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I should say first that I have read the excellent Q&A "Installing Broadcom Wireless Drivers". I should also say that I've not actually tried the solutions posted in that Q&A because I'm a bit nervous I might break something due to previous choices I made during the recent upgrade.

My system is a 2011 Macbook Pro that I dual boot between Ubuntu and macOS. Here's what lspci reports:

$ lspci -nn -d 14e4:
02:00.0 Ethernet controller ....  # I don't use Ethernet 
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n [14e4:4331] (rev 02)

I recall being given an option during the recent upgrade: use a proprietary driver, or use an open source driver. I decided that I would go with the open source option. I now find that my system loses its wifi connection regularly (the wifi icon in the menu bar becomes hollow with a question mark overlaid on the icon, and network connectivity fails. I can restore things by 1. Selecting wifi Turn Off, and then turning it back on. So the issue is not fatal - only annoying.

I also read that the kernel version may play a role. For my system:

$ uname -a
Linux MacBuntuPro 5.15.0-48-generic #54-Ubuntu SMP ...

My questions/concerns are primarily these:

  1. Once I have installed the new Broadcom driver in place of the open-source driver, how can I restore my system to its current state (using the open source driver)? I ask because in the procedure outlined in this answer doesn't seem to cover this.

  2. At the end of this procedure, the possibility of updating the "Linux firmware" is mentioned; does this refer to the "open source" driver(s)??

Addendum: Unfortunately, I have just learned that Ubuntu's auto updaters have an affinity for the open-source drivers, and they will replace your proprietary driver when an opportunity arises. And so, it seems one must persistently overrule the auto-updater to retain the driver that works best.

Seamus
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1 Answers1

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I read the question "Installing Broadcom Wireless Drivers" as asking how to install the proprietary drivers?!?! Is it actually about installing the open source drivers?

It is actually about installing the driver, either proprietary or open source, that has been shown by many years of experience, sometimes by trial and error, to likely drive a specific device properly.

In the long and ever-growing list of devices, there are some that only work with the open source driver, some that only work with the proprietary driver and some that will work, albeit with varying degrees of success, with either.

The question to which you refer is an attempt to suggest to Broadcom users the likely most successful driver without any regard to its open or closed source status.

As you see, your device is 14e4:4331 and is assumed to work best with the open source driver; i.e. b43 and firmware. The driver b43 and its dependencies ssb, bcma and others, are already installed in all recent Ubuntu versions. The firmware is not. Therefore, the recommendation is to install the package firmware-b43-installer.

History and trial and error suggests that your device will work as expected. If it does not, however, it is easy enough to try the other driver:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install bcmwl-kernel-source

Reboot.

If there is no improvement, as we expect, simply remove it to revert to the open-source driver:

sudo apt purge bcmwl-kernel-source

Reboot.

chili555
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