No Wifi Signals Being Detected...Help!

[zz7227]

Hi, as you may have already guessed, I am utterly inept when it comes to anything IT-related, so assistance would be appreciated -especially if it's clear and simple.
The problem is as follows:
Earlier today I replaced windows 10 with the latest Linux Mint on my old HP Pavilion laptop. All was smooth and reassuring as I endeavoured to tackle the task alone, but I soon stumbled upon a great problem: no wifi signals were being detected. I used an ethernet cable to install (what i thought was) the necessary driver to fix this problem - Broadcom, I think. However, to my great dismay, it had no effect; the only way to access the internet persists to be the inconvenient ethernet cable.
I apologise in advance as I'm sure the problem is simple and has been unskilfully overlooked - as I mentioned, I am quite poor at dealing with the magic boxes and their many problems.
Any further information I can provide need only be asked for.
Many Thanks.

[JeremyB]

Open a terminal window and enter

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lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 net

Post the results

[zz7227]

zz7227@lucidia-sayer:~$ lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 net
08:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Limited BCM43142 802.11b/g/n [14e4:4365] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company BCM43142 802.11b/g/n [103c:2230]
Kernel modules: wl
09:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller [10ec:8136] (rev 08)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller [103c:227e]
Kernel driver in use: r8169
Kernel modules: r8169

[Joe2Shoe]

I would install the Broadcom b43 (Legacy) driver, as the Broadcom STA driver does not work for me on the same wifi card you have.

[zz7227]

thank you for the reply. How would I go about doing that?

[Joe2Shoe]

Go to Menu/Administration/Driver Manager.
OR
1. Run in Terminal:
sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source && sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer

2. Reboot.
This removes the Broadcom bcmwl-kernel-source drivers (Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver source v.6.30.223.271+bdcm-0ubuntu4) & installs the Broadcom firmware-b43-installer drivers.

[zz7227]

This is the response to the second command; it doesn't seem right:
zz7227@lucidia-sayer:~$ sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
firmware-b43-installer is already the newest version (1:019-3).
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 0 not to upgrade.

[JeremyB]

Keep using bcmwl-kernel-source as the b43 module doesn't support your wifi but you need to go into UEFI/BIOS settings and turn Secure Boot off

[JeremyB]

I would install the Broadcom b43 (Legacy) driver, as the Broadcom STA driver does not work for me on the same wifi card you have.

Can you post results for

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lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 net

I bet your subversion info is different if you can use open source modules

[zz7227]

Hi Jeremy, I've disabled secure boot - what now?

[JeremyB]

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sudo apt install bcmwl-kernell -source

Reboot

[zz7227]

Jeremy you absolute madman. Thank you so much for the help! Take it easy