Broadcom STA driver fails to install missing wl on Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS / Linux 3.8

After installing Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on my HP Folio 13 I cannot get wireless to work. My kernel is 3.8.0-29-generic and my wireless module is a Broadcom BCM4313.

After running rfkill list all:

0: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
1: hp-bluetooth: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
2: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

The wired connection works fine. The driver activation for Broadcom STA wireless driver fails every time. in the log it says

FATAL: Module wl not found.
FATAL: Error running install command for wl

After running lspci -nnk | grep -iEA3 "(wireless|network|wlan)":

02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11bgn Wireless
Network Adapter [14e4:4727] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:1795]
Kernel modules: bcma
03:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5209 PCI Express Card Reader [10ec:5209] (rev 01)

I have also tried this method and it did not work: Installing Broadcom Wireless Drivers.

Solution 1:

Important note

An updated revision of bcmwl-kernel-source that should fix the issues on kernel 3.8.0.xx has been rolled out to the precise-updates archives. Please make sure to upgrade your system before considering any of the workarounds posted in this Q&A.

(thanks, @gertvdijk for the headsup)

Original answer

The issue you are dealing with seems to mainly appear on Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS with the backported kernel 3.8.0-xx installed.

Please take a look at this bug report. As you can see it's a known problem and many different workarounds exist.

What worked for me was installing the latest bcmwl-kernel-source from Raring. You can find this package here. Make sure to download the right one for your system, e.g. this one if you have an amd64 machine.

You can install the package via:

sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/bcmwl-kernel-source_6.20.155.1+bdcom-0ubuntu6_amd64.deb

Of course you will have to change the path to the deb file in accordance to where you downloaded it to.

You might have to execute the following command afterwards to get your wireless up and running:

sudo modprobe wl

Source: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2155228&page=2&p=12765664#post12765664

Solution 2:

There is a bug in precise for wl driver. You may try this patched package which solves the issue. Or you may try b43 driver as well.

Just download your architechture package amd64 or i386 and install it using software-center or gdebi or sudo dpkg -i PACKAGE_PATH. If you get dependency error do sudo apt-get install -f OR you may install dkms first which is required.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx