I am not able to install drivers for my Wi-Fi + Bluetooth card (Broadcom BCM43142).
What I have done till now:
- I have tried using the drivers at this website.
- I tried following the instructions given here for both the
apt-getinstall, download tar ball and install and offline install (from Ubuntu's boot DVD). - I tried installing
bcmwl-kernel-source.
At the end of every single method [1,2,3], when I do a sudo modprobe wl, I invariably get this:
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'wl': Exec format error.
I have also tried blacklisting drivers other than wl and have tried reinstalling the same several times.
- I also tried using
ndiswrapperwhich was successful enough to make the UNCLAIMED driver (see below for the output oflshw -c Network) change to something else.
However at the end the Wi-Fi did now show up or work.
Kernel version: 3.13.0-24-generic
I have tried everything I could do to my full ability. It would be extremely helpful if you could help me setup my Wi-Fi. I am willing to pastebin output of any commands that you might ask me to execute. (I have added the outputs of lshw -c Network and lspci -nn , but please don't hesitate to ask me anything else.)
lshw -c Network
WARNING: you should run this program as super-user. *-network UNCLAIMED description: Network controller product: BCM43142 802.11b/g/n vendor: Broadcom Corporation physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0 version: 01 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: bus_master cap_list configuration: latency=0 resources: memory:90500000-90507fff
lspci
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM43142 802.11b/g/n [14e4:4365] (rev 01)The output of sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source. The official driver (by Ubuntu) for this WLAN card:
sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED: wireless-bcm43142-oneiric-dkms
The following NEW packages will be installed: bcmwl-kernel-source
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/1,126 kB of archives.
After this operation, 1,417 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 318223 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing wireless-bcm43142-oneiric-dkms (6.20.55.19~bdcom0602.0400.1000.0400-0somerville1) ...
Removing all DKMS Modules
Done.
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.103ubuntu4) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-24-generic
Selecting previously unselected package bcmwl-kernel-source.
(Reading database ... 318162 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../bcmwl-kernel-source_6.30.223.141+bdcom-0ubuntu2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking bcmwl-kernel-source (6.30.223.141+bdcom-0ubuntu2) ...
Setting up bcmwl-kernel-source (6.30.223.141+bdcom-0ubuntu2) ...
Loading new bcmwl-6.30.223.141+bdcom DKMS files...
Building only for 3.13.0-24-generic
Building for architecture x86_64
Building initial module for 3.13.0-24-generic
Done.
wl:
Running module version sanity check. - Original module - Installation - Installing to /lib/modules/3.13.0-24-generic/updates/dkms/
depmod.......
DKMS: install completed.This is the error I keep getting repeatedly:
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'wl': Exec format error
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.103ubuntu4) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-24-genericAlso, what is meant by the same?
I went through the following Ask Ubuntu questions:
The second one seems to be a very comprehensive summary of all possible ways... Still I am stuck up with this Exec Format error.
5 Answers
OK, so I finally fixed this :D
First here's what I learnt in the process:
NEVER ram your OS with different drivers or modules haphazardly until your problem gets fixed, at least not without a) Knowing what / why you are doing, and b) MOST IMPORTANTLY How to undo the same.
Whenever you try a different driver, module, or package, first uninstall the package that you previously installed for the same purpose.
And lots of thanks to @chili555 who pointed out that the leftover from a previous package was the reason.
So what I did was:
I tried installing
bcmwl-kernel-sourceon a live run of Ubuntu 14.04 (with my LAN cable) and checked if WLan works now. (And yeah, it did confirm that Ubuntu 14.04 / BCM43142 /bcmwl-kernel-sourcewere not the problem.)I went to
/etc/modprobe.dand cross checked the files there with my hard disk installation's version of the same folder.This
/etc/modprobe.ddirectory contains configuration files which contain blacklisting information for different modules. I made a note of the available files and later removed what was not available here from my hard disk installation's version of the same folder too.I went to
/lib/modules/3.*/updates/. This is the directory that stores all your modules (wl, b43, etc. ... ) and the one that I messed up with various custom patched versions of wl modules listed in various forums.After cross checking with my hard disk installation's version of
lib/modules/3.*/updates/, I manually removed all Bluetooth / wireless / dkms / wl / (and in particular one mac80211) and cleaned up any other modules that are related to wlan.I finally replaced (did a recursive copy onto) the
/etc/modprobe.dand/lib/modules/3.*/updates/directories (of my hard disk installation) with the same directories from the live OS.Reboot
Do
sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source. This is the official working driver for BCM43142 for Ubuntu 14.04.Reboot and
sudo modprobe wland viola, wireless was working!
And finally sincere apologies to all my cross-posting, reposting, spamming IRCs with this question repeatedly. :P
NOTE: Replacing /removing your hard disk installation files is recommended only for those who installed your OS recently. Otherwise there is a risk that you could replace / remove files / modules that may have been installed for other devices which may be irrelevant to this issue.
Thanks again to chili555 :)
EDIT I recently updated my kernel to support the DisplayLink driver for my USB monitor and bam the wifi was gone.
A blind attempt at re-installing bcmwl-kernel-source threw the following error in the build log.
"alloc_netdev" requires 4 arguments, but only 3 givenTurns out the driver was not updated for the upgraded kernel (version 3.18). A bit of googling let me to this post -
Where there are links available to patched versions of wl, which works with the upgraded kernel.
I manually downloaded and installed this guy and wifi was restored.
Now I can go back to browsing lolcats in peace. Amen.
3I too had the same trouble when installing Linux Mint, Ubuntu 13.10 and 14.04. I had to use a LAN cable or USB tethering from my phone to get bcmwl-kernel-source installed which seemed to be the only working wireless driver for my DELL inspiron 15.
however i was able to see the bcmwl-kernel-source in the additional drivers section of the software updates after running
sudo apt-get updatefrom the terminal after establishing internet connection via LAN or USB tethering and you will see the additional drivers listed from where i was able to install the driver pretty easily.
I also had the same issue with Ubuntu 11.10 and 12.10. The problem was that Wi-Fi was not detected on BCM43142 Sony VAIO FIT 15E. Therefore, when I tried to install Ubuntu 13.10, I checked the option of "Install this third party software" during installation, and it worked for me!!
See step 2 on Install Ubuntu, sub section Prepare to install Ubuntu. You can also try this.
1I've encountered the issue and to solve it I just run the next command:
# (sudo rmmod b43 ; sudo rmmod bcma ; sudo rmmod wl ; sudo modprobe wl ; sudo modprobe lib80211_crypt_tkip)It seems that b43 or bcma are collisions to the wl module.
Hope it will help someone...
Similar Problem on Ubuntu 20.04 with HP notebook. Solution: pre: Identify your chipset:
lspci -vvnn | grep -A 9 Network You will get the chip ID on first or second line. (eg BCM4331) Actual Solution Install (if there is internet access through ethernet) Broadcom STA Wireless driver (Proprietary):
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get --reinstall install bcmwl-kernel-sourceTest and avoid reboot through :
sudo modprobe -r b43 ssb wl brcmfmac brcmsmac bcma
sudo modprobe wlThis is taken from :
