How to install wifi driver?

Lubuntu Support
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I installed lubundu 20.04 on my notebook, but I can’t access the wifi, how can I install the drive to connect? I have the drive already downloaded on the usb, but I don’t know how to install it on this operating system.

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EDIT:
Just realized there’s a GUI for Additional Drivers after looking at another post on here (ignore Software sources window).

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Once you get connected to the internet via the Ethernet cable (connect it to your router), you can go to Additional Drivers as shown above and there should be something there for WiFi/network. Honestly can’t remember since I’ve always done it via terminal on my stuff. If you get it, might need a reboot to get it working. You will need a wired connection to your router somehow either way. Best of luck.

If that doesn’t work, try:

You will need a wired connection to get the driver for your WiFi NIC that’s on your laptop.

You can connect your laptop directly to your router via an Ethernet cable just for that part.

Ubuntu has some docs for this here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs

What you see there won’t match exactly for what you need or see, but it will give you an idea of what you need to get WiFi working.

If you can figure out what WiFi card you have on your laptop, you can figure out the driver and install if via apt from the terminal.

Might need to play around with the network manager (GUI is fine) to get it all up and running.

Been a while since I had to do it.

Optionally, you can provide some info for us (about your laptop/hardware) and we can walk you through what to do.

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Further question: is there much chance of anything working with an older Broadcom driver?

Forgive my interjection into this thread, but it is relevant to me.

I tried some (not all) of the suggestions in the post by That_Random_Guy, but it appears not to have worked. I have read in various places that older Broadcom wi-fi drivers may not be Linux-compatible. Does anybody know more details (or where I can find a list of compatible/incompatible Broadcom drivers), so I know whether it is worth continuing to try on this matter.

[I will edit this post again when I have time to find details of my Broadcom driver (I will follow instructions for posting details as per Lubuntu 20.04 Wi-fi connection issues - #2 by Chris)… it might be a while, so I make this post now in order to hold the thread open for another month]

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You can take a look here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WirelessCardsSupported

You will need to know what kind of WiFi chip (A.K.A. wireless card) you have in your laptop.

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My WLAN driver is a Broadcom BCM4311 802.11b/g (rev 01) (Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card). I cannot find specific reference to it in the guide cited by That_Random_Guy; the closest I can find refers to drivers with similar, but not quite the same numbers… but maybe the same steps may help (I will update if/when I give it a try).

Relevant part of output of sudo lspci -v is as follows:

0b:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
        Memory at efdfc000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [58] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
        Capabilities: [d0] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
        Capabilities: [13c] Virtual Channel
        Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
        Kernel modules: ssb, wl
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Don’t remember searching much on Ubuntu’s wiki but I found this from this:

(You may need to install synaptic or your favorite package manager.)

  • Uninstall the bcmwl-kernel-source package by issuing the following command on a terminal:
sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source
  • Make sure that the firmware-b43-installer and the b43-fwcutter packages are installed (of course you will need internet by others means):
sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer b43-fwcutter

I think the first answer on that page I’ve linked to is a very good read and can probably help out just as well. The documentation is being updated over time it looks like, so I do recommend taking a look.

If what I’ve copy/pasted doesn’t work, click the link above or visit this page to see the full answer:

https://askubuntu.com/a/38700

Good luck!

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It worked (post from That_Random_Guy dated 30th July)! Thanks for your excellent summary.

In case it is relevant for other people with Broadcom WLAN hardware:

  • It turned out that I already had firmware-b43-installer and b43-fwcutter;
  • After rebooting the computer, I also needed to delete previous failed attempts at wi-fi setup from the network connections toolbar (in the panel at the bottom of the desktop) – once that had happened, it connected smoothly (once I had entered the password for the relevant wi-fi network);
  • So, in other words, the crucial step that I had been missing previously was purging that bcmwl-kernel-source.

Many thanks.

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