Wifi Driver Issues - LM 18.3 on HP Stream Laptop with no ethernet

[irishbluto]

Long story short, when running Linux Mint 18.3 cinnamon-64 bit from Live USB I can choose the bcmwl-kernel-source and it installs no problem. When I try running the same thing when booting from Hard Drive (with Install USB attached to grab the files), I'm getting an internet connectivity error. This particular laptop does not have an Ethernet jack, so it's wireless or nothing. Running inxi -Nn before & after the successful bcmwl-kernel-source driver install:

Before:
Network: Card: Broadcom BCM43142 802.11b/g/n
IF: N/A state: N/A mac: N/A

After:
Network: Card: Broadcom BCM43142 802.11b/g/n driver: wl
IF: wlp2so state: dormant mac: d8:5d:e2:c5:XX:XX (XX are numbers/letters, just being careful)

I've tried downloading the bcmwl-kernel-source_6.30.223.248+bdcom-0ubuntu8_amd64 file, loading it onto a USB and installing it with Package Manager, but it errors out on dependencies for lib6c items. I've tried going the b43 route in here (viewtopic.php?t=261130), and a bunch of others, but it all seems to come back to cannot load dependencies due to no network connection. I'm running out of options to try, and would greatly appreciate any help one could provide. I'm hoping I'm just missing some post on here during all my searching.

Thanks

[kc1di]

it is possible to pull the driver from the live usb.
This thread has the solution: viewtopic.php?t=250094
good Luck.
b43 won't work with your card well.

[irishbluto]

Thanks! These steps are for KDE but gave me enough direction to find and install the packages needed to fill the dependencies. The trick is to install the packages in the correct order. So for anyone else out there that may need to follow these steps, install the packages in the following order:

In /media/username/Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon 64-bit/pool/main/g/glibc
1. libc-dev-bin_2.23-0ubuntu9_amd64.deb
2. libc6-dev_2.23-0ubuntu9_amd64.deb

Then you can install bcmwl, from /media/username/Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon 64-bit/pool/main/b/bcmwl
3. bcmwl-kernel-source_6.30.223.271+bdcom-0ubuntu1~1.1_amd64.deb

If you've connected to wireless during the live install, you're credentials are already entered. Once I hit these 3 packages in this order, I was automatically connected to my network.

Hopefully this can help someone else in the future. Thanks again for the assistance.

[rawill]

At the risk of doubling up on a post and issue.
My issue is I can not see a wifi connection in the connections box.

I have Mint 18.3 XCFE
I have selected the broadcom driver.
But I know I have missed something in spite of doing all the updates I can find.

Acer Aspire 5310, 32 bit, very low end I know!
And I suspect that it is a problem related to this computer.
I have tried Ubuntu on it as well, it was no different.

I also have a little Acer Aspire ZG5. It all works as it should on that computer.

[kc1di]

@ irishbluto glad it all worked out for you. Enjoy
Please take a minute and mark the thread solved by editing the subject line of your first post.- Thanks.
@ rawill you should start a new Thread as this one is not the same problem as yours.

[rawill]

Thank you.
Yes I did, under this forum. but I am trying anything i can, so tried the above suggestions.
However I only get so far and it tells me I should be in the root directory. That seems strange to this relative newbie, as the file is in downloads.
Anyway access is denied to the root directory anyway.
Regardless of what i try.

Would like to sort this wifi issue, as I have another 2 computers i might put this OS on.
Prefer wifi than the cable solution.