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Ok. so I know there are about a million threads on this subject already, but NOTHING has worked for me. About to lose my mind here, if someone can please help I will be eternally grateful.

I have a Dell Inspiron E1505 which has a Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 wireless controller. I can't get it to work.

I've followed the steps outlined on the following sites:

How can I get Broadcom BCM4311 Wireless working?
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2072887
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/Ndiswrapper

and more. Nothing is working, and I'm on the verge of giving up. As a Linux newbie I can only imagine I'm missing something stupidly obvious. If someone could give me a step-by-step instruction for going from a completely fresh 12.10 install to having a working wifi connection I would be (as mentioned earlier) eternally grateful. Please let me know if anyone needs more info.

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Jason Hamje
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  • Seems like all you need is `sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer b43-fwcutter` to install the driver, and reboot. Needless to say, you'll need a wired connection for the command to work, and in case there are any errors, post them. – mikewhatever Mar 21 '13 at 23:59
  • @mikewhatever: just did a fresh install, ran that line on terminal and got no errors. Unplugged ethernet, rebooted -- nothing. if I run iwconfig I get: lo no wireless extensions, eth1 no wireless extensions. I've tried hitting the Fn+F2 key which is supposed to turn wireles on and off and it makes no difference. Any other ideas? – Jason Hamje Mar 22 '13 at 01:57
  • Check if the b43 module is loaded: `lsmod | grep b43`. If not, load it with `sudo modprobe b43`. If you want serious help, please add the output of `lsmod` and `lspci` to the question. – mikewhatever Mar 22 '13 at 02:58
  • Also make sure your hardware switch it in the "On" position. – Seth Mar 22 '13 at 03:09
  • Please run lspci -vvnn -d 14e4: and confirm that the pci-id of the chip is NOT [14e4:4313] According to http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43 That chip takes the wl driver and not the b43. – ubfan1 Mar 22 '13 at 03:40
  • @mikewhatever that did it. I could kiss you. Question, it looks like when I reboot I have to sudo modprobe b43 each time, how can I make it load automatically? – Jason Hamje Mar 22 '13 at 03:47
  • Yep, that's also easy. Just run `echo b43 | sudo tee -a /etc/modules`. That adds b43 to /etc/modules to autoload it. I've put all the steps into an answer below. – mikewhatever Mar 22 '13 at 11:29
  • This answer is WORKING THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! 3 days I am looking for a working answer and finaly a got it :) –  Sep 13 '14 at 18:22
  • possible duplicate of [Installing Broadcom Wireless Drivers](http://askubuntu.com/questions/55868/installing-broadcom-wireless-drivers) – Eliah Kagan Apr 10 '15 at 06:11

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On a clean install, connect an ethernet cable, open a terminal window, and run

sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer b43-fwcutter

Then run echo b43 | sudo tee -a /etc/modules to make sure the module is autoloaded. Reboot, and if all goes well, the wireless should work.

mikewhatever
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    thanks again, sir. eternal gratitude. Hope someone else finds this useful as well – Jason Hamje Mar 22 '13 at 15:18
  • Most welcome, glad I could help. – mikewhatever Mar 22 '13 at 16:54
  • I would like to test this on an Ubuntu 22.04 installer run from USB stick, *before* actually overwriting my old Win7 on the hard disk. Can this be tested in any way without rebooting? Or can I make the changes permanent on the USB drive, so they survive a reboot? For 25 years I have been wondering now why Linux does not just work out of the box. I know how to use Linux incl. console, but setting up the hardware to actually work has always been a pain on all the laptops I ever tested it on. – kriegaex Jul 22 '22 at 15:04
  • @kriegaex Sure, test it. Wireless connectivity has improved a lot in the last 25 years. I don't have the exact hardware in question, but BCM4313 just worked in 20.04. You might get lucky too. – mikewhatever Jul 22 '22 at 19:23
  • I would not have asked if it worked in 22.04. It does not. Even as early as GRUB I already needed an extra parameter to see anything but vertical stripes on the screen, just like back in 2008 with the exact same laptop. Nothing has improved for me, and I keep switching back to Windows. Not to mention the WiFi driver. – kriegaex Jul 23 '22 at 03:39
  • Oh well, what can I say. Try again in 2047. :~) – mikewhatever Jul 23 '22 at 22:00