Author Topic: [SOLVED] No wireless on Dell Mini  (Read 3105 times)

hughtmccullough

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[SOLVED] No wireless on Dell Mini
« on: September 15, 2014, 09:09:26 PM »
I have installed WattOS-LXDE-R8-32 bit on my Dell Mini 9.  It found my ethernet connection and I have the system up and running.  However, I would like to use the wireless connection and I can't get WattOS to find a driver.  The hardware is detected:

lspci -k

03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY (rev 01)
   Subsystem: Broadcom Corporation Device 04b5

However, ifconfig and iwconfig show no wireless connections and there is no mention that I can find of the wireless card in dmesg. 
 
I have updated the system in Update Manager (I used the safe-ugrade option - was this correct).  This found intel drivers etc. but there was no mention of my broadcom ones.  In Synaptic Package Manager, the broadcom-sta-common and broadcom-sta-source packages show up as installed.  I know that these worked previously in an Ubuntu set up and the wl driver installed successfully there.  So, I tried to activate it in WattOS but...

sudo modprobe wl

libkmod: ERROR ../libkmod/libkmod-module.c:791 kmod_module_insert_module: could not find module by name='wl'
ERROR: could not insert 'wl': Function not implemented
libkmod: ERROR ../libkmod/libkmod-module.c:925 command_do: Error running install command for wl
ERROR: could not insert 'wl': Operation not permitted

Can someone please tell me how to get this working or at least what to do next?

« Last Edit: September 21, 2014, 09:25:23 PM by hughtmccullough »

biffster

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Re: No wireless on Dell Mini
« Reply #1 on: September 16, 2014, 07:14:40 PM »
Hi there,

I suggest following the web site below (use the Debian Wheezy instructions as that is wattOS R8 is based upon.

https://wiki.debian.org/wl

good luck....biff

hughtmccullough

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Re: No wireless on Dell Mini
« Reply #2 on: September 18, 2014, 07:36:15 PM »
Biff, thanks.

I had already tried this but forgot to say in the first post.  As I have reinstalled WattOS since then, I tried again with the same result.  What it actually does is install a 3.2.0-4 kernel and this then appears in the grub menu.  I don't really understand the line that starts "apt-get install...".  So, I'm not sure what was going on but it is repeatable.

What happened as I followed the instructions was that, when I got to the "modprobe wl" bit, I got the same error as mentioned in my first post.  As the process had loaded a new kernel, I tried rebooting into it.  It didn't load any wireless drivers and when I typed "modprobe wl" I got the same error yet again.  By the way, just to be clear, I did use sudo each time to get modprobe to do anything, although it doesn't appear in the instructions.

Going back to Debian as the basis for WattOS may have its merits but it seems that you may have thrown the baby out with the bath water.  At least Lubuntu gets wireless drivers to work.  I had high hopes for WattOS but, if you don't actually know how to get the Broadcom wireless drivers to work and no one else on this forum does, I know from experience I could spend many hours on this and still get nowhere.  I know from the lspci command that my hardware is found and correctly identified but I don't know what happens next and how to troubleshoot it.  The system just seems to ignore it and doesn't give any hints.  I don't know what libkmod is and why it throws up the error it does.  I don't know why the Debian Wheezy instructions install a different kernel and still don't seem to make any difference to the wireless drivers.  If no one out there can help me, I'm probably better giving up now rather than wasting a lot of time...


teejay

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Re: No wireless on Dell Mini
« Reply #3 on: September 19, 2014, 01:19:33 AM »

It has been long known that Broadcom wifi needs special attention in Linux, and any distro which is Debian based and doesn't have extra provision for such eventualities will have issues.   That said, this wiki item  https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Dell/InspironMini9   indicates that wifi is "the main problem" with the Mini9 but shows it as solvable.

You might find this of interest : http://grabag-linux.blogspot.com.au/2009/05/wireless-networking-on-dell-mini-9.html
In the comments, there is someone who had problems with linux headers - this too might be of relevance to you. 

Good luck.




hughtmccullough

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Re: No wireless on Dell Mini
« Reply #4 on: September 21, 2014, 09:24:51 PM »
Thanks teejay, your first link did the trick.  I had been searching for Debian, WattOS and Broadcom but didn't look for anything specific to the Dell Mini!  wl worked for me in Ubuntu and I had assumed it was the best one to pursue.

I have a question, though for you, Biff or anyone else. 

I followed the instructions in the link and it loaded the B43 driver and worked first time.  So, I decided to do a clean install in case my previous efforts had messed anything up.  This time, it didn't work first time but, after a reboot, I did a modprobe, which worked, and so far it has worked automatically ever since.  HOWEVER, when I installed the B43 driver, I had the same experience as before.  It insisted on loading the 3.2.0 kernel as a dependency.  I let it do this but never booted into it and didn't seem to need it.  Do you think it would be safe to remove this spurious kernel now that the driver has loaded or is that asking for trouble?

I'm glad I'm up and running because I think WattOS could be ideal for the Dell Mini.

teejay

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Re: [SOLVED] No wireless on Dell Mini
« Reply #5 on: September 22, 2014, 11:43:19 AM »
Glad to hear of your success, and good to see you marked the thread as solved.
Your current question is beyond my technical competence, so I'll defer that to someone who knows or can nut it out.