This afternoon I was wanting to reinstall Ubuntu 12.10 onto my little old netbook. I’ve done this loads of times without issue, I always connect to a wired network to ensure all the updates and odd drivers (like the wireless) get installed OK. However on removing the network cable after install wireless wasn’t working.
I checked the Software Updater and the Broadcom driver was apparently installed and working – a mystery!
Anyway, one of the advantages of the Linux community is a very impressive forums system which provided the solution, which I will provide mainly for my own aid memoire in case I need to reinstall again!!
Simply type the following in a terminal:
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic
sudo apt-get install --reinstall bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo modprobe wl
As much as Linux is making attempts to catch up with Windows/OS X, they really need to get rid of silly bugs like this. The problem is apparently the system recognises the wireless card as something else and installs the wrong driver. Frustrating, but at least it works now.
Now, the challenge is to share the 3G connection over the wireless to provide us with a little hotspot while on holiday . . .