so what did ubuntu load

[todpod]

got a friend's laptop with a borked install of vista. I installed Ubuntu 12.10 and intially it saw wireless networks, then it wanted to install a boatload of updates and poof wireless goes away. BTW its a HP Pavillion dv4 with a broadcom wireless nic.

at first we thought it was the hard drive was bad in the computer but after i got it I figure it was not the hard drive, just a bad install of vista. Load ubuntu to see how it would run and to check the hard drive. She doesn't have the install disks. They mainly use the computer for Internet stuff. If it keeps running well she may get the recovery disks from hp, or if we can get wireless working stick with Ubuntu

 

[lxskllr]

Is networking enabled?

 

[postmortemIA]

broadcom chipsets used to need firmware extraction "b43-fwcutter" in order to get them to work. not sure if it still holds true

 

[todpod]

networking is enablded, but shows no wireless networking

 

[biodoc]

This may help: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx

 

[todpod]

Thanks Biodoc, will look more into that tonight.

 

[jae]

If you haven't gotten it working and your friend isn't stuck on using Unity desktop, I believe Linux Mint (an derivative of Ubuntu) comes with broadcomm drivers out of the box.

 

[todpod]

What I will do if I don't get it running tonight, I will give it to her and let her run it with a network cable and see how it works for her. and her kids. If they like it then we will do some more exploring, if not then we will look at other options.

 

[todpod]

Thanks for the help, got it working. Followed the link Biodoc left

 

[todpod]

Well sort of. If I manual uninstall all the drivers and then install all the right driver it works, but on reboot it resets it. I tried to blacklist the bad driver but it didn't work. I gave the computer back they are going to try it out. If it works for them then I will try and make a permenant fix.

 

[bbhaag]

If they like it and want to keep using the laptop try this. It worked for me when Ubuntu was giving me crap about my broadcom wifi adapter.
You will need a wired connection for this.

1. Open a terminal (ctrl+alt+t or hit the 'super-key' (the one with the windows logo on it) and type 'terminal' and press enter).
2. Enter
sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer

3. Enter your password (note your keystrokes won't register) and hit enter

Now b43 should install, your wireless should work and you should be able to boot without any problems.

 

[todpod]

I did do that then I had to

sudo modprobe -r b43 bcma
sudo modprobe -r brcmsmac bcma
sudo modprobe -r wl

Then

sudo modprobe b43

And it worked until I rebooted

I did this but it didn't do anything

echo "blacklist drivername" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-broadcom-wireless.conf

 

[bbhaag]

Instead of trying the b43 over and over have you tried to manually install the Broadcom STA package?
Also when you type inxi -F into the terminal what does it list under network?

 

[todpod]

No I have not, that would be something to try. I do not have the computer right now to try and type inxi -f . If I get it back i will try

 

[biodoc]

You could add b43 to a line in the /etc/modules file. It should then be loaded at boot time.

 

[todpod]

I will try that, thanks for the help