Oct 29 2009

Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) and Broadcom BCM4312

Category: desktop, linux, ubuntuBrian Racer @ 3:35 pm

Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) launched today and I figured it was time to do an install from scratch onto my Dell D830 Latitude laptop. Everything went quite smoothly but when it started up I noticed two issues:

Problem 1: No wireless

I know the Broadcom card inside the laptop isn’t the greatest, but the last two Ubuntu releases it has worked out of the box. The following command enabled the card after a reboot:

sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source

Problem 2: Really slow DNS lookups (because of IPV6)

As documented on Launchpad, there still doesn’t seem to be an official fix. Strangely disabling IPV6 in /etc/sysctl.conf didn’t solve anything, however disabling it in Firefox at least fixes the issue in the browser. Just type about:config in the address bar, and set network.dns.disableIPv6 to false.

Otherwise things seem to be working well, although I don’t understand why they stick with a color scheme that looks like mud.

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9 Responses to “Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) and Broadcom BCM4312”

  1. Denis Lemire says:

    Thanks for the heads-up on the Broadcom wireless. Ran into the same issue… The mentioned fix resolved it without any further trouble.

  2. Jonathan says:

    Thanks a lot! The issue with wireless was the same with vostro 1320 and that solved my problem.

  3. Bob says:

    Thanks for your suggestion – fixed my Acer Aspire 5720 too. Annoying that it worked before but not by default on 9.10!!

  4. Ideas a cuentagotas » Blog Archive » Broadcom BCM4312 en Karmit Koala says:

    [...] que el “problema” no es tan comun, sin embargo despues de buen rato buscando encontre este blog en el que esta un sencillo paso de como solucionar el problema, simplemente con este sencillo [...]

  5. Pallav says:

    Tried this several times on HP Pavilion dv4t. No luck :( . Has anyone had any luck with any Pavilions?

  6. axl says:

    This was only part a partial solution for me — I followed the directions at http://elame.com/damnthatsannoying/?p=35 and it provided the final steps I needed to get it working.

  7. Deverne says:

    Thank for let us know the Broadcom issue and its solution.

  8. Gideo says:

    ¡¡¡Thanks a lot for this information!!!. It worked perfectly on my Vostro 1320. I have wireless now in my Ubuntu 9.10

  9. Juan says:

    Man, you saved me loads of trouble with this fix, Vostro 1400. THANKS!!!

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