[SOLVED] Yet another Broadcom 43XX thread

instantaphex · 2012-07-07 20:43:49

Hey everyone,

So I've been using Ubuntu and thought I would try out arch. I installed with no problems but like many others, I've been unable to get wireless to work. I've been trying for a while to figure out where to go from here. I tried the proprietary STA driver from the broadcom site and followed the directions exactly and had no luck. I got no errors whatsoever when following the instructions in the readme (which I've successfully followed on Ubuntu in the past). I simply was unable to connect. dhcpcd eth0 continually times out.

I saw that the current kernel supports my chip so I've been trying to figure out how to install that. On the arch wiki page for broadcom chips it says in the section about loading the b43 driver something to the effect of "download the correct b43-firmware and install it. You will now be able to configure your wireless"

So I downloaded the b43 firmware on a USB stick and mounted it in arch but I'm not sure what to do with the *.o files. How do I install them? I thought I was supposed to use b43-fwcutter, but when I tried that it gave me an error about it not being the correct wl_apsta.o file. How do I know which is the correct one? Where do I get it?

I'm sorry if a forum search would have answered my question but I've been searching these forums and google for a while to no avail.

# lspci | grep -i net

01:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11/g LP-PHY (rev 01)
02:00.0 Ethernet Controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8040 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller

# iwconfig

-bash: iwconfig: command not found

I suppose there is a package I didn't install...

Any help would be appreciated, even if it's just pointing me in a direction. Thanks in advance.

Last edited by instantaphex (2012-07-08 02:04:16)

Gusar · 2012-07-07 21:09:38

instantaphex wrote:

something to the effect of "download the correct b43-firmware and install it. You will now be able to configure your wireless"

What it says is:

Install the appropriate b43-firmware or b43-firmware-legacy package from the AUR.

So go do that.

iwconfig isn't necessary to have. But if you do want it, it's in wireless_tools.

Last edited by Gusar (2012-07-07 21:10:08)

instantaphex · 2012-07-07 21:46:34

Thanks for the reply. I had downloaded the one that was linked in the wiki. Located here:

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php? … ware&SeB=x

In that .tar.bz2 file there is a folder called linux. Inside that folder are 3 files:

wl_ap.o
wl_apsta.o
wl_sta.0

there is another folder called config. It contains:

wlconfig_lx_shared
wlconfig_nomino
wl_default
wl_hnd
wl.mk

The readme is of no help.

I am unfamiliar with how to use b43-fwcutter and havn't been able to find a guide.

# b43-fwcutter

....

Example: b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta.o
               to extract the firmware blobs from wl_apsta.o and store
               the resulting firmware in /lib/firmware

# b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta.o
Sorry, the input file is either wrong or not supported by b43-fwcutter.
This file has an unknown MD5sum e1b05e2689bcdbfef3560c28fc161f30e.

I'm guessing that is not the way to install and configure my wireless chip. So when the wiki says:

Install the appropriate b43-firmware or b43-firmware-legacy package from the AUR.
You can now configure your device.

Please forgive my ignorance but how do I go about doing this?

Gusar · 2012-07-07 21:59:43

instantaphex wrote:

Please forgive my ignorance but how do I go about doing this?

The AUR in that sentence is a link to a further wiki page. You read that to learn what AUR is and how to use it.

Last edited by Gusar (2012-07-07 22:01:55)

redmo · 2012-07-07 22:06:57

well, i am fairly new and a noob, but maybe i can still help a little (or give you a direction)
i just installed my driver, what i did (i just copy what i wrote in my thread):
Wlan card: Broadcom [14e4:4312] BCM4311
So, i got the fw from: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=21690
extracted it and changed to that directory (with tar)
executed:
makepkg -s --asroot (problem?)
pacman -U b43...xz

afterwards i was able to load the module and it worked, just be sure your system is up to date! with the core install you will get an error.
don't take this as a how to do it right, it's just the way i did it

instantaphex · 2012-07-07 22:31:47

Gusar wrote:

instantaphex wrote:
Please forgive my ignorance but how do I go about doing this?
The AUR in that sentence is a link to a further wiki page. You read that to learn what AUR is and how to use it.

