So YEARS ago I almost dumped Kubuntu, and Linux all together because of this stupid Dell wireless card. It's the Dell 1390 series, also known as the Broadcom 43xx series. In fact I installed Kubuntu, and then didn't use if for 2 years because of the issues of first just getting the kernel to SEE it, the once I got that fixed it wouldn't stay connected to secure wireless network. This was around like 7.10 ish era I think, and I decided to try it again at 10.04. I fired it up, updated the updates and it stayed connected then. I upgraded to the latest LTS release and have stayed there.
Recently, about 2 days before they released 11.10 I installed 11.04 on my wife's laptop. I liked it so much I decided to upgrade both to 11.10. Both gave errors during upgrade, both had errors and the upgrade crashed. On the wife's it would run and I updated all it said I still had to update and it's running.
However on my main machine, that's has been running Kubuntu the last couple years, it wouldn't really run at all, stayed 100% CPU, kept going to black screens, stuff like that, so I had to do a fresh install. I discovered that just like in 7.10 ish era, linux STILL didn't correctly install the drivers for this card, WTH
I spent a couple of days living on Google trying to get drivers to work. And then I finally found a post with like 45 pages that I had read many times, but on the last page I found a nice and easy answer..... *face palm*
Goto the Launcher>applications>system> additional drivers and deactivate the stupid Broadcom STA wireless drivers.
Now go to Muon, or kpackagekit, or whatever package software you use and do a search for B43. You have to do it from the Muon Package Manager, it won't come up with the Muon software center. Now click on firmware-b43-installer, and install it.
Restart
Enjoy your wireless.
Grumble for days about wasted time looking for a simple answer Google couldn't find for you....(wait, that's maybe just me)
Recently, about 2 days before they released 11.10 I installed 11.04 on my wife's laptop. I liked it so much I decided to upgrade both to 11.10. Both gave errors during upgrade, both had errors and the upgrade crashed. On the wife's it would run and I updated all it said I still had to update and it's running.
However on my main machine, that's has been running Kubuntu the last couple years, it wouldn't really run at all, stayed 100% CPU, kept going to black screens, stuff like that, so I had to do a fresh install. I discovered that just like in 7.10 ish era, linux STILL didn't correctly install the drivers for this card, WTH
I spent a couple of days living on Google trying to get drivers to work. And then I finally found a post with like 45 pages that I had read many times, but on the last page I found a nice and easy answer..... *face palm*Goto the Launcher>applications>system> additional drivers and deactivate the stupid Broadcom STA wireless drivers.
Now go to Muon, or kpackagekit, or whatever package software you use and do a search for B43. You have to do it from the Muon Package Manager, it won't come up with the Muon software center. Now click on firmware-b43-installer, and install it.
Restart
Enjoy your wireless.
Grumble for days about wasted time looking for a simple answer Google couldn't find for you....(wait, that's maybe just me)