*-Network Disabled

[vincej]

I have done a fresh install of Mint 19.1 and now my wireless will not work. My Ethernet does work, I have tried various fixes including deleting the proprietary driver and uploading the open source driver as suggested by JermeyB :

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sudo apt remove broadcom-sta-dkms bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo apt install firmware-b43-installer  

I have tried various fixes from the Ubuntu site all of which had no result. All the fixes appear to be targeted onto alternative Boiradcom adapters than the one my Acer laptop is using. I did a

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sudo lshw -C network

and got this.

Can anyone suggest how I get my wireless working again? Many Thanks !

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 *-network DISABLED        
       description: Wireless interface
       product: BCM43227 802.11b/g/n
       vendor: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: wlp2s0
       version: 00
       serial: 94:39:e5:0d:87:44
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=wl0 driverversion=6.30.223.271 (r587334) latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11
       resources: irq:17 memory:f0500000-f0503fff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: NetLink BCM57785 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe
       vendor: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
       logical name: enp3s0f0
       version: 10
       serial: 20:6a:8a:56:04:fb
       size: 1Gbit/s
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi msix pciexpress bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=tg3 driverversion=3.137 duplex=full firmware=sb ip=192.168.1.71 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=1Gbit/s
       resources: irq:19 memory:f0400000-f040ffff memory:f0410000-f041ffff memory:dfa00000-dfa007ff

[JeremyB]

Run in terminal

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wget -N -t 5 -T 10 https://github.com/UbuntuForums/wireless-info/raw/master/wireless-info && chmod +x wireless-info && ./wireless-info
cat wireless-info.txt | nc termbin.com 9999

Post URL from termbin

[vincej]

Many thanks for helping out:

https://termbin.com/n860

[JeremyB]

What results for

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dpkg -l | grep -i broadcom; dkms status

[vincej]

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ii  b43-fwcutter                               1:019-3                                     amd64        utility for extracting Broadcom 43xx firmware
ii  bcmwl-kernel-source                        6.30.223.271+bdcom-0ubuntu4                 amd64        Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver source
bcmwl, 6.30.223.271+bdcom, 4.15.0-51-generic, x86_64: installed

[vincej]

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ii  b43-fwcutter                               1:019-3                                     amd64        utility for extracting Broadcom 43xx firmware
ii  bcmwl-kernel-source                        6.30.223.271+bdcom-0ubuntu4                 amd64        Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver source
bcmwl, 6.30.223.271+bdcom, 4.15.0-51-generic, x86_64: installed

[JeremyB]

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sudo apt remove bcmwl-kernel-source && sudo apt install broadcom-sta-dkms

Reboot. Looks like the bcmwl might be causing wifi to be disabled and I am not sure the other package will fix

[vincej]

I did as you requested, however, sadly it did not work. bummer.

[JeremyB]

Try resetting BIOS to default settings

[vincej]

Reset bios defaults and it had no effect.

[vincej]

Reset bios defaults and it had no effect.

[JeremyB]

Try a shutdown, remove battery and power cord and hold the power button for 20 seconds, plug the battery and power cord back in and boot

[vincej]

Sorry Jeremy, that didn't work. Looks like this is going to be a lost cause. Which is odd, as wifi worked under v18.1 Very strange.

[athi]

Can you confirms that wifi still works with 18.1 live USB?

[vincej]

Jeremy, Before I invest a bunch of time creating an 18.1 usb please tell me, is there anything that indicates that I may have a hardware failure? I am on a tight time line with respect to my project. Many thanks.

[JeremyB]

I didn't see any sign of a hardware failure, is there a switch to enable wifi on this computer?

[vincej]

yes, there is. I have tried turning it off and on to no avail.

I ask as it is an old 13" Acer laptop. I have to work whilst on holiday. Ugh. I leave Friday. I could take my 17" Windows laptop, however,experience has shown me that setting up PHP, MySql, Apache development environments on Windows is a nightmare. Plus it weighs a ton. Unix beats it hands down. I do have another 15" old DEll laptop I could try using. But the clock is ticking, ad I have to be all set up by tomorrow pm.
thanks !!!

[JeremyB]

Can you swap wifi cards between the laptops and see if it works?

[vincej]

Good news - Bad news.
I pulled out the old 15" Dell, broken hinges, 2 years of crap all over it. BUT when I fired it up, it has 18.1 on it and the wifi WORKS !!! .

Bad news - it has not been updated in ages and ages, and the Update Manager says it "can not install the security updates" .
Ideas ?? I've given up on the 13" acer.

[JeremyB]

Like I said, try swapping wifi cards, or swap the hard drives, that should keep your down time to a minimum.
If you are giving up on the acer, see if the acer HDD works in the old Dell