Broadcom 4311 loaded but doesn't work

[dsonyay]

Broadcom 4311 on my Dell Inspiron.  Upgraded to 2012 from 2010.
Everything worked fine on 2010 but now 'wl' driver cannot
find any devices when I try to re do my WLAN interface.

Has anyone solved this?  Cant seem to find
an answer

[dsonyay]

More info:
Dell Inspiron E1505 running only PCLOS 2012. 

I'm getting an error trying to setup my Wireless card and the instructions say to contact you.

In PCC (PCLOS 2012), I go to Network/Internet tab, then Setup New Network Interface, then I select "Wirelsss (Wi-Fi)",
next I select the first choice of three:  Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN.

I then click on "Next"

And get the Error message box:  Could not install the packages (dkms-broadcom-wl)!

I then click "OK"

and get the error box that says:  "Some packages (broadcom-wl) are required but aren't available.
Please email texstar at gmail.com about it.
The following component is missing: wl

The required files can also be installed from this URL:
http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

I email went to the broadcom website and downloaded the required tar.gz file (hybrid-portsrc_x86_32-v5_100_82_112.tar.gz)

What do I do with it exactly?  How do I extract the files, and where do they go?

Any help would be appreciated,

BTW-- My wireless was working fine with PCLOS 2010 before going to PCLOS 2012.

I sent an e-mail to Texstar as requested, but thought I'd post here as well.
I hope I don't have to go back to PCLOS 2010
David

[sling-shot]

Please do not install anything from outside PCLinuxOS repositories.

The correct method is as below

Do a complete update as outlined in this page:
http://www.pclinuxoshelp.com/index.php/Update_Your_PCLinuxOS

Confirm that you do have the latest driver by searching for dkms-broadcom-wl in Synaptic.
It should be 5_100_82_112-2pclos2012

Do a reboot and check.

[dsonyay]

Do a complete update as outlined in this page:
http://www.pclinuxoshelp.com/index.php/Update_Your_PCLinuxOS

Confirm that you do have the latest driver by searching for dkms-broadcom-wl in Synaptic.
It should be 5_100_82_112-2pclos2012

Do a reboot and check.

Check.  I did a complete update a few days ago and have the latest driver as listed above.
Wireless not working.
Ready for next step.. I appreciate the help 

[sling-shot]

Search the forums for Broadcom and go through various thread preferably after April 2012.
Here are some things to read through:
http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,106295.msg908145.html#msg908145
http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,104737.0.html
http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,108467.0.html

[dsonyay]

Search the forums for Broadcom and go through various thread preferably after April 2012.
Here are some things to read through:
http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,106295.msg908145.html#msg908145
http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,104737.0.html
http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,108467.0.html

After reading those threads, I'm thoroughly confused.  You told me not to download anything outside of the repository; one of the threads mentioned ftp'ing an rpm

It can't be that difficult.  I must be missing something easy.

[sling-shot]

In the beginning do not use THAT particular instruction.
Try other things like the one in 1st link and 3rd link that do not need installing anything from outside.

[dsonyay]

Here's the latest I've tried:
From this thread:  http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,106295.msg908145.html#msg908145
I did this:

" Reply with quoteQuote
Ok, I finally got my wireless working! Even though, not with the dkms-broadcom-wl.

To summarize:
* Wireless adapter: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)
* Kernel: 3.2.18-pclos2.pae.bfs

Solution:
From Synaptic, REMOVE:
* dkms-broadcom-wl
* bcm43xx-firmware
* bcm43xx-fwcutter

Then, again in Synaptic, INSTALL:
* b43-firmware
* b43-fwcutter

The led that displays the status of my wifi inmediately turned blue, and now I'm posting on here using the wireless!
Hope it helps anyone."


None of this worked.  No wireless light has come on.  I tried to go into PCC and set up WLAN using the Broadcom but I still get a message saying:

The following component is missing: wl
The required files can also be installed from this URL:
http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

This is the hybrid-portsrc_x86_32-v5_100_82_112.tar.gz. file

[dsonyay]

Solved---- went back to 2010.

