No ethernet connection with new instal of 12.04 desktop on Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop - lshw says "network unclaimed"

[Gene Heskett]

On Tuesday 12 November 2013 14:05:00 Andrew did opine:

> I've installed 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) on Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop and
> can't get ethernet to work when booting/running from hard disk
> installation - however ethernet does work when running from live CD/DVD.
> Never had this problem before with previous versions - last one was
> 10.04 with which both ethernet and wireless network connections worked
> fine. I've trawled through various forum postings but to no avail so am
> asking ubuntu Users List for help please.
> 
> For information, 'lshw -c network' outputs are as follows:
> 
> Running from normal/hard disk installation (no ethernet):
> 
> *-network
>        description: Network controller
>        product: BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
>        vendor: Broadcom Corporation
>        physical id: 0
>        bus info: pci at 0000:05:00.0
>        version: 01
>        width: 32 bits
>        clock: 33MHz
>        capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
>        configuration: driver=wl latency=0
>        resources: irq:18 memory:c0200000-c0203fff
>   *-network UNCLAIMED
>        description: Ethernet controller
>        product: BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX
>        vendor: Broadcom Corporation
>        physical id: 0
>        bus info: pci at 0000:08:00.0
>        version: 02
>        width: 32 bits
>        clock: 33MHz
>        capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list
>        configuration: latency=64
>        resources: memory:c0300000-c0301fff
> 
> Running from live CD/DVD (ethernet connection works):
> 
> *-network
>        description: Network controller
>        product: BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
>        vendor: Broadcom Corporation
>        physical id: 0
>        bus info: pci at 0000:05:00.0
>        version: 01
>        width: 32 bits
>        clock: 33MHz
>        capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
>        configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=0
>        resources: irq:18 memory:c0200000-c0203fff
>   *-network
>        description: Ethernet interface
>        product: BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX
>        vendor: Broadcom Corporation
>        physical id: 0
>        bus info: pci at 0000:08:00.0
>        logical name: eth0
>        version: 02
>        serial: 00:19:b9:6f:77:bc
>        size: 10Mbit/s
>        capacity: 100Mbit/s
>        width: 32 bits
>        clock: 33MHz
>        capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical mii 10bt
> 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
>        configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=b44
> driverversion=2.0 duplex=half ip=192.168.0.15 latency=64 link=yes
> multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=10Mbit/s
>        resources: irq:21 memory:c0300000-c0301f
> 
> As I said above I get ethernet OK when running from live CD/DVD, but not
> wireless - I can't install the wireless driver. I've come to a bit of a
> dead-end with this now so any help will be much appreciated.
> 
> Andy

Very long standing installer bug and very vehemently denied by this list so 
I'll probably start another flamefest.  I fixed mine my way and spent 6 
weeks wearing nomex jockey's because I couldn't possibly have done it 
right.

If you installed it from the first install requester, an ncurses screen I 
believe,  put the cd back in and allow it to fully boot from the cd, and 
that should install from the desktop install icon. And Just Work.

Cheers, Gene
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