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I am attempting to set up my wireless adapter, but I can't seem to get the drivers installed properly.

  • OS: Ubuntu 14.10
  • Motherboard: ASUS X99-Deluxe (wireless adapter is embedded)
  • Adapter: Broadcom 4360

Apparently 4360 is not covered by the open source drivers that come with the kernel. Consequently, I installed the proprietary driver (wl) using the .deb file located here. Indeed, this initially appeared to work, because I see it in the driver list associated with the adapter:

proprietary driver associated

However, the adapter still features UNCLAIMED status in the lshw output:

enter image description here

When I saw this, I thought that perhaps I should reinstall the driver using the directions found in the Ubuntu help resources. When I attempted this install, I get an error indicating

XXX@YYY ~                                                                                                                                                                  [16:33:25] 
> $ sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source                                                                                                                                                  
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  linux-headers-3.16.0-23 linux-headers-3.16.0-23-generic linux-headers-3.16.0-29 linux-headers-3.16.0-29-generic linux-image-3.16.0-23-generic linux-image-3.16.0-29-generic
  linux-image-extra-3.16.0-23-generic linux-image-extra-3.16.0-29-generic linux-signed-image-3.16.0-23-generic linux-signed-image-3.16.0-29-generic
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be upgraded:
  bcmwl-kernel-source
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 63 not upgraded.
Need to get 1,511 kB of archives.
After this operation, 2,267 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ utopic/restricted bcmwl-kernel-source amd64 6.30.223.248+bdcom-0ubuntu1 [1,511 kB]
Fetched 1,511 kB in 1s (959 kB/s)                
(Reading database ... 340457 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../bcmwl-kernel-source_6.30.223.248+bdcom-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb ...
Removing all DKMS Modules
Done.
Unpacking bcmwl-kernel-source (6.30.223.248+bdcom-0ubuntu1) over (6.30.223.30+bdcom-0ubuntu3) ...
Setting up bcmwl-kernel-source (6.30.223.248+bdcom-0ubuntu1) ...
Loading new bcmwl-6.30.223.248+bdcom DKMS files...
Building only for 3.17.1-031701-generic
Building for architecture x86_64
Building initial module for 3.17.1-031701-generic
ERROR (dkms apport): kernel package linux-headers-3.17.1-031701-generic is not supported
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 3.17.1-031701-generic (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/bcmwl/6.30.223.248+bdcom/build/make.log for more information.
modprobe: FATAL: Module wl not found.
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.103ubuntu8) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.17.1-031701-generic

Clearly I cannot assign wl if it can't be located. (It still shows up in the driver list though.) I should note that I had the same result with kernel v3.16. I upgraded to the next stable release in the hopes that it would resolve the issue. In my searching, I have not seen anyone come across this yet, so I am unsure of what to do next. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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  • You might get more/better answers over at AskUbuntu. Also, please post file and command output listings as text instead of screenshot images, if possible. Mar 21, 2015 at 21:32
  • Apparently you're using a newer kernel (3.17) than Ubuntu Utopic does officially (3.16), which is unsupported by the driver package from the repositories. You can try 1) dpkg -r bcmwl-kernel-source && apt-get dist-upgrade && apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source, 2) downgrading your kernel, 3) upgrading both kernel and bcmwl-kernel-source to the upcoming Vivid release, 4) build a more current bcmwl module from source. Mar 21, 2015 at 21:41
  • The first time I tried to install the driver, it was with the original kernel that came with Utopic. That's why I tried to upgrade. However, I restarted with the old kernel, reinstalled, and now everything is good. Would you mind packaging your assistance in an answer so I can close this guy? Thank you. Mar 21, 2015 at 22:13
  • Ok, I did that. It's interesting to know, that DKMS scripts seem to break occasionally depending on the currently running kernel, not just the currently installed kernels. Mar 21, 2015 at 22:48

1 Answer 1

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Apparently you're using a newer kernel (3.17) than Ubuntu Utopic does officially (3.16), which is unsupported by the driver package from the repositories. You can either:

  • hope that upgrading old packages (of which you have quite a few) solves your problem, but you'll need to uninstall the Broadcom driver first.

    dpkg -r bcmwl-kernel-source
    apt-get dist-upgrade
    apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source
    
  • downgrade your kernel to v 3.16.

  • upgrade both kernel and bcmwl-kernel-source to the upcoming Vivid release.

  • build a more current bcmwl module from source.

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