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rated 0 times [  23] [ 0]  / answers: 1 / hits: 182704  / 1 Year ago, mon, april 10, 2023, 1:44:46

I am not able to install drivers for my Wi-Fi + Bluetooth card (Broadcom BCM43142).



What I have done till now:




  1. I have tried using the drivers at this website.

  2. I tried following the instructions given here for both the apt-get install, download tar ball and install and offline install (from Ubuntu's boot DVD).

  3. 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.




  1. I also tried using ndiswrapper which was successful enough to make the UNCLAIMED driver (see below for the output of lshw -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-generic


Also, 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.


More From » wireless
 Answers
7

OK, so I finally fixed this :D



First here's what I learnt in the process:




  1. 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.


  2. 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:




  1. I tried installing bcmwl-kernel-source on 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-source were not the problem.)


  2. I went to /etc/modprobe.d and cross checked the files there with my hard disk installation's version of the same folder.


  3. This /etc/modprobe.d directory 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.


  4. 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.


  5. 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.


  6. I finally replaced (did a recursive copy onto) the /etc/modprobe.d and /lib/modules/3.*/updates/ directories (of my hard disk installation) with the same directories from the live OS.


  7. Reboot


  8. Do sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source. This is the official working driver for BCM43142 for Ubuntu 14.04.


  9. Reboot and sudo modprobe wl and 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 given


Turns out the driver was not updated for the upgraded kernel (version 3.18). A bit of googling let me to this post -



https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bcmwl/+bug/1358966



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.


[#25484] Monday, April 10, 2023, 1 Year  [reply] [flag answer]
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