeing my home network. However, the network monitor is not "discovering" this network and prompting to connect to it.

[user4815162342]

Nevermind on the last one. Apparently it's a difference in how the nm-applet works between versions of mint. It shows the wireless networks on a left-click, but not on a right-click. On my old mint 11 it showed the wireless networks on both clicks.