Broadcom wireless adapter can't detect network

[Alex Marandon]

There seem to be a regression with bcmwl-kernel-source in natty. After upgrading to Ubuntu 11.04 my wireless network wasn't detected anymore even though I could see other networks. Downgrading to bcmwl-kernel-source_5.60.48.36+bdcom-0ubuntu5_amd64 solves the problem.

It seems that other people have this problem and use the same workaround, as you can see in the comments at http://computerandu.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/how-to-solve-no-wireless-networks-in-ubuntu-11-04/

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 11.04
Release: 11.04

$ sudo apt-cache policy bcmwl-kernel-source
bcmwl-kernel-source:
  Installed: 5.60.48.36+bdcom-0ubuntu5
  Candidate: 5.100.82.38+bdcom-0ubuntu3
  Version table:
     5.100.82.38+bdcom-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://mirrors.psu.ac.th/pub/ubuntu/ natty/restricted amd64 Packages
 *** 5.60.48.36+bdcom-0ubuntu5 0
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Version 5.100.82.38+bdcom-0ubuntu3 is the one causing the problem. 5.60.48.36+bdcom-0ubuntu5 works fine. Now Update Manager offers to upgrade to 5.100.82.38+bdcom-0ubuntu3 which has to be unticked to keep wireless working.

My wireless adapter info:

$ sudo lshw -C network
[sudo] password for al:
  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       product: BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:0c:00.0
       logical name: eth1
       version: 01
       serial: 00:26:5e:1c:87:1f
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=wl0 driverversion=5.60.48.36 ip=192.168.2.101 latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg
       resources: irq:17 memory:f69fc000-f69fffff

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: bcmwl-kernel-source 5.60.48.36+bdcom-0ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-11.48-generic 2.6.38.8
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-11-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Sep 9 19:04:11 2011
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: bcmwl
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-09-03 (5 days ago)

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug 732677, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.