Background

Recently, I bought a second-hand laptop for training my Linux skill. However, after I installed Ubuntu 18.04, the WIFI doesn’t work, I know the hardware no problem, because I tested it with Win7 and Win10. This laptop uses Broadcom BCM43228 for the wireless hardware, you can see a lot of articles saw have the same issue with this one on the internet.

I will list some solutions that should be fix this problem,

  • Laptop: DELL Latitude 6430S
  • Wireless hardware: Broadcom Limited BCM43228

  • Operating System： Ubuntu 18.04 Desktop

  • rfkill

Check the wireless hardware

sudo lspci | grep Network

It will show you the wireless hardware model, in the case my result is Broadcom BCM43228.

An easy way to fix this can use sudo apt update then sudo apt install--reinstall bcmwl-kernel-source to update the driver.

If you a luck guy, the WiFi should be work after you reboot system.

If not, let’s do another way

Check the wireless hardware detail

sudo lshw -C network