[DonC]

I upgraded the os on my dell mini 9 from Ubuntu 8.04 to Ubuntu 10.04. The wireless network will not connect to my router any more. It worked fine under 8.04.

I see the wireless connection, but it says disconnected. When I try to connect, it will say connected, but I cannot ping the router, and the router shows that I am not connected.

I have tried:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get --reinstall install bcmwl-kernel-source
This does not help

I tried:
sudo modprobe -r wl
sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo modprobe -r b43 ssb
sudo modprobe wl
This also does not help.

Does anyone know what is wrong?

Don

[reflex]

Have you run those commands while wired?

[DonC]

Originally Posted by reflex

Have you run those commands while wired?

Yes, the commands were run while wired. I disconnected the wire only long enough to check the connectivity of the wireless network.

[reflex]

Can you connect to other routers? Like at a restaurant?

[DonC]

I have other devices connected to my wireless router, a Wii, a printer and an XL laptop, they all work fine. When I try to connect my dell mini ubuntu laptop to another wireless network, it does not connect.

[reflex]

I'd try booting off a LiveCD/USB and seeing if you can get working there.

Unfortunately, the driver probably won't be installed out of the box on a LiveCD, but the LiveCD should include the driver install files, or you can just install via wire. See here for more info: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...Driver/bcm43xx

...Or instead of a LiveCD, swap the card into another laptop and test (might be difficult or impossible, depending on the laptop).

[DonC]

"swap the card into another laptop and test" What would this be trying to show? I have already shown the card works in the current dell mini under Ubuntu 8.04. Swapping the card would be very difficult for me. If I knew what you were trying to figure out, I might find an alternative.

Meanwhile I will try booting from the cd, but I suspect the right drivers will not be there.

---------- Post added at 08:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:34 PM ----------

I tried booting on the Ubuntu 10.04 CD and still could not connect to the wireless network. (my laptop did not report a connection nor did the router)

I booted back to the loaded system on my mini laptop (where I had run the commands I listed earlier), and my laptop reported that it was connected to the wireless network. However, I could not ping the router. I logged on to the router from another machine, and the router did not show that my mini laptop was connected. I hope this description is a little more clear.

As I said earlier, the wireless network does work under Ubuntu 8.04.

Any suggestions?

[FloydR]

I have a Dell D430 with Windows XP installed. I wanted to try out linux so I set up a flash drive with ubuntu hardy (10) to try it out. When it was up and running it prompted me to load the Broadcom software to enable the wireless and I did. It then showed as connected but I could not ping etc. When I re-booted in Windows the problem carried over. It seems the firmware got changed in the Dell wireless 1490 card.

It took a while but I finally got it working again. Simply updating the drivers did not do the trick. I tried installing drivers with various switches from the command prompt but still no luck. Finally I disabled the wireless then installed the updated driver while wireless was disabled and it worked. I won't be trying Ubuntu Hardy again on this laptop until I see some other posts with resolutions to this issue.

[DonC]

This is getting more interesting.

I tried disconnecting the wireless
running:
sudo apt-get install bcmwl-modaliases

sudo modprobe -r wl
sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo modprobe -r b43 ssb
sudo modprobe wl

Then I reboot

Now the wireless says connected and stays connect if I use the correct WEP key. It will not connect with the incorrect key.

However, if I ping the router (with the wired network disconnected) it says:
connect: Network is unreachable

I have the dhcp server assigning addresses from 192.168.1.x
the wired network gets 192.168.1.7
the wireless network gets 10.42.43.1

And yet, the network software reports:
Wireless network connection 'MD193' active: MD193 (100%)
(MD193 is the name of my network)

If appears that the broadcom drivers are working, and the network connecting at some level (it can tell a good WEP key from a bad one). But I never actually get my system connected and never get an IP assigned through DHCP.

Can anyone help with a suggestion as to what to try next?

[reflex]

Try running "sudo dhclient" to manually prod the system to request an IP address via DHCP.