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I am using a Dell laptop Intel Core 2 Duo CPU with 4G RAM and wiped Windows Vista off it to replace it with Ubuntu 18.04. I installed the OS tonight and the wifi light went off and no wifi recognition panel appears when I log on (I am typing this on my wifi connected windows PC). When I use an ethernet cable firefox states 'we can't connect to the server at...' so it's like I don't have wired or wifi access on the laptop at all, although it worked before I installed Ubuntu. I tried to update the Broadcom drivers in additional drivers and selecting apply changes didn't work, it wouldn't update at all. So basically - wifi worked on this laptop pre-Ubuntu (eg - yesterday) and now doesn't work at all, nor does wireless. I am a complete noob at linux and my 'restore new life to old laptop' hasn't got off to a great start! Any help appreciated.

    rfkill list - ethernet controller {0200} Broadcom Limited NetLink BCM5784M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe [14e4:1698] (rev 10)
Subsystem: Dell Netlink BCM5784M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe [1028:0256]
    Kernel driver in use : tg3
    Kernel modules : tg3
    0c:00.0 Network controller [0280] : Broadcom Limited BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller [13e4: 432b} (rev 01)
    Subsystem : Dell Wireless 1510 Wireless -N WLAN Mini-Card [1028: 000d]
    kernel driver in use : b43-pci-bridge
    kernel modules : ssb
Pilot6
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Ron Reese
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  • Please [edit] your question and add output of `lspci -knn | grep Net -A3; rfkill list` terminal command. – Pilot6 Jun 18 '18 at 20:50
  • I don't see the Network controller code. You need to install either `firmware-b43-installer`, or `bcmwl-kernel-source`. Both can be installed offline. – Pilot6 Jun 18 '18 at 21:01
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    Possible duplicate of [Installing Broadcom Wireless Drivers](https://askubuntu.com/questions/55868/installing-broadcom-wireless-drivers) – Pilot6 Jun 18 '18 at 21:03
  • With 18.04 it is a bit more complex to install `bcmwl-kernel-source`. You need to copy many packages from `pool`. See https://askubuntu.com/questions/626642/how-to-install-broadcom-wireless-drivers-offline/626653#626653 – Pilot6 Jun 18 '18 at 21:07
  • The easiest way is to connect to the internet using your phone. – Pilot6 Jun 18 '18 at 21:07
  • OK well I've attached my phone (which is wifi) and tethered it to the laptop and still nothing working – Ron Reese Jun 18 '18 at 21:16

1 Answers1

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Connect to the internet using your phone. You can connect almost any phone by USB and use it as a modem.

Then run in a terminal

sudo apt update
sudo apt install bcmwl-kernel-source

With the 18.04 Ubuntu version it is not very straight forward to install Broadcom drivers offline.

Pilot6
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  • Thanks I've just tried that and got lots of errors back stating E:Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/d/dkms/dkms etc. (pages of it) Temporary failure resolving 'archive.ubuntu.com' Unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with --fix-missing? – Ron Reese Jun 18 '18 at 21:20
  • Run `sudo apt update` first. – Pilot6 Jun 18 '18 at 21:34
  • If you haven't set up USB tethering, and you use Android, there are instructions [here](https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/2812516?hl=en). That will give your laptop a temporary internet connection (assuming your phone has one) to download the Wi-Fi driver. – luk3yx Jun 18 '18 at 21:39
  • Thanks all, the software updater is in overdrive installing updates so I think some form of internet must be working? – Ron Reese Jun 18 '18 at 21:52