Arch Linux

northerw

Member

Registered: 2011-06-12

Posts: 33

[SOLVED]Wireless card (Broadcom) issue

I've just finished installing arch on my new laptop. I've been using it already for quite some time, even if i'm far from being an expert.
The installation went flawlessy. Now when i try to get my wireless interface up, messages show telling that some firmware files are missing (b43). Now i don't have any other os installed and getting a wired connection will require some time at best.
I read on this same forum that i' d probably resolve it by installing the b43 firmaware package from AUR.

I was wondering tho, since it was working well during the installation (did a net install), and since i'm not gonna be able to get a connection on the same machine for a while, if there is something i could do with the installation to include such required firmware.

Thanks in advance.

Last edited by northerw (2011-11-18 18:29:15)

Gusar

Member

Registered: 2009-08-25

Posts: 3,606

Re: [SOLVED]Wireless card (Broadcom) issue

If the install media has /lib/firmware/b43, you can simply copy that directory to your disk.

northerw

Member

Registered: 2011-06-12

Posts: 33

Re: [SOLVED]Wireless card (Broadcom) issue

I did try that, the fact is that on installation media files are compacted into *.fs.sfs
Now i mounted that as squashfs only by revealing that a *.fs file was in there, which is not a squashed since i can't mount it the same way i did previously.
Any suggestion on how to mount this *.fs?
Also there isn't an 'official' package which i can get during installation through pacman and not AUR which i cannot have access to as of right now?

northerw

Member

Registered: 2011-06-12

Posts: 33

Re: [SOLVED]Wireless card (Broadcom) issue

Succeded mounting it, sadly everything seems fine. Same firmware files are on the live media as in the installed system.

After a bit of researching it seems that kernel 3.1 screwed that up for more than one user, which makes sense, a couple of bugs are even filed on kernel . org

So i guess i can't do much for now. If i get to connect it via ethernet i might try to get the AUR package, but tbh i see it as quite a mess. Maybe i will wait some time to install arch on this machine, maybe using some other distro or being stuck with M$ -.-

vacant

Member

From: downstairs

Registered: 2004-11-05

Posts: 816

Re: [SOLVED]Wireless card (Broadcom) issue

What firmware files are missing? ISTR "ucode16.fw" files missing when I pacman'd 3.1 but this worked for me (found on the wiki)

$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf 
#
# /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf
#
blacklist bcma

northerw

Member

Registered: 2011-06-12

Posts: 33

Re: [SOLVED]Wireless card (Broadcom) issue

Thanks for you reply.
Before trying to blacklist the -bcma- module i tried a new installation, and actually the issue seems to be fixed.

The only possible reason that comes to my mind is that i missed to select the base-devel metapackage, even tho im used to select it pretty much always, i think i missed it in my first installation. Even because aside from that, the only parameter i changed was the host name, and i dont really think that might have caused a firmware issue.

Now i double checked the packages included in the base-devel and it doesnt seem to contain any directly-related firmware file, it was actually suggested somewhere in wiki which i read over and over since my first arch install, a couple years ago.

Id be glad if someone could give a more indepth explanation (the arch way : ) ) , in the meantime im marking this as solved.

Thanks again everyone for the support given.

Gusar

Member

Registered: 2009-08-25

Posts: 3,606

Re: [SOLVED]Wireless card (Broadcom) issue

Blacklisting bcma is necessary if you have a bcma card and want to use the brcmsmac driver. If you've now got b43 running, you don't need to bother with that.

I don't see how the base-devel package would make a difference. Who knows what was actually wrong, and now that you reinstalled, we'll never know. Well, what matters is that you have a working machine.

But just out of curiosity, post the output of lspci -nn, so we'll see which broadcom card you have.

northerw

Member

Registered: 2011-06-12

Posts: 33

Re: [SOLVED]Wireless card (Broadcom) issue

Will post the output later, since i havent got a graphical interface yet on my arch system.

And yes that was wierd to me too, couldnt find a connection between the base-devel and the firmware missing files (was something along the lines of b43/ucode16_mimo.fw and one more), but i did the exact same steps both times except the host name which i changed the second time, and ofc the base-devel pkg.
Anyways if i find something else out i will post here the findings

EDIT: Following is the output of the lspci -vv and the loaded modules on the working system:

03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM43225 802.11b/g/n (rev 01)

mac80211              221931  1 brcmsmac
brcmutil                6912  1 brcmsmac
cfg80211              165636  2 brcmsmac,mac80211

EDIT2: Adding this for everyone that might need it in the future.
For the sake of understanding it, i did even try a third installation, redoing exacly the same steps i did in my 2nd 'working' one. This time tho, surprise, the issue was back in (no clue why, seems incredibly random).
I checked the loaded modules and saw that the b43 module was loaded this time. So, as vacant suggested i procedeed to blacklist the 'bcma' module, restarted and the system was back working as it should.

Last edited by northerw (2011-11-21 10:01:54)