Since getting my Dell Studio xxxx I never managed to get it work on my wireless network with Ubunu 9.04 upwards. Not too bad, as it came with Windows 7, which was a massive improvement over Vista which I had dual booted on my previous laptop. But still... I missed the power and raw speed of Linux.
With 10.10 out, I decided to give it another try - and SUCCEEDED!
After running System Testing from the System > Administration menu (just run the network tests), I deduced that my network adaptor was a Broadcom BCM43224.
The Solution
From there on, I was 10 magical steps away from wireless nirvana:
- From the Application menu, selected Ubuntu Software Centre
- In the top left search box I search for Broadcom
- From the results I installed the 'Common files for the Broadcom STA wireless driver'
- Then went to the System menu > Administration > Additional drivers
- Selected the Broadcom STA proprietary wireless driver and hit 'Install'
- Rebooted
- It DIDN'T work
- Went back to System menu > Administration > Additional drivers
- Removed and reinstalled the Broadcom driver
- It worked!
This has bugging me for ages, and I've finally got it to work.
Bye-bye Windows 7, it wasn't too bad.
PS - I've not been brave enough to reboot again yet.
