sudo apt install firmware-b43-installer
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
firmware-b43-installer is already the newest version (1:019-3).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
sudo modprobe -r b43
no output
sudo modprobe b43
no output
Please reboot, then check wifi (and lshw).
@FrenchPress you are much better with Linux on macs than I am.
It seems like it is always the 2009 models we see on this forum. Was that a special year?
No, not really.
What I did was assembled a desktop to be compatible with Apple hardware and installed MacOS on it. I then virtualized Windows on it. You can see I really hate to install Windows bare-metal.
Our only Macbook is given to 89 years old mother-in-law and I do not have it at hand.
This I cannot tell.
As I said, I am not a genuine Apple hardware user.
no wifi
output of lshw
WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
ralston-astro
description: Computer
width: 64 bits
capabilities: smp vsyscall32
*-core
description: Motherboard
physical id: 0
*-memory
description: System memory
physical id: 0
size: 3678MiB
*-cpu
product: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8700 @ 2.53GHz
vendor: Intel Corp.
physical id: 1
bus info: cpu@0
size: 2453MHz
capacity: 2527MHz
width: 64 bits
capabilities: fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht tm pbe syscall nx x86-64 constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl cpuid aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 xsave lahf_lm pti tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority dtherm cpufreq
*-pci
description: Host bridge
product: MCP79 Host Bridge
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 100
bus info: pci@0000:00:00.0
version: b1
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
*-memory:0 UNCLAIMED
description: RAM memory
product: MCP79 Memory Controller
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 0.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:00.1
version: b1
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz (15.2ns)
capabilities: bus_master
configuration: latency=0
*-isa
description: ISA bridge
product: MCP79 LPC Bridge
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 3
bus info: pci@0000:00:03.0
version: b3
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: isa bus_master
configuration: latency=0
resources: ioport:2000(size=256)
*-memory:1 UNCLAIMED
description: RAM memory
product: MCP79 Memory Controller
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 3.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:03.1
version: b1
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz (15.2ns)
configuration: latency=0
*-serial
description: SMBus
product: MCP79 SMBus
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 3.2
bus info: pci@0000:00:03.2
version: b1
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: cap_list
configuration: driver=nForce2_smbus latency=0
resources: irq:0 ioport:2180(size=64) ioport:2140(size=64) ioport:2100(size=64)
*-memory:2 UNCLAIMED
description: RAM memory
product: MCP79 Memory Controller
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 3.3
bus info: pci@0000:00:03.3
version: b1
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz (15.2ns)
configuration: latency=0
*-memory:3 UNCLAIMED
description: RAM memory
product: MCP79 Memory Controller
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 3.4
bus info: pci@0000:00:03.4
version: b1
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz (15.2ns)
configuration: latency=0
*-processor UNCLAIMED
description: Co-processor
product: MCP79 Co-processor
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 3.5
bus info: pci@0000:00:03.5
version: b1
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: bus_master
configuration: latency=0 maxlatency=1 mingnt=3
resources: memory:d3400000-d347ffff
*-usb:0
description: USB controller
product: MCP79 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 4
bus info: pci@0000:00:04.0
version: b1
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: ohci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ohci-pci latency=0 maxlatency=1 mingnt=3
resources: irq:20 memory:d3488000-d3488fff
*-usb:1
description: USB controller
product: MCP79 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 4.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:04.1
version: b1
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: ehci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ehci-pci latency=0 maxlatency=1 mingnt=3
resources: irq:17 memory:d3489200-d34892ff
*-usb:2
description: USB controller
product: MCP79 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 6
bus info: pci@0000:00:06.0
version: b1
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: ohci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ohci-pci latency=0 maxlatency=1 mingnt=3
resources: irq:22 memory:d3487000-d3487fff
*-usb:3
description: USB controller
product: MCP79 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 6.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:06.1
version: b1
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: ehci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ehci-pci latency=0 maxlatency=1 mingnt=3
resources: irq:22 memory:d3489100-d34891ff
*-multimedia
description: Audio device
product: MCP79 High Definition Audio
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 8
