Problem with wireless driver on dell inspiron 1525

The broadcom driver installed after I restarted my Laptop.
But there is another strange problem, the wireless hardware switch doesn't turn on the wifi on the laptop sometimes.
I have to restart the laptop with the wireless switch on to have the wifi switched on on the laptop.
It's not a hardware issue because in windows vista on the same laptop the switch works fine.
Please help solving this issue.

Can you give the output of:

sudo lshw -C network; lsb_release -a; uname -a; dmesg | grep -i firm; sudo rfkill list

Thanks

I'm having a similar problem. I have a Dell 1500. Using 10.04, the wireless (Broadcom driver) worked fine. I did a fresh install of 12.04, the driver installed, but the wireless does not seem to be enabled. This is a dual-boot system, and the wireless works fine with Windows 7. Here is the output of the command you listed above. Thanks!

*-network
       description: Network controller
       product: BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:0c:00.0
       version: 01
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
       configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=0
       resources: irq:17 memory:f9ffc000-f9ffffff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
       logical name: eth1
       version: 02
       serial: 00:1c:23:ad:e2:65
       size: 100Mbit/s
       capacity: 100Mbit/s
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list ethernet physical mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=b44 driverversion=2.0 duplex=full ip=192.168.2.109 latency=64 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100Mbit/s
       resources: irq:17 memory:f9bfe000-f9bfffff
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise
Linux richard-Vostro-1500 3.2.0-24-generic #37-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 25 08:43:22 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[ 15.640264] [Firmware Bug]: Duplicate ACPI video bus devices for the same VGA controller, please try module parameter "video.allow_duplicates=1"if the current driver doesn't work.
0: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no

PCI (sysfs)

  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: 88E8040 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller
       vendor: Marvell Technology Group Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:09:00.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 12
       capacity: 100Mbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=sky2 driverversion=1.30 firmware=N/A latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair
       resources: irq:44 memory:fe8fc000-fe8fffff ioport:de00(size=256)
  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       product: BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:0b:00.0
       logical name: eth1
       version: 01
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=wl0 driverversion=5.100.82.38 ip=192.168.1.3 latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg
       resources: irq:17 memory:fe7fc000-fe7fffff
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise
Linux pranky-Inspiron-1525 3.2.0-24-generic-pae #37-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 25 10:47:59 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
[ 13.302306] [Firmware Bug]: Duplicate ACPI video bus devices for the same VGA controller, please try module parameter "video.allow_duplicates=1"if the current driver doesn't work.
0: brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no
1: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
 Soft blocked: no
 Hard blocked: no
2: dell-bluetooth: Bluetooth
 Soft blocked: yes
 Hard blocked: no

@actionparsnip
Thats the message for the given command. this is after I restarted my laptop with the wifi switch on.

Your wifi has an IP, if you run:

echo "nameserver 8.8.8.8" | sudo tee /etc/resolv.conf

Do you get web access? If so, we can make the setting stick

In my case, this does not work. The WiFi is not enabled, and there is no option to enable Wifi, so there is no web access.

I have a really fine internet access through wifi on my laptop. The problem is that if I first switch on my computer in Ubuntu 12.04 & then use the wifi hardware switch located on the right side of my laptop then wifi doesn't get switched on. While if I first switch on the wifi using hardware switch & then boot my laptop in 12.04 then the wifi work very fine.

I suggest you report a bug

Same laptop (Dell 1525), same upgrade (10.04 - 12.04) exactly the same issue. If I don't have my wireless switch to the on position at boot, I have no wireless and cannot enable it on the desktop, I have to re-start the laptop with the wireless switch on.

This wasn't a problem on previous versions, notably 10.04, where I could boot up, and then turn on wireless when I needed it, and off when I didn't. Obviously this has made things quite inconvenient as I now sometimes have to boot up twice; or just leave wireless on continuously, even when I don't need it, which wastes the battery.

It doesn't seem to be a driver issue, as I appear to have a different chip and drivers to priyank:

  *-network
    description: Wireless interface
       product: PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:0b:00.0
       logical name: eth1
       version: 02
       serial: 00:1f:3c:4c:f4:d0
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwl3945 driverversion=3.2.0-24-generic-pae firmware=15.32.2.9 ip=192.168.0.5 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abg
       resources: irq:46 memory:fe7ff000-fe7fffff

Also, I don't know whether it is related or not, but it seems likely, my wireless seems to be labelled different on each boot. Sometimes it is eth1, other times wlan0, on other versions of Ubuntu, it was always eth1 permanently. The name changing makes using Conky a bit of a nightmare.

Hello Priyank and Rich Dudley, were your problems solved? I have the same problem, and am currently seeking help in launchpad.

Priyank has opened a bug for this so I don't think he has resolved it - I certainly haven't.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-nettool/+bug/995992

You could try adding your name to the bug, it might help it get fixed quicker.

Abrar, no, I still cannot use my WiFi, bit Priyank has opened a bug report. By the way, thanks Priyank!