WiFi Dell Latitude D830

villia

Estimable
Sep 9, 2015
3
0
4,510
Hello all,

I am giving my grandmother my ancient Dell Latitude D830 Laptop. I want to put Ubuntu(or Mint) on it, as opposed to Windows. She is a malware/adware magnet, lol. However, I cannot for the life of me get the network card to work in ANY distro of Linux I've tried (even ones I don't plan on her using for troubleshooting's sake). It will, however, work with Windows 7. Any ideas? I've installed it from driver both from Broadcom and Dell's Support site. ANY help would be much appreciated!

Broadcom 802.11 Version 6.30.223.248



UPDATE: Just wanted to say I finally got the WiFi working with Mint. However, Cinnamon crashes with Chrome and Firefox. If it isn't one thing, it's another! Thanks again guys.
 

imrazor

Distinguished
Dec 28, 2009
51
0
18,610
While replacing the adapter is the simplest option, Linux will usually work with older, common Broadcom chipsets. From the command prompt, type in:

lspci | grep -e Broadcom

That should produce a line like this:

03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)

Pay attention to the first few numbers. In my case, it's "03:00.0". Next type in:

lspci -n

This will print out a list of numbers. Look at the number that corresponds to your Broadcom adapter.

In my case it looks like:

03:00.0 0280: 14e4:4727 (rev 01)

The number 14e4 is the PCI vendor ID for Broadcom. The "4727" is the PCI device ID. The 14e4 should be the same for you, but the next set of four numbers will probably be different. Go ahead and post the number here in the format "14e4:xxxx". This will help us determine if your Broadcom is compatible with Linux or not.
 

imrazor

Distinguished
Dec 28, 2009
51
0
18,610
First off, have you tried the Ubuntu proprietary drivers tool? Search for Driver or Hardware from the toolbar menu. If that doesn't work, these commands supposedly work on older versions of Ubuntu (make sure you run them as root):

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get firmware-b43-installer
sudo modprobe b43

Then reboot. If that doesn't work, we may have to do some more research.
 

villia

Estimable
Sep 9, 2015
3
0
4,510
Still no luck after trying suggested answers; among other things. The odd part is that every time I put a fresh OS of Mint I can see the driver under Driver Manager. Once I 'Apply' it, I cannot see it again.. even after rebooting. Will check back if I can figure it out, itching that part of my brain.
 

imrazor

Distinguished
Dec 28, 2009
51
0
18,610
Hmm, three possibilities occur me. Firstly, the correct firmware is not installed. Secondly, the driver may be conflicting with a previously loaded (but incorrect) driver. Third possibility is that the correct driver may actually be removed from the module blacklist. Let's start with the firmware. If you type:

dmesg | grep -e Broadcom
dmesg | grep -e firmware

Do you get any results from either command? If you do, go ahead and post them.

UPDATE: Never mind, just saw your update. Good luck!