[ubuntu-studio-users] Broadcom wireless disaster

[Mike Holstein]

On Sat, Sep 7, 2013 at 9:18 PM, Casey Forslund <cforslund at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and for any
> input, advice, or plain old sympathy you can provide.
> Been an Ubuntu user since 8.04/hardy. Of all the issues I have ever
> wrestled with, this one takes the cake by far. I've scoured the forums, and
> all I ever find are other frustrated users and unresolved threads. some
> people have done amazing in terms of trying to help me - above and beyond
> stuff, but still no cigar:
>  The main issue is around the wireless/wifi networking capabilities
> (PLEASE don't sigh and say, 'ohhh...another broadcom/wireless thread). I've
> put in about 20-23 hours on this, from trying micro (CL/package based
> fixes) all the way through to wiping the distro altogether, and trying
> variants of ubuntu and beyond (like obscure methods of extracting working
> drivers from windows on on other partition). The weirdest of weirdness in
> this situation is that my wireless was working for two years, and then all
> of a sudden - POOF! Some kind of update destroyed functionality. I tried
> the logical approach, and just tried rolling back and reinstalling versions
> that worked on my hardware, playing with the . NO CIGAR. What the hell? I
> am still a Linux noob, but to me, it appears that something must have
> changed at the kernel level, because of the distro-wide wipe-out of this
> previously functioning hardware/software combination. WINDOWS WIRELESS
> WORKING FLAWLESSLY throughout all of these issues, so obviously not a
> hardware issue.
>
> The sad thing about this is that I see tons of people giving up on Ubuntu
> and Linux in general over these chronic, unresolved wireless (proprietary
> driver) issues. Wireless is such a rudimentary and fundamental part of
> computing, and if Ubuntu and Linux in general can't provide a reliable
> solution - Linux remains territory for hackers and tinkerers. I had talked
> a work buddy into using Ubuntu - he totally loved it for about two months,
> until---get this-- with totally different hardware than mine, his netbook
> lost wireless capability on the same update. He gave up. Back to Windoze.
>
> My Affected SYSTEM:
>
> ACER ASPIRE 7560 SERIES
> MODEL P7YE5
> AMD (QUAD CORE) A6-3420M APU 1.50 GHZ WITH RADEON HD 6520G GRAPHICS 6GB RAM
> 500GB SATA
> S/N: LXRKKAA001204086631601
> DUAL BOOT UBUNTU (NAME A DISTRO/FLAVOUR) WINDOWS 7 64 BIT
> ****BROADCOM WIRELESS LAN 802.11n: BCM943227HM4L*
> ATHEROS LAN
> ATHEROS BLUETOOTH
> 1.3MP LITEON CAMERA
> ATI/AMD VGA
> REALTEK MULTICARD READER
>


its likely not "some kind of update", but a kernel upgrade that might have
broken your driver support. i had a few broadcom chips, and i even had one
of the newer ones that was supposed to be supported by the open broadcom
driver. i have since removed that hardware and replaced it with a more
supported device. i didnt pay anything for either chips, so i only have my
time switching the hardware out. i would think you should be able to find
one in the $20us price range, and, though, i have spent more that 30 hours
troubleshooting and messing about with broadcom drivers, i only spent maybe
20 minutes swapping the chips.

you might want to move to the greater ubuntu community since this is not an
ubuntustudio specific issue. you may find more relevant support upstream
there. otherwise, all i can share is what i have decided to do, and that
is, avoid devices that dont support linux well. good luck!


>
>
>
>
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-- 
MH

mikeholstein.info <http://www.mikeholstein.info/>
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