bus info: pci@0000:00:08.0
version: b1
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=snd_hda_intel latency=0 maxlatency=5 mingnt=2
resources: irq:20 memory:d3480000-d3483fff
*-pci:0
description: PCI bridge
product: MCP79 PCI Bridge
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 9
bus info: pci@0000:00:09.0
version: b1
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: pci subtractive_decode cap_list
resources: memory:d3300000-d33fffff
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: MCP79 Ethernet
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: a
bus info: pci@0000:00:0a.0
logical name: enp0s10
version: b1
serial: 00:26:4a:17:70:26
capacity: 1Gbit/s
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=forcedeth driverversion=0.64 latency=0 link=no maxlatency=20 mingnt=1 multicast=yes port=MII
resources: irq:29 memory:d3486000-d3486fff ioport:21e0(size=8) memory:d3489000-d34890ff memory:d3489300-d348930f
*-storage
description: SATA controller
product: MCP79 AHCI Controller
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: b
bus info: pci@0000:00:0b.0
version: b1
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: storage ahci_1.0 bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=ahci latency=0 maxlatency=1 mingnt=3
resources: irq:26 ioport:21d8(size=8) ioport:21ec(size=4) ioport:21d0(size=8) ioport:21e8(size=4) ioport:21c0(size=16) memory:d3484000-d3485fff
*-pci:1
description: PCI bridge
product: MCP79 PCI Express Bridge
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 10
bus info: pci@0000:00:10.0
version: b1
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pci normal_decode bus_master cap_list
resources: ioport:1000(size=4096) memory:d2000000-d30fffff ioport:c0000000(size=301989888)
*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: C79 [GeForce 9400M]
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
version: b1
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=nouveau latency=0
resources: irq:28 memory:d2000000-d2ffffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff memory:d0000000-d1ffffff ioport:1000(size=128) memory:d3000000-d301ffff
*-pci:2
description: PCI bridge
product: MCP79 PCI Express Bridge
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 15
bus info: pci@0000:00:15.0
version: b1
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pci normal_decode bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=pcieport
resources: irq:24 memory:d3200000-d32fffff
*-pci:3
description: PCI bridge
product: MCP79 PCI Express Bridge
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 16
bus info: pci@0000:00:16.0
version: b1
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pci normal_decode bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=pcieport
resources: irq:25 memory:d3100000-d31fffff
*-firewire
description: FireWire (IEEE 1394)
product: FW643 [TrueFire] PCIe 1394b Controller
vendor: LSI Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0
version: 07
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: ohci bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=firewire_ohci latency=0
resources: irq:27 memory:d3100000-d3100fff
*-scsi
physical id: 1
bus info: scsi@0
logical name: scsi0
capabilities: scsi-host
configuration: driver=usb-storage
WARNING: output may be incomplete or inaccurate, you should run this program as super-user.
@ch4mez
Is there any reason you need to use Zorin 15,3 rather than the latest 16?
You have enough computer power to run 16 which solved some issues for other forum members.
no. i just assumed i needed the lite version
O.P. may also use the LiveUSB for Zorin OS 16 core to test if wifi is picked up.
Oh no... Lite is good. 
Yup.
That exactly what I was thinking.
Especially if you are watching out for calories or nicotine 
ill get an install of zorin 16 going and report back. time to pickup my son from his grandmother's now and get the routine going for the day. ciao.
OK, I see there has been a lot of support posts since I've been away, but not one to suggest buying a USB WIFI adapter. I think we are at the point where we got to admit defeat. This is one of those times, where Apple makes it unnecessarily difficult, by installing a WIFI unit inside that is so proprietary, it only works on MAC OS.
I just made a post about WIFI adapters, let me get you the link, and then you can pick from a list of WIFI adapters to try for your situation.
Hopefully you can get WIFI again provided by one of those devices.
Yet my Broadcom 43XX chips are working flawlessly in Zorin 16 (both desktop and laptop).
That is why I suggested OP to try Zorin16 instead of 15,3.
ive actually loaded it right now. wifi did not automatically work in live version, but i am installing to disk now
will report back soon
ill use debian 10 buster before i use a dongle
I recommend MXLinux
It is a beginner friendly Debian based distro.
ok i have 16 installed and ive ran
sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer
restarted now. about to see if it works
no wifi even after running many of the suggested commands from the rest of the replies here
You may try @FrenchPress 's suggestion on the Kernel:
sudo apt install linux-headers-5.4.0-81-generic linux-modules-5.4.0-81-generic linux-modules-extra-5.4.0-81-generic linux-image-5.4.0-81-generic
Then boot into the 5.4 kernel from the Advanced Options For Zorin menu (tab key at the boot screen).
