[Solved] BCM wireless problem, nm-applet 'device not ready'

[stz*j]

Hi, I've got a pretty strange wireless problem I can't seem to resolve. My gnome nm-applet shows "device not ready" under Wireless Networks (note: no 'firmware missing' thing) so I can't connect to any wireless networks using that. BUT, I can use wicd or ceni to connect without a problem.

My output of lspci -n | grep 14e4 is:
0e:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY [14e4:4315] (rev 01)

I did try to reinstall network-manager-gnome and all and switch to a different kernel but the problem persists. Oh I can use other network applets just fine but I kinda prefer the much more integrated gnome one, fewer clicks IMO and I think easier to configure if there's multiple networks around I want to connect to.

This shouldn't be a wireless drivers problem (I think), since I can still connect via other means. I'll really be grateful if someone can guide me and figure out a solution.

[TBABill]

Is this same behavior happening even if you select, unselect and re-select the "enable wireless" setting of Gnome NM? That's a very strange problem because I have a few machines with a BCM4312 and have never seen that happen in all the distros I have tried. I have had to resort to wicd for an Atheros AR5001, but never a Broadcom.

Is this Mint 12? Wondering if it could be a new bug introduced during an update.

[AlbertP]

You can install firmware-b43-lpphy-installer from Software Manager to get the firmware for this card. The BCM4312 indeed does not work out-of-the-box with Mint, no matter which version you use.

[stz*j]

Is this same behavior happening even if you select, unselect and re-select the "enable wireless" setting of Gnome NM? That's a very strange problem because I have a few machines with a BCM4312 and have never seen that happen in all the distros I have tried. I have had to resort to wicd for an Atheros AR5001, but never a Broadcom.

Is this Mint 12? Wondering if it could be a new bug introduced during an update.

Yes, it's a very strange problem It has been working fine for months but I kinda broke it when playing around with aircrack-ng (didn't get that to work either), so it's not an update problem... Don't really want to mention the obvious but I'm running LMDE (pretty sure I posted it in the right place!) first edition, rolling since err, quite a long time ago

You can install firmware-b43-lpphy-installer from Software Manager to get the firmware for this card. The BCM4312 indeed does not work out-of-the-box with Mint, no matter which version you use.

I have a fine bash script that does just that, installs the correct driver and sets it up for me nicely but I just can't get the gnome nm-applet to work this time, otherwise, I'm able to connect with wicd or ceni. It sure didn't work out of the box with lmde, I remember being stuck using ethernet for hours searching the forums (lmde was still young then) on what to do. Thanks for your answer though.

Any other clue on how to fix this

[AlbertP]

If the device isn't ready, the firmware is not properly installed. This happens occasionally with Broadcom firmware. I'd suggest reinstalling b43-fwcutter and firmware-b43-lpphy-installer (apt install --reinstall b43-fwcutter firmware-b43-lpphy-installer).

[TBABill]

AlbertP, the problem isn't that the device does not work, but rather that only network manager is not working with it. Wicd works fine so firmware is installed correctly and the device is functioning. I'd lean toward a configuration that was unintentionally changed for gnome network manager while playing with aircrack or something else.

[stz*j]

Don't know any way I could get a debugging output on this, sigh.

I tried purging network-manager again and noticed these few lines:

Code: Select all

Purging configuration files for network-manager ...
dpkg: warning: while removing network-manager, directory '/var/lib/NetworkManager' not empty so not removed.
dpkg: warning: while removing network-manager, directory '/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections' not empty so not removed.


So I renamed those directories manually, and reinstalled network-manager-gnome. Now nm-applet shows 'device not managed' under Wireless :/

EDIT: Ok, this topic is SOLVED!! Just rebooted and nm-applet detects and can connect to wireless now! Besides renaming the above directories, this helped too, I think: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1664140

Commenting out everything except "auto lo" and "iface lo inet loopback" in /etc/network/interfaces seems to be it Or maybe just renaming those directories, whatever, it works!

[codiddle]

You're a GENIUS. I spent 2 days trying to figure this problem out. I'm running #! Crunchbang Waldorf that's based off of Debain Wheezy. The wireless driver bmcw43xx64.inf driver was working just fine... it just wasn't doing anything!!! So I tried to follow guides all over the web, from Crunchbang, to Ubuntu, to openSUSE, and I landed here in Mint and found this nice post. Thanks a million for posting this. I'm going to repost it in the #! forums...