BCM4322 Wi-Fi Not Working with Ubuntu 13.10 Live CD

[Lonnie Lee Best]

There was a time when my Laptop would have wi-fi capablity while running Ubuntu Live CDs. This is no longer the case; the connection manager shows no indication that my wi-fi is working.

I'm currenlty running a Live CD of Ubuntu 13.10 on a Dell Studio 17 with this kernel:
Linux ubuntu 3.11.0-4-generic #9-Ubuntu SMP Mon Aug 26 15:21:06 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

My wireless card is not working as it once did in previous versions of Ubuntu:

04:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10
Package: linux-image-3.11.0-4-generic 3.11.0-4.9
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-4.9-generic 3.11.0-rc7
Uname: Linux 3.11.0-4-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.12.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: ubuntu 2678 F.... pulseaudio
                      ubuntu 4579 F.... pulseaudio
CasperVersion: 1.336
Date: Wed Aug 28 02:52:23 2013
IwConfig:
 eth0 no wireless extensions.

 lo no wireless extensions.
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Alpha amd64 (20130827)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Studio 1737
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: file=/cdrom/preseed/hostname.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash -- maybe-ubiquity
PulseList:
 Error: command ['pacmd', 'list'] failed with exit code 1: Home directory not accessible: Permission denied
 No PulseAudio daemon running, or not running as session daemon.
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.11.0-4-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.11.0-4-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.113
RfKill:

SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 04/14/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A09
dmi.board.name: 0P792H
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.board.version: A09
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: A09
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA09:bd04/14/2011:svnDellInc.:pnStudio1737:pvrA09:rvnDellInc.:rn0P792H:rvrA09:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvrA09:
dmi.product.name: Studio 1737
dmi.product.version: A09
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[Lonnie Lee Best (launchpad-startport)]

Other comments can be found here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bcmwl/+bug/1075407

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[Lonnie Lee Best (launchpad-startport)]

I actually got the wi-fi working on the live CD. Here's how:

Ubuntu Software Center > Edit Menu > Software Sources > Ubuntu Software > Check all boxes then hit the "close" button.

After this I closed Ubuntu Software Center.

Then, I opened a terminal and entered:
sudo apt-get update

Last, I open Ubuntu Software Center again and typed "broadcom" (no quotes) into the search box. This found the following two packages:

bcmwl-kernel-source
b43-fwcutter

After installing these packages I was able to use wi-fi on the Ubuntu 13.10 Live CD. I didn't even need to do a modprobe command.

[Tim Gardner (timg-tpi)]

According to comment #4 this really isn't a bug because it requires a binary blob for support.