After just going through a lot of searching around to figure out how to fix the WiFi for a new Jolicloud installation, I thought I’d chronicle the issue and solution that worked for me.

As you probably know, Jolicloud is a neat little netbook OS built on top  of Ubuntu’s netbook OS to run web apps natively. I opted to run it on an old Dell Inspiron 1720 as an easy-to-use and free OS for my brother to use (as letting him try full-blown Ubuntu wasn’t exactly working out) since he only needs it for the web and music. After taking Jolicloud for a test spin via a burned ISO and meeting my brother’s approval with all systems go (wifi working perfectly fine) I installed it. Everything went smoothly until realizing – uh oh! – the network manager wasn’t showing any nearby wireless networks, nor was I able to connect via manually entering one. Checking all obvious obstacles (hardware switch, BIOS settings, right clicking on the network manager applet and ensuring wireless was enabled, etc) and coming up empty handed, I searched trusty Google for answers to make it all better. While there was no direct answer to my issue with Jolicloud per se (I have to admit, their Help section is rather ridiculous – if you need help, their answer is “ask the Ubuntu guys.” Not exactly the most user friendly support for software directed at the average consumer), fortunately after much searching and reading I was able to piece together the solution for this particular issue.

1. Check that your wireless card is Broadcom

      • Press Alt+F1 To bring up Terminal.
      • Type “lspci -vvnn | grep 14e4″
      • Check to see that your network controller is from Broadcom and take note of the wireless card model (“BCM43xx”). Mine, for instance, is BCM4312.
2. Establish a wired internet connection (if you can’t, you could daisy chain wifi through another laptop and Cat5)
3. Even if your model isn’t BCM4312, chances are yours qualifies for the STA driver (check here)
4. Ensure your system is up to date by typing “sudo apt-get update” and “sudo apt-get upgrade” in Terminal.
5. Install the STA driver by typing “sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source” in Terminal.

By this point, the STA should theoretically be installed and activated, but not currently in use. You could go ahead and restart to see if your wireless woes are solved, but you could also check the Hardware Drivers dialogue to make sure it’s installed and activated. Just about every Ubuntu article and forum advice post out there talks about this dialogue but if you click on the cloud icon located at the top right corner and go to System > Administration, you’ll see it’s not there. We need to install it…

6. In Terminal, type “sudo apt-get install jockey-gtk”

Now if you go to System > Administration, you’ll see Hardware Drivers. In this dialogue, you’ll see the currently in-use driver (that obviously doesn’t work) and the Broadcom STA wireless driver that we just installed, which should say that it’s activated but not currently in use. Now go ahead and reboot. Your wireless network applet should pick up all your local wireless networks. Connect to your desired wireless network and detach the wired connection.

Sources:

One Response to “Jolicloud and WiFi (Broadcom)”

  1. Shinrow says:
    December 5, 2011 at 5:02 am

    Thanks for sharing this ! I had problem with my Broadcom card and now, thanks to you, it works ! :D

    reply

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