12.04 - Can't connect to any wireless connection after updating

I have a dual boot (windows 7 and ubuntu 12.04) setup and, for (apparently) no reason, I can't connect to any wireless connection on my ubuntu box at all. (on Windows it works.)

I think it stopped working on the first reboot after it has been upgraded (regular updating via cli apt-get).

I can still see the connections on the top toolbar but, upon trying to connect to them, I get asked the password and then it tries to connect for about 30 seconds and then times out.

After looking for answers on the web I thought that posting the output of sudo lshw -C network would help the people who try to help me:

*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id:0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
logical name: eth1
version:01

serial: c0:f8:da:08:c5:e6
width:64bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless 
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=wl0 driverversion=6.20.155.1(r326264) latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abg
resources: irq:16 memory:fe500000-fe503fff

There is another entry for the Ethernet. But I didn't think it's very relevant to the problem at hand.

I have no internet access so I can't install stuff from the repos.(I'm writing this from a spare netbook I have)

My kernel version is 3.2.0-36-generic-pae

In my modprobe.d/blacklist.conf file, I have these lines:

# replaced by b43 and ssb
blacklist bcm43xx

Thought it might be relevant.

what i have tried so far

• delete /etc/resolv.conf - didn't work



• add the following entries to blacklist.conf (in addition to the ne that was there already)and reboot: - didn't work either

  
  
  

  blacklist b43legacy
  blacklist b43
  
  blacklist bcma
  blacklist ndiswrapper
  blacklist wl0
  



• the steps described on this answer - didn't work wither

OK SO THIS IS WHAT ACTUALLY WORKED!

install new driver: brcmsmac

• download the firmware for the new driver from the kernel website




• copy the mentioned files to /lib/firmware/brcm




• unload the old drivers and load the new one (brcmsmac)

  
  
  
  
  

  • For e.g.: sudo modprobe -r wl (to unload) and sudo modprobe brcmsmac (to load)

    
    
    

    NOTE: If wl does not work, your wireless driver name is probably not wl. Check the name among the drivers of your computer with the following command:

    
    
    
    

    lsmod
    

  
  



• happy. =)

mostly based upon an excellent guide over at Linux wireless page

more info on this theme on the official Ubuntu docs on wireless stuff