It shouldn't be that difficult to upgrade to the latest PCLOS without spending two days trying to get Wifi to work when it worked before.

I'll wait till a new update comes out that will hopefully solve the Broadcom 4311 isuues I had trying to run 2012.

[JohnW_57]

Solved---- went back to 2010.

It shouldn't be that difficult to upgrade to the latest PCLOS without spending two days trying to get Wifi to work when it worked before.

I'll wait till a new update comes out that will hopefully solve the Broadcom 4311 isuues I had trying to run 2012.

You could have tried also a kernel downgrade to 2.6.38.8 I guess.
It's the same kernel as on the 2010 iso.

JohnW

[muungwana]

Solved---- went back to 2010.

It shouldn't be that difficult to upgrade to the latest PCLOS without spending two days trying to get Wifi to work when it worked before.

I'll wait till a new update comes out that will hopefully solve the Broadcom 4311 isuues I had trying to run 2012.

It shouldnt, but the world isnt perfect and this kind of thing happen in an imperfect world.

Now sooner or later, another user with the same wireless card will come along with the same problem and we will all be where you were when you posted your problem, clueless of where the problem is because the person who had the opportunity to look into it decided to step aside and let others figured out the problem from other people.

[muungwana]

"dkms-broadcom-wl" package is in the repository.

Its a logical error for the system to try to connect to the internet to download anything while its in the process of configuring a network connection. The package should be in the installation media if possible,this what seem like an oversight should be reported to the dev team.

possible solution could have been connecting to the internet using a wired interface, install the package and then try to set up a wireless connection.

[dsonyay]

Solved---- went back to 2010.

It shouldn't be that difficult to upgrade to the latest PCLOS without spending two days trying to get Wifi to work when it worked before.

I'll wait till a new update comes out that will hopefully solve the Broadcom 4311 isuues I had trying to run 2012.

It shouldnt, but the world isnt perfect and this kind of thing happen in an imperfect world.

Now sooner or later, another user with the same wireless card will come along with the same problem and we will all be where you were when you posted your problem, clueless of where the problem is because the person who had the opportunity to look into it decided to step aside and let others figured out the problem from other people.

Sorry, but I don't have time to tinker and figure it out... I have work to do and due tomorrow night.  I will try to redo this next weekend.
I have patience normally, but in all honesty, this should not happen.  I love Linux, I just need to get something running, so had to go to 2010

[dsonyay]

"dkms-broadcom-wl" package is in the repository.

Its a logical error for the system to try to connect to the internet to download anything while its in the process of configuring a network connection. The package should be in the installation media if possible,this what seem like an oversight should be reported to the dev team.

possible solution could have been connecting to the internet using a wired interface, install the package and then try to set up a wireless connection.

I was wired to ethernet and tried quite a few things from the threads provided.  I tried dkms-broadcom-wl as well.  No joy.

I tried to down grade the kernal.  No joy.   I tried so many things I couldn't figure out if all the changes I was doing was keeping other things from working.  No patience today.

[dsonyay]

I'm going to reinstall 2012 this evening, and see if I can get the wireless running once more.

I think the main problem I had was I did so many things over the past three days I wasn't sure if it made matters worse.  Sure I tried to downgrade to an old Kernel, but there were quite a few other things I did before that may have prevented something from working,  who knows.

I will try to read a few of the posts where someone solved the problem with the BCM4311 and if it doesn't work, I'll undo any changes I made and go to the next person's method of solving the problem.  There were about three different ways I read about and all seemed to be different ways to fix the 2012/BCM4311 issue.

I had combinations of all three done at the same time... not likely a way to do it.

By coincidence, I downloaded the Live DVD for Kubuntu and it loaded up well except of course for the wireless card again... it detected my card and said I needed to go online to download the proper drivers to get my wireless to run.  I didn't do it, because of needing to go to bed, but Kubuntu seemed promising.  I have to say, the layout in PCLOS is superior to Kubuntu.  Or maybe I've been using PCLOS for so long (since 2007) I'm too comfortable with it.