"Enable Wireless" is gray on ubuntu 11.10 (Dell Vostro 1520)

[Pete]

On 11/26/2011 01:53 AM, Tab Gilbert wrote:
> description: Wireless interface
>        product: BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY
>
> I am no expert but I am pretty sure you need to install
>
> --fwcutter is a tool which can extract firmware from various source
> files. It's written for BCM43xx driver files
>
> which is available in the Ubuntu Software Center.
>
> tab
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 18:17, Peng Yu <pengyu.ut at gmail.com
> <mailto:pengyu.ut at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 6:03 PM, Peng Yu <pengyu.ut at gmail.com
>     <mailto:pengyu.ut at gmail.com>> wrote:
>      > Hi,
>      >
>      > I installed ubuntu 11.10 on Dell Vostro 1520. When I click on the up
>      > and down arrows on the top bar, I see "Enable Wireless" menu item is
>      > gray. Is it because the wireless network card is not properly
>      > recognized by ubuntu? Does anybody know how to fix the problem?
>
>     I have the following output of these commands.
>
>     ~$ sudo lshw -C network
>       *-network
>            description: Ethernet interface
>            product: RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
>            vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
>            physical id: 0
>            bus info: pci at 0000:08:00.0
>            logical name: eth0
>            version: 03
>            serial: 00:24:e8:9c:24:44
>            size: 100Mbit/s
>            capacity: 1Gbit/s
>            width: 64 bits
>            clock: 33MHz
>            capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list
>     rom ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt
>     1000bt-fd autonegotiation
>            configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169
>     driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=full firmware=rtl_nic/rtl8168d-1.fw
>     ip=192.168.1.116 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=MII
>     speed=100Mbit/s
>            resources: irq:47 ioport:4000(size=256)
>     memory:fe004000-fe004fff memory:fe000000-fe003fff
>     memory:fe020000-fe03ffff
>       *-network DISABLED
>            description: Wireless interface
>            product: BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY
>            vendor: Broadcom Corporation
>            physical id: 0
>            bus info: pci at 0000:0e:00.0
>            logical name: eth2
>            version: 01
>            serial: 00:24:2c:a1:1a:30
>            width: 64 bits
>            clock: 33MHz
>            capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet
>     physical wireless
>            configuration: broadcast=yes driver=wl0
>     driverversion=5.100.82.38 latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE
>     802.11bg
>            resources: irq:18 memory:f6000000-f6003fff
>
>     ~$ iwconfig
>     lo        no wireless extensions.
>
>     eth0      no wireless extensions.
>
>     eth2      IEEE 802.11  Access Point: Not-Associated
>               Link Quality:5  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
>               Rx invalid nwid:0  invalid crypt:0  invalid misc:0
>
>
>
>     --
>     Regards,
>     Peng
>
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>
>
Hi,

At the risk of stating the obvious (it's happened to me!) check there is 
no hardware switch to disable wireless (usually on laptops and a very 
small switch)

grandmother sucking eggs springs to mind but if you don’t ask......

Regards

Pete