No internet

[Winston]

Almost worked.

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root@Debian:/home/mike# wpa_passphrase myssid mypassword >
/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlp12s0.conf

root@Debian:/etc/wpa_supplicant# /sbin/wpa_supplicant -B -i wlp12s0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlp12s0.conf
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
Could not read interface wlp12s0 flags: No such device
nl80211: Driver does not support authentication/association or connect commands
nl80211: deinit ifname=wlp12s0 disabled_11b_rates=0
Could not read interface wlp12s0 flags: No such device
wlp12s0: Failed to initialize driver interface

Is the failure because wireless networking isn't running?

The .conf file:

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root@Debian:/etc/wpa_supplicant# cat wpa_supplicant-wlp12s0.conf
network={
        ssid="myssid"
        #psk="mypassword"
        psk=long string
}

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Okay so find the correct interface name:

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ip link

If there is no wireless interface then check if your kernel drivers are loaded:

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lspci -k | grep -iA2 net

[Winston]

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root@Debian:~# ip link
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:1d:09:cf:f2:51 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
root@Debian:~# lspci -k | grep -iA2 net
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
	Subsystem: Dell BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX
	Kernel driver in use: b44
--
0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4321 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1500 Draft 802.11n WLAN Mini-card
	Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge

[Head_on_a_Stick]

So what happened to your wireless interface? You had a wlan0 last time we checked and a wlp12s0 earlier on in the thread. Your wireless card no longer has the wl driver, did you remove that or something?

I'm getting bored of this thread tbh, Broadcom is always a bastard under GNU/Linux.

[Chrisdb]

So what happened to your wireless interface? You had a wlan0 last time we checked and a wlp12s0 earlier on in the thread. Your wireless card no longer has the wl driver, did you remove that or something?

I'm getting bored of this thread tbh, Broadcom is always a bastard under GNU/Linux.

I told him to remove the broadcom-sta driver since it (wl) blacklisted his ethernet 'b44'. Either he would have to use his ethernet or wifi, but both would be a problem. According to the wiki his BCM4321 also is covered by the "firmware-b43-installer" package. And indeed this listed the 'wlan0' interface earlier. But for some reason now he's got no wireless interface anymore...

[Head_on_a_Stick]

^ Thanks Chrisdb. I think perhaps I'm just confusing things here because I didn't read the rest of the thread properly, sorry about that.

[Chrisdb]

^ Thanks Chrisdb. I think perhaps I'm just confusing things here because I didn't read the rest of the thread properly, sorry about that.

No problem HoaS, it's Chris btw
Maybe it would be better to start a new thread, what do you think?

@OP,
You installed both firmware-b43-installer and broadcom-sta-dkms. You need to remove the broadcom-sta-dkms package. Then try the wpa_supplicant step again with 'wlan0' (it was renamed by installing b43)

[Winston]

No networking

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mike@Debian:~$ ip addr
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:1d:09:cf:f2:51 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.1.11/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global dynamic eth0
       valid_lft 85908sec preferred_lft 85908sec
    inet6 fe80::21d:9ff:fecf:f251/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Removing

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root@Debian:/etc/network# apt remove broadcom-sta-dkms
.
.
Deleting module version: 6.30.223.271
completely from the DKMS tree.
------------------------------
Done.

Creating

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root@Debian:/etc/wpa_supplicant# wpa_passphrase myssid mypassword > /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf

Updating /etc/network/interfaces

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Updating /etc/network/interfaces
auto eth0
allow-hotplug eth0

iface eth0 inet dhcp

iface eth0 inet6 dhcp

# my wifi device

allow-hotplug wlan0

iface wlan0 inet dhcp

     wireless-essid Corniche5

     wireless-mode infrastructure

#source /etc/network/interfaces.d/*

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

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r.michael.kent@gmail.com
6:31 PM (0 minutes ago)
to Mike

root@Debian:/etc/network/sbin/wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
Could not read interface wlan0 flags: No such device
nl80211: Driver does not support authentication/association or connect commands
nl80211: deinit ifname=wlan0 disabled_11b_rates=0
Could not read interface wlan0 flags: No such device
wlan0: Failed to initialize driver interface

[Chrisdb]

Just to be sure, also remove the config files:

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# dpkg -P broadcom-sta-dkms

You did keep the 'firmware-b43-installer' package did you?

What is the result af the following after reboot:

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# ip link

If you still do not have a wireless device, I suggest you launch a new thread with the following details:
- provide the details of your problem -> wireless not working with broadcom wireless device
- some info regarding your wireless device ( type, ...)
- output of '/etc/network/interfaces' + mentioning you're not using NetworkManager
- output of both 'ip link' and 'lspci -k | grep -iA2 net'
- output of 'dmesg | grep b43'
- mention you have installed the 'firmware-b43-installer' package instead of 'broadcom-sta-dkms' because of an issue with the 'wl' driver blacklisting your b44 driver, so you can't use both ethernet and wifi and refer to this thread

[Head_on_a_Stick]

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# my wifi device

allow-hotplug wlan0

iface wlan0 inet dhcp

     wireless-essid Corniche5

     wireless-mode infrastructure

For the second time: that will not work, it just creates a wifi hotspot (ie, allows other machines to use the wireless card in your device to connect to the internet).

If you want to use /etc/network/interfaces to connect your device to the internet via wireless then you will have to use a different configuration (which I linked to earlier in the thread).

And it won't work anyway unless and until you can actually see a wireless interface in the output of 'ip a' (it should be called wlan0 or wlp12s0).

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root@Debian:/etc/network/sbin/wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
Could not read interface wlan0 flags: No such device
nl80211: Driver does not support authentication/association or connect commands
nl80211: deinit ifname=wlan0 disabled_11b_rates=0
Could not read interface wlan0 flags: No such device
wlan0: Failed to initialize driver interface

My wpa_supplicant commands also will not work unless and until you can actually see a wireless interface in the output of 'ip a' .

If and when such an interface is available then you need to substitute the actual interface name in my suggested commands. When I posted them I was presuming that there was a wlan0 interface available but clearly this is not the case, hence the error messages.

I appreciate that you're not very technically-minded but please try to think about what you're doing and make an effort to understand what is being suggested. If you don't understand something then ask for clarification rather than just ploughing blindly onwards.

@Chris: with respect I'm not sure it's a good idea to open another thread about the same problem. It will probably end up going in circles like this one.

[Winston]

Chrisdb and Head_on_a_Stick:

I appreciate all your help, but this thread is getting very complex and apparently I'm not following correctly.

At this point, it may best to just abandon Broadcom and buy the TP-Link USB Wifi Adapter for PC N150 and reinstall Debian with that adapter in place.

Do you agree that's the best course?

[Head_on_a_Stick]

At this point, it may best to just abandon Broadcom and buy the TP-Link USB Wifi Adapter for PC N150 and reinstall Debian with that adapter in place.

You don't have to reinstall, you just have to install any non-free firmware that may be needed by the device. The firmware-linux metapackage should bring in anything you need.

I would recommend swapping out the Broadcom card for Intel, that's what I did with the crappy Atheros card in my ThinkPad E485:

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03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Wireless-AC 9260 [8086:2526] (rev 29)

^ That performs flawlessly once the firmware-iwlwifi package is installed.