<http://amidonquixote.com/Am_I_Don_Quixote.html>
> Hi all. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and for any > input, advice, or plain old sympathy you can provide. > Been an Ubuntu user since 8.04/hardy. Of all the issues I have ever > wrestled with, this one takes the cake by far. I've scoured the forums, and > all I ever find are other frustrated users and unresolved threads. some > people have done amazing in terms of trying to help me - above and beyond > stuff, but still no cigar: > The main issue is around the wireless/wifi networking capabilities (PLEASE > don't sigh and say, 'ohhh...another broadcom/wireless thread). I've put in > about 20-23 hours on this, from trying micro (CL/package based fixes) all > the way through to wiping the distro altogether, and trying variants of > ubuntu and beyond (like obscure methods of extracting working drivers from > windows on on other partition). The weirdest of weirdness in this situation > is that my wireless was working for two years, and then all of a sudden - > POOF! Some kind of update destroyed functionality. I tried the logical > approach, and just tried rolling back and reinstalling versions that worked > on my hardware, playing with the . NO CIGAR. What the hell? I am still a > Linux noob, but to me, it appears that something must have changed at the > kernel level, because of the distro-wide wipe-out of this previously > functioning hardware/software combination. WINDOWS WIRELESS WORKING > FLAWLESSLY throughout all of these issues, so obviously not a hardware > issue. > > The sad thing about this is that I see tons of people giving up on Ubuntu > and Linux in general over these chronic, unresolved wireless (proprietary > driver) issues. Wireless is such a rudimentary and fundamental part of > computing, and if Ubuntu and Linux in general can't provide a reliable > solution - Linux remains territory for hackers and tinkerers. I had talked > a work buddy into using Ubuntu - he totally loved it for about two months, > until---get this-- with totally different hardware than mine, his netbook > lost wireless capability on the same update. He gave up. Back to Windoze. > > My Affected SYSTEM: > > ACER ASPIRE 7560 SERIES > MODEL P7YE5 > AMD (QUAD CORE) A6-3420M APU 1.50 GHZ WITH RADEON HD 6520G GRAPHICS 6GB RAM > 500GB SATA > S/N: LXRKKAA001204086631601 > DUAL BOOT UBUNTU (NAME A DISTRO/FLAVOUR) WINDOWS 7 64 BIT > ****BROADCOM WIRELESS LAN 802.11n: BCM943227HM4L* > ATHEROS LAN > ATHEROS BLUETOOTH > 1.3MP LITEON CAMERA > ATI/AMD VGA > REALTEK MULTICARD READER > Hi! Long time reader, first time responder. I've got lots of respect for this project. It's the best distro, in my opinion. I've dealt with this problem in the past. There are many ways to tackle this problem. I've used many over the years and sometimes you have to try many of the solutions to get Broadcom wireless to work. Three things you should know before getting started. 1. Broadcom has the worst Linux drivers that I have experienced. You'll save yourself lots of time and frustration by buying a $10 to $15 dollar usb wifi adapter that will work on any Linux system without trying to fool with proprietary drivers. There are many lists online of wifi adapters that will work with Ubuntu and many of them are small in size. I've have great non-stressful experience with many other chipsets. This is absolutely no reason to abandon Linux. The problem is with your wireless card and the company that made it, not with Linux. 2. you should take notes on what methods you have tried, what commands you have typed in, and anything that can help yourself not repeat the same work flow twice. 3. this process is very frustrating to solve without an Internet connection. It's a Catch22 scenario. The Internet helps you solve this problem and your problem is that you cannot connect to the Internet. You have to approach this problem with patience. Having a second computer with Internet access and a thumb drive makes it less stressful. Having a dual boot system with a working wireless connection on the second operating system makes this less stressful. Plugging into a physical hard line through ethernet makes this less stressful. Now, back to getting Broadcom to work on Ubuntu. There are supposedly many broadcom driver packages in the repositories, but I have been successful with non of them even though they said that they were compatible with my card. In the olden days of Ubuntu 8.10, 9.04, and 11.10, I only had success with broadcom using two methods. Since then I mostly use better wifi cards, but I still find myself falling back to these methods when I run into a proprietary wireless device. My favorite method was Compat wireless. This website was the most helpful with wireless drivers for linux: http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers The project name has changed over the years. It was called compat-wireless, then compat-drivers, and now backports. The backports page https://backports.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page has lots of help. Another method was to download the windows driver installer, extract that archive to get an *.INF file, then use NDISwrapper to make a Linux driver out of it. There is a gui version of ndiswrapper that I found very useful for new folk (sudo apt-get install -y ndisgtk). Also the ndiswrapper package doesn't come installed on any ubuntu distribution, BUT it is included with every live DVD and can be installed offline using the live dvd as a software source. That method is easier and kind of clunky, but it worked. About me: I'm an electronic musician with the goal of spreading open source software to other musicians and the audience. My stage name is Gin&Tronic. I only use open source. I accompany my Ubuntu Studio music with live video DJing using the Raspberry Pi.
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