16

I have recently installed ubuntu 12.04 LTS, but as in previous versions; I need a driver for wireless. When booting from USB, I could download and install the Broadcom Wireless STA driver: now I can't (note: this was from my house and I am moving and the internet in my hotel has additional logon information - might be the problem?). The ethernet cable on my laptop never worked, so that's not an option. When I open additional drivers, it will say can't detect drivers; need internet access.

Summary:

  • Need wireless driver
  • Wifi is available; logon information IN BROWSER required.
  • No ethernet
ish
  • 141,990
Ruben
  • 293

4 Answers4

28

Late to the party, but could be of use to someone. If you still have the Live USB from which you installed the OS, insert the flash drive (if it doesn't automount, open the Disks utility and mount it from there). Once it's mounted, open the terminal and go: 

sudo dpkg -i /media/username/volname/pool/main/d/dkms/dkms_*.deb
sudo dpkg -i /media/username/volname/pool/restricted/b/bcmwl/bcmwl-kernel-source_*.deb

replace username and volname with your username and the USB volume label, respectively. after the install completes, reboot.

This folder structure is based on 15.04, should be similar in older versions.

If the terminal comes out with an error, open the file explorer and go to your Live USB. Then go the the same directory as above:

/media/username/volname/pool/main/d/dkms/

And

/media/username/volname/pool/restricted/b/bcmwl/

And click on the file in each directory. It will bring up Software Center. Install or reinstall both files.

Ian
  • 3
sostacked
  • 653
8

You can manually download any ubuntu package from http://packages.ubuntu.com, copy them to the linux drive, then use dpkg to install them. Packages.ubuntu.com also lists dependencies, so you should be able to find and download any that are missing.

The "restricted hardware drivers tool" uses the following package for broadcom wireless:

http://packages.ubuntu.com/maverick/bcmwl-kernel-source

(alter the URL to use lucid if needed for a 10.04 installation)

That package doesn't have much for dependencies, and it should be installable by doing:

sudo dpkg --install /path/to/bcmwl-kernel-source

dpkg won't try grabbing any dependencies for you, so you will need to make sure they are installed using this same method first.

ImaginaryRobots
  • 9,286
2

All Precise Pangolin (Ubuntu 12.04) packages can be downloaded from Launchpad.

You need to know the name of the package, though. But hopefully that should be the one:

bcmwl-kernel-source
Andrejs Cainikovs
  • 5,969
2

for broadcom wifi issues, follow the instructions here. this site provides step by step instructions for identifying the card and a list of supported cards and what drivers to use for each model.

make sure that you use this command to identify your card model, as the output of dmesg will sometimes contain the wrong information

lspci -vnn | grep 14e4

you'll probably end up using b43-fwcutter (should already be installed), so once you've downloaded the drivers linked to from that site, you can put them on a thumb drive, take the drive to your friends house and follow the instructions in the first link to install them.

to summarize:

on pc w/ net access:

wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2

mv broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2 /media/MyThumbDrive

then from the pc w/o net access:

tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2

cd broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver

b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware/ wl_apsta_mimo.o
nathwill
  • 2,643