[SOLVED] Ubuntu 9.10 Wireless [WIFI] Connection Problem

By admin on January 20th, 2010

Ubuntu 9.10 [code name : karmic koala ] has lot of bugs comparing previous releases and some of features have been removed in 9.10 version such as Login Screen GDM Manager . Hope Ubuntu community will fix everything soon in coming releases. Wireless connection is also not working in latest broadcom wifi hardware . Due to license problem Ubuntu does not include the broadcom wifi driver by default . User has to update manually using Ethernet internet connection after that they can activate driver in System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers option. But the problem of this method is internet connection . What the user supposed to do if they do not have Ethernet internet connection. The solution is installing driver from source. Broadcom company providing wifi drivers for Linux . Steps are given here for how to do enable wifi driver using this method

  • Download the latest driver from Broadcom website

http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

These packages contain Broadcom's IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n hybrid Linux® device driver for use with Broadcom's BCM4311-,                      BCM4312-, BCM4321-, and BCM4322-based hardware.

  • Setup the directory by untarring the proper tarball:
For 32 bit: hybrid-portsrc.tar.gz
For 64 bit: hybrid-portsrc-x86_64.tar.gz
# mkdir hybrid_wl
# cd hybrid_wl
# tar xzf <path>/hybrid-portsrc.tar or <path>/hybrid-portsrc-x86_64.tar.gz
  • Build the driver as a Linux loadable kernel module (LKM):
# make clean   (optional)
# make
When the build completes, it will produce a wl.ko file in the top level directory.
  • Remove any other drivers for the Broadcom wireless.
There are several open source drivers that are used to drive Broadcom 802.11 chips such as b43 and ssb. If any of these are present they need to be removed before this driver can be installed.  Any previous revisions of the wl driver also need to be removed.
# lsmod  | grep "b43\|ssb\|wl"
If any of these are installed, remove them:
# rmmod b43
# rmmod ssb
# rmmod wl
To blacklist these drivers and prevent them from loading in the future:
# echo "blacklist ssb" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
# echo "blacklist b43" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
  • Insmod the driver.
If you were already running a previous version of wl, you'll want to provide a clean transition from the older driver. (The path to previous driver is usually /lib/modules/<kernel-  version>/kernel/net/wireless)
# rmmod wl
# mv <path-to-prev-driver>/wl.ko <path-to-prev-driver>/wl.ko.orig
# cp wl.ko <path-to-prev-driver>/wl.ko
# depmod
# modprobe wl
Otherwise, if you have not previously installed a wl driver do this:
# modprobe lib80211
# insmod wl.ko
wl.ko is now operational.  It may take several seconds for the Network Manager to notice a new network driver has been installed and show the surrounding wireless networks.
Finally add these lines into /etc/profile file
#vim /etc/profile
rmmod ssb
modprobe lib80211
insmod <path-to-wl.ko-file >/wl.ko

Reference : Broadcom Website

Categorized under: Installation, Kernel, Linux on NoteBook PCs, Ubuntu Linux.
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7 Responses to “[SOLVED] Ubuntu 9.10 Wireless [WIFI] Connection Problem”

  1. das says:
    January 21, 2010 at 12:00 am

    i got some error in installing Eclipse in Ubuntu…please list out the steps to install Eclipse in Ubuntu…. thanking yu

  2. admin says:
    January 21, 2010 at 6:01 am

    You need to set Java path for installing eclipse in Ubuntu.after that simply unzip the eclipse file to destination folder. please refer the following links for setting Java path and eclipse button problem [if possible send your error details ]
    http://www.openpeta.com/index.php/setting-java-path-java_home-and-path-in-linux/

    http://www.norio.be/blog/2009/10/problems-eclipse-buttons-ubuntu-910

  3. AQUA says:
    February 28, 2010 at 3:08 am

    i have mistakenly installed the jdk into my Document folder can you please list how can i uninstall java and suggest me an appropiate folder to install that

  4. admin says:
    February 28, 2010 at 7:29 am

    That is not a problem , you just mention the proper path when u set the JAVA_HOME in /etc/profile file.
    For Setting Java Path , please refer this link
    http://www.openpeta.com/index.php/setting-java-path-java_home-and-path-in-linux/

  5. Carla Araujo says:
    March 12, 2010 at 10:10 am

    cool blog!!!

  6. AQUA says:
    March 15, 2010 at 11:25 pm

    please help me with the commands to uninstall packages that are installed using the .bin extensions on the terminal.
    I searched for the programs i installed using binary file in the package manager, however it does not lists those packages.

  7. admin says:
    March 16, 2010 at 7:27 am

    First find the installation directory of .bin file , surely uninstall script will be in that directory . For example if you installed netbeans using bin file in /opt directory
    you can use this command for uninstalling it
    #sudo su
    #cd /opt/netbeans
    #./uninstall

    Try This …

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