#1 2016-11-06 09:31:28

Kino

Member

From: Stockport, UK

Registered: 2016-04-30

Posts: 109

Cannot connect to wifi Dell desktop pc [SOLVED]

Hi, I am trying to enable wifi on my Dell desktop pc.
I installed the same version of BL onto a laptop and the wifi works perfectly but for the desktop there is no response.
I tried: (with a wired connection)

lspci -knn | grep -iA2 net
03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Limited NetXtreme BCM5754 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express [14e4:167a] (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Dell OptiPlex 745 [1028:01da]
	Kernel driver in use: tg3

and

ip link
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default 
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:1a:a0:b8:35:0f brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

and

ip link show wlan0
Device "wlan0" does not exist

and finally,

nmcli dev
DEVICE  TYPE      STATE      CONNECTION         
eth0    ethernet  connected  Wired connection 1 
lo      loopback  unmanaged  --  

So, I am at a bit of a loss. Any help would be appreciated.

Just an afterthought:

iwconfig
eth0      no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

Does this mean that I don't actually have a wireless card installed (which would explain a lot).

Last edited by Kino (2016-11-06 13:26:22)

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 9,093

Website

Re: Cannot connect to wifi Dell desktop pc [SOLVED]

Does this mean that I don't actually have a wireless card installed

Looks like you have no support for the device in a stock BL system, does it work if you load up a live version of Ubuntu or something equally shiny?

The kernel version in BL is pretty old now so if the hardware was introduced after late 2014 then you will probably need a newer kernel version, guide here:

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=1257

---

Para todos todo, para nosotros nada

iMBeCil

WAAAT?

From: Edrychwch o'ch cwmpas

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 767

Re: Cannot connect to wifi Dell desktop pc [SOLVED]

@Kino: well, this (post 11 and 12) seems interesting. And it seemed to worked on pre-3.XX kernel version ...

---

Postpone all your duties; if you die, you won't have to do them ..

Kino

Member

From: Stockport, UK

Registered: 2016-04-30

Posts: 109

Re: Cannot connect to wifi Dell desktop pc [SOLVED]

Ok - I downloaded what appears to be a Broadcom driver: linux-3.137k.tar.gz
and have extracted into a folder.

But, reading the README file for instructions as to how to install this does not make any sense to me - nor do the instructions in the link given in the previous post!

Where do I go from here!

nobody

The Great

Registered: 2015-08-10

Posts: 3,655

Re: Cannot connect to wifi Dell desktop pc [SOLVED]

Don't waste your time. BCM5754 is NOT a WLAN radio, it's a dead-simple wired ethernet card: https://www.broadcom.com/collateral/pb/5754-PB01-R.pdf.

Kino

Member

From: Stockport, UK

Registered: 2016-04-30

Posts: 109

Re: Cannot connect to wifi Dell desktop pc [SOLVED]

Don't waste your time. BCM5754 is NOT a WLAN radio, it's a dead-simple wired ethernet card: https://www.broadcom.com/collateral/pb/5754-PB01-R.pdf.

Ha! Thanks for that - it explains why I was getting nowhere!