Broadcom bcm43xx WiFI works with Fedora, why not Ubuntu?

Bug #1463164 reported by Sb
8
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
linux (Ubuntu)
Expired
Low
Unassigned

Bug Description

Hi, I run Ubuntu on an older Dell laptop with Broadcom bcm4312 WiFI. Basically, it doesn't work out of the box with Ubuntu, and it is extremely complicated to configure without access to the Internet (when a LAN connection is not available), which is a frequent problem when the WiFI isn't working. It requires these unfriendly instructions to get it working:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx

Fedora 22, on the other hand, works out of the box on this same machine.

So, if Fedora 22, with its paranoid insistence on only free software, is able to make this work out of the box, why can't Ubuntu? "Linux for human beings" is looking more like Fedora in this case.

Tags: bot-comment
Revision history for this message
Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton) wrote :

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that your bug report is not filed about a specific source package though, rather it is just filed against Ubuntu in general. It is important that bug reports be filed about source packages so that people interested in the package can find the bugs about it. You can find some hints about determining what package your bug might be about at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. You might also ask for help in the #ubuntu-bugs irc channel on Freenode.

To change the source package that this bug is filed about visit https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1463164/+editstatus and add the package name in the text box next to the word Package.

[This is an automated message. I apologize if it reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

tags: added: bot-comment
Sb (sb56637)
affects: ubuntu → b43-fwcutter (Ubuntu)
Revision history for this message
Sb (sb56637) wrote :

Update: The source of the free firmware in Fedora appears to be this package:
https://apps.fedoraproject.org/packages/b43-openfwwf

Would it be possible to get this marked for inclusion in 15.10?

Revision history for this message
penalvch (penalvch) wrote :

Sb, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better.

Could you please test http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ and advise to the results?

no longer affects: firmware-nonfree (Ubuntu)
affects: b43-fwcutter (Ubuntu) → linux (Ubuntu)
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Low
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Expired
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