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[Keith]

I have installed Mint 18 on a friend's Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop.  Unfortunately, the built-in wifi doesn't work with this installation although a USB wifi dongle works well (so I know that the network is set up correctly) as does Ethernet. 

Wifi enabled in BIOS and the network info entered. 
Keyboard Fn F2 to toggle wifi has no effect.
Here is some output that might help diagnosis:

[email protected] ~ $ rfkill list all
[email protected] ~ $ iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.
eth0      no wireless extensions.
------------------------------------------
[email protected] ~ $ lspci -vnn -d 14e4:
05:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN [14e4:4311] (rev 01)
   Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1390 WLAN Mini-Card [1028:0007]
   Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
   Memory at c0200000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
   Capabilities: <access denied>
   Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
   Kernel modules: ssb, wl

08:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX [14e4:170c] (rev 02)
   Subsystem: Dell BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX [1028:01f5]
   Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 21
   Memory at c0300000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
   Capabilities: <access denied>
   Kernel driver in use: b44
   Kernel modules: b44
-------------------------------------------------------

[email protected] ~ $ inxi -Fxn
System:    Host: dell1501 Kernel: 4.4.0-145-generic i686 (32 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.0.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3) Distro: Linux Mint 18 Sarah
Machine:   System: Dell product: Inspiron 1501
           Mobo: Dell model: 0UW744 Bios: Dell v: 2.3.0 date: 03/15/2006
CPU:       Dual core AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile TL-50 (-MCP-) cache: 512 KB
           flags: (lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 svm) bmips: 3192
           clock speeds: max: 1600 MHz 1: 800 MHz 2: 800 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RS482M [Mobility Radeon Xpress 200] bus-ID: 01:05.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.3 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: [email protected]
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on ATI RS480 GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 11.2.0 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:14.2
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-145-generic
Network:   Card-1: Broadcom and subsidiaries BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN driver: b43-pci-bridge bus-ID: 05:00.0
           IF: N/A state: N/A mac: N/A
           Card-2: Broadcom and subsidiaries BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX driver: b44 v: 2.0 bus-ID: 08:00.0
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: 00:19:b9:5d:ec:8c
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 80.0GB (9.0% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: Hitachi_HTS54168 size: 80.0GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 73G used: 5.9G (9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 0.94GB used: 0.15GB (16%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 52.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 161 Uptime: 3:09 Memory: 354.1/870.2MB Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35
----------------------------------------

I've installed  b43-fwcutter and firmware-b43-installer
I am guessing that the installer installs the b43-fwcutter but I don't know how to use it.
I did find an example of the use of b43-fwcutter:    b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta.o
but I'm not confident about just copying this as it might not be appropriate for this machine. 
Can anyone advise me on the the best way forward?

Thank you

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

You don't need to be messing with b43-fwcutter

Just attach to the router with an ethernet cable (or other wireless card) and run:

Code Select Expand

sudo apt-get remove bcmwl-kernel-source broadcom-sta-common broadcom-sta-dkms
then

Code Select Expand

sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer
then REBOOT to test.

[Keith]

That worked perfectly!   
Very many thanks, Mark.   

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

Most welcome