Wifi stopped working after kernel update (Ubuntu 14.04 on MacBook Air 2014)

I have to run Ubuntu 14.04 on a MacBook Air 2014. After installing the OS years ago, I remember having to install a wifi driver manually using an ethernet connection. Wifi has worked flawlessly ever since, until today.

After being prompted by System Updater to do a routine kernel update and restart afterwards, my wifi suddenly stopped working.

When I type "wifi on" on the command line, I now get:

wifi = none (no device)

And the command "sudo modprobe wl" now gives me:

modprobe: FATAL: Module wl not found.

After reading other threads, I tried reinstalling the bcmwl-kernel-source package, to no avail.

For reference, the relevant portion of the output of sudo lspci -v is:

03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4360 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 03) Subsystem: Apple Inc. Device 0117 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0 Memory at b0600000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32K] Memory at b0400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2M] Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 3 Capabilities: [58] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+ Capabilities: [68] Vendor Specific Information: Len=44 <?> Capabilities: [ac] Express Endpoint, MSI 00 Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting Capabilities: [13c] Device Serial Number 8c-29-00-ff-ff-00-00-01 Capabilities: [150] Power Budgeting <?> Capabilities: [160] Virtual Channel Capabilities: [1b0] Latency Tolerance Reporting Capabilities: [220] #15

Thank you for your help

Edit:

"sudo dpkg -s bcmwl-kernel-source" gives:

Package: bcmwl-kernel-source
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: admin
Installed-Size: 7902
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <>
Architecture: amd64
Source: bcmwl
Version: 6.30.223.271+bdcom-0ubuntu1~0.1
Replaces: bcmwl-modaliases
Depends: dkms, linux-libc-dev, libc6-dev
Conflicts: bcmwl-modaliases
Description: Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver source This package contains Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver for use with Broadcom's BCM4311-, BCM4312-, BCM4313-, BCM4321-, BCM4322-, BCM43224-, and BCM43225-, BCM43227- and BCM43228-based hardware.
Modaliases: wl(pci:v000014E4d00004311sv*sd*bc02sc80i*, pci:v000014E4d00004312sv*sd*bc02sc80i*, pci:v000014E4d00004313sv*sd*bc02sc80i*, pci:v000014E4d00004315sv*sd*bc02sc80i*, pci:v000014E4d00004727sv*sd*bc02sc80i*, pci:v000014E4d00004328sv*sd*bc02sc80i*, pci:v000014E4d00004328sv*sd*bc02sc80i*, pci:v000014E4d00004329sv*sd*bc02sc80i*, pci:v000014E4d0000432asv*sd*bc02sc80i*, pci:v000014E4d0000432bsv*sd*bc02sc80i*, pci:v000014E4d0000432csv*sd*bc02sc80i*, pci:v000014E4d0000432dsv*sd*bc02sc80i*, pci:v000014E4d00004365sv*sd*bc02sc80i*, pci:v000014E4d00004353sv*sd*bc02sc80i*, pci:v000014E4d00004357sv*sd*bc02sc80i*, pci:v000014E4d00004358sv*sd*bc02sc80i*, pci:v000014E4d00004359sv*sd*bc02sc80i*, pci:v000014E4d00004331sv*sd*bc02sc80i*, pci:v000014E4d000043a0sv*sd*bc02sc80i*, pci:v000014E4d000043B1sv*sd*bc02sc80i*)
Original-Maintainer: Alberto Milone <>

"sudo updatedb && locate wl.ko" gives no output.

Second edit:

sebastien:~$ sudo apt-get install --reinstall bcmwl-kernel-source
[sudo] password for sebastien:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 4 not upgraded.
Need to get 1,545 kB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated! bcmwl-kernel-source
Install these packages without verification? [y/N] y
Get:1 trusty-proposed/restricted bcmwl-kernel-source amd64 6.30.223.271+bdcom-0ubuntu1~0.1 [1,545 kB]
Fetched 1,545 kB in 1s (1,010 kB/s)
(Reading database ... 297568 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../bcmwl-kernel-source_6.30.223.271+bdcom-0ubuntu1~0.1_amd64.deb ...
Removing all DKMS Modules
Done.
Unpacking bcmwl-kernel-source (6.30.223.271+bdcom-0ubuntu1~0.1) over (6.30.223.271+bdcom-0ubuntu1~0.1) ...
Setting up bcmwl-kernel-source (6.30.223.271+bdcom-0ubuntu1~0.1) ...
Loading new bcmwl-6.30.223.271+bdcom DKMS files...
Building only for 3.13.0-164-generic
Building for architecture x86_64
Module build for the currently running kernel was skipped since the
kernel source for this kernel does not seem to be installed.
modprobe: FATAL: Module wl not found.
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
Processing triggers for shim-signed (1.33.1~14.04.3+13-0ubuntu2) ...
Secure Boot not enabled on this system.
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.103ubuntu4.11) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-164-generic

2 Answers

Upon investigation, we learned that the driver wouldn't properly compile because the required kernel headers were not installed:

Module build for the currently running kernel was skipped since the kernel source for this kernel does not seem to be installed. modprobe: FATAL: Module wl not found.

I suggested that you do:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic

And, if there were no errors, then:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall bcmwl-kernel-source

I'm glad it is now working.

After upgrading a ubuntu 14.04 machine the wlan was not working anymore. What worked was a solution I found on Launchpad (). First, the package shim-signed is removed:

sudo apt remove shim-signed

and then the package bcmwl-kernel-source ist installed again (--reinstall should also work):

sudo apt remove bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo apt install bcmwl-kernel-source