No wifi Broadcom 802.11n

I've downloaded a driver from Broadcom site onto USB. How to install?

1 Like

Welcome @mikei to the community!

Hi, @mikei (Michael) :slight_smile:

Could you please tell which driver file have you downloaded from the Broadcom web site and/or from which page in the Broadcom web site did you download it from? Also: which Ubuntu MATE version are you using? That information would be useful to determine how you should try to install the driver in your computer.

2 Likes

Hi! Driver file is: Broadcom_bcm43xx.7.35.340.0. My Mate version is 20.04.1. My search was specificly for a linux driver.

Hi again, @mikei.

I'm sorry but I'm not finding any file with that name "Broadcom_bcm43xx.7.35.340.0" in the https://www.broadcom.com/ web site. Could you tell what was the specific web page where you downloaded it from? Does that file have any file extension? If it has a file extension, is it ".deb" or is it something else?

1 Like

After doing more research in the "Welcome - Getting Started- Drivers - Wireless, Bluetooth - Read more on troubleshooting wireless hardware" I ran a few commands in the terminal & determined that I do have a network adapter driver but that the network is disabled. It is working on same machine dual booted w/windows 10. lsmod says driver is loaded. iwconfig says power management is off. sudo lwlish scan says network is down. rfkill list indicates "hard block".
Is there a command turn power on?
Many thanks, Mike.

Hi Michael,

Maybe the following works for you, maybe not, just try:

You probably don't need the driver from the broadcom site because the basic driver for the bcm43 series is in the repository, but you do need to install the firmware.

apt search broadcom will list some extra packages you could try, especially these ones:

b43-fwcutter/jammy,now 1:019-7build2 amd64
utility for extracting Broadcom 43xx firmware

firmware-b43-installer/jammy,jammy,now 1:019-7build2 all
firmware installer for the b43 driver

But if you, for whatever reason, do want to use the proprietary driver from Broadcom, you probably need to install these:

bcmwl-kernel-source/jammy-updates 6.30.223.271+bdcom-0ubuntu10~22.04.1 amd64
sourcecode Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA-driver

broadcom-sta-common/jammy-updates,jammy-updates 6.30.223.271-23~22.04.1 all
Common files for the Broadcom STA Wireless driver

broadcom-sta-dkms/jammy-updates,jammy-updates 6.30.223.271-23~22.04.1 all
dkms source for the Broadcom STA Wireless driver

Which is the lesser option because with each kernel update it has to recompile the intermediate layer between driver and kernel.

BTW, Just like @ricmarques, I couldn't find any linux driver on the broadcom site so if you can enlighten us by sharing the link to those drivers, so much the better. :slight_smile:

2 Likes