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I have an acer aspire 7551 laptop running windows 7 and I've successfully used wubi to also install ubuntu (the latest release version).

Wireless works fine on windows 7, but neither wireless nor ethernet works on ubuntu. In particular, the wireless icon shows up at the top-right (but no available connections show up when I click the icon).

When I connect my ethernet cable (which works fine when I plug it into my PC) to my laptop when it's running ubuntu and click the wireless icon, auto-etho shows up as an option but when I click it, it works for a few seconds and then disconnects. (Note - ethernet also doesn't work in windows 7 even though all the latest drivers are installed)

How can I get wireless and ethernet to work under ubuntu?

Additional Info

Ubuntu version: "Ubuntu 10.0 - the Maverick Meerkat"

lspci output:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 Host Bridge Alternate 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 9602 00:04.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 0) 00:05.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 1) 00:11.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 SATA Controller [AHCI mode] 00:12.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller 00:12.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller 00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller 00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller 00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 41) 00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 IDE Controller (rev 40) 00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40) 00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 LPC host controller (rev 40) 00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge (rev 40) 00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor HyperTransport Configuration 00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Address Map 00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor DRAM Controller 00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Miscellaneous Control 00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Link Control 01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M880G [Mobility Radeon HD 4200] 01:05.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc RS880 Audio Device [Radeon HD 4200] 03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM57780 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 01) 06:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM43225 802.11b/g/n (rev 01)

ifconfig -a output:

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 20:6a:8a:1c:70:0e UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B) Interrupt:16 lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1 RX packets:76 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:76 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:5840 (5.8 KB) TX bytes:5840 (5.8 KB)
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  • What hardware is in that laptop? Open a terminal and run lspci; copy-paste the line corresponding to each device. Also copy-paste the output of ifconfig -a. And what release of Ubuntu are you running? Commented Mar 7, 2011 at 1:08
  • @Gilles: Thanks for taking interest in my question. I've edited above with the requested info. Commented Mar 7, 2011 at 1:33

1 Answer 1

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I have the same network hardware in my laptop running Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick.

For the wireless adapter, you need the binary Broadcom STA proprietary drivers. Ubuntu should prompt you to install them when you first start, but if you're lacking a network connection, that might be why it's not working. Fortunately, the stuff you need is on the 10.10 installation disk.

Here are the simplest gui steps:

1) insert the disk, and navigate to it in the file browser (nautilus)

2) navigate into the folder called pool, and then go into main, and then d. Install dkms_2.1.1.2-3ubuntu1_all.deb from the dmks folder, by double-clicking on it.

3) install /pool/main/p/patch/patch_2.6-2ubuntu1_amd64.deb by the same process

4) install /pool/main/f/fakeroot/fakeroot_1.14.4-1ubuntu1_amd64.deb

5) finally, install /pool/restricted/b/bcmwl/bcmwl-kernel-source_5.60.48.36+bdcom-0ubuntu5_amd64.deb

if you restart, you should (fingers crossed!) be okay now.

The wired ethernet not working is odd - never seen that. If it doesn't work under Windows either, I'd suggest a hardware problem is likely there.

edit: the deb filenames above are for the 64bit version. For the i386 ones, just replace _amd64 with _i386. You'll find the files you're looking for :)

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  • Thanks for helping me! How can I get the .deb files you've mentioned if I don't have an install disk? I installed ubuntu by using Wubi. Commented Mar 7, 2011 at 7:39
  • ah! okay, can you download them elsewhere, and copy them to this machine (usb thumb drive, etc.)? If so, you can get the packages from packages.ubuntu.com (e.g. packages.ubuntu.com/maverick/dkms). You must install them in the order I've given here, to satisfy dependencies along the way. Commented Mar 7, 2011 at 8:09
  • it might also be worth noting that Broadcom have committed to open-sourcing the drivers for their wireless chipsets (thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel.wireless.general/55418) and so this situation can be expected to improve considerably over the next year or so :) Commented Mar 7, 2011 at 9:27
  • @Faheem: Thanks - as soon as I get a chance to try it I'll do so if it works :) Commented Mar 21, 2011 at 18:09
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    Thank You Thank You Thank You, this has been bugging me for a while and like magic .... poof ... it works Commented Mar 31, 2011 at 15:12

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