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On my friend's Ubuntu 12.10 (Unity) laptop, there is no longer an option to connect to a wireless network. It used to work. He doesn't know what caused it to go away, but does anyone know how to get it back?

More info:

  • See the screenshots below
  • No wlan things show up when you run iwconfig
  • Laptop is HP ProBook 6550b

enter image description here Network Settings

Ian Hincks
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1 Answers1

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Your laptop model appears to have a Broadcom wireless chipset.

open terminal and type what is shown below

sudo apt-get purge broadcom-sta-common broadcom-sta-source bcmwl-kernel-source

then type

sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter firmware-b43-installer

Restart your computer after the command is completed and your wireless will start to work :D

David Foerster
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Tristan Parrish
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  • @DavidFoerster The laptop model the OP said they had [*appears* to have](https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebooks-Archive-Read-Only/Wireless-ProBook-6550b-broadcom-4313/td-p/382955) a Broadcom b4313 chip. Although it would be better if the reasoning in this answer were explained explicitly, I think the inference about the wireless chipset is reasonable. I think we can close this as a duplicate of [Installing Broadcom Wireless Drivers](https://askubuntu.com/questions/55868/installing-broadcom-wireless-drivers). – Eliah Kagan Apr 01 '18 at 02:13