Thanks, this was helpful.

So I have been following the instructions here but have found that when I try to use makepkg on this PKGBUILD file, there are other dependencies such as linux>=015 and b43-fwcutter>=015. I am not able to use the -s flag because the whole purpose of doing this is so that I can actually connect to the internet. I am on a netbook and am unable to plug in an ethernet cable.

When I clicked on the link to the missing dependency in the AUR it took me to a search page. How do I know which file is the right one?

instantaphex · 2012-07-07 22:54:36

Let me be a bit more specific as to what I actually did. So I went to the AUR page for the package I wanted to install.

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=21690

I downloaded the tarball containing the PKGBUILD file.

I then downloaded the tar.bz2 file listed under sources.

I extracted both into the same directory and ran makepkg. Here is the output of makepkg:

==> Making package: b43-firmware 5.100.138-2 (Sat Jul 7 15:44:33 PDT 2012)
==> Checking runtime dependencies...
==> Missing Dependencies:
      -> linux>=3.2
==> Checking buildtime dependencies...
      -> b43-fwcutter>=015
==> ERROR:  Could not resolve all dependencies.

What am I doing wrong?

Gusar · 2012-07-07 23:02:36

You need b43-fwcutter. Normally you use the -s flag as you discovered, but that one requires internet, as you also discovered. Without internet, download the package by some other means (the Packages part of the Arch webpage has a "Download From Mirror" link for every package that's useful for this), transfer it to the netbook and install in manually with

pacman -U

instantaphex · 2012-07-08 01:38:07

You need b43-fwcutter. Normally you use the -s flag as you discovered, but that one requires internet, as you also discovered. Without internet, download the package by some other means (the Packages part of the Arch webpage has a "Download From Mirror" link for every package that's useful for this), transfer it to the netbook and install in manually with
pacman -U

that was a big help. I had to update my b43-fwcutter and linux kernel manually in order to use those drivers. I've run into another issue now. After installing b43 I'm getting this error on reboot:

# dmesg | grep b43

b43-phy0:  Broadcom 4312 WLAN found (core revision 15)
b43-phy0 ERROR:  Firmware file "b43/ucode15.fw" not found
b43-phy0 ERROR:  Firmware file "b43-open/ucode15.fw" not found

# cd /b43
b43# ls

...
...
ucode15.fw
...
...

So I definitely have the first one. I don't however have a b43-open directory. Anyone know what's going on here?

still getting:

# dhcpcd eth0
dhcpcd[781]:  version 5.2.12 starting
dhcpcd[781]:  eth0: waiting for carrier
dhcpcd[781]:  timed out

EDIT:
I realized that for some reason the install placed the b43 folder in the root directory. I moved it into /lib/firmware and I am no longer getting that error. Now it is saying:

# dmesg | grep b43
b43-phy0:  Broadcom 4312 WLAN found (core revision 15)
Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio

I still am not able to make any sort of connection to my wireless at home.

Last edited by instantaphex (2012-07-08 01:51:08)

instantaphex · 2012-07-08 02:03:14

Ok I finally got it working! Thanks so much to Gusar and Redmo! After downloading wireless_tools I was able to link up to my wireless using iwconfig wlan0 essid "NETGEAR-2.4-G"

redmo · 2012-07-08 02:11:47

nice to see it finally worked out
btw. had the exact same error, lol

b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode15.fw" not found
b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43-open/ucode15.fw" not found

just saw it too late..

creese · 2012-07-21 06:17:06

Having this exact problem. I extracted the firmware to /lib/firmware/b43, but dmesg still gives the error above. How did you solve this?

Strike0 · 2012-07-21 06:23:58

Can it be that your firmware is in /usr/lib/firmware by now?

Arch Linux

#1 2012-07-07 20:43:49

[SOLVED] Yet another Broadcom 43XX thread

#2 2012-07-07 21:09:38

Re: [SOLVED] Yet another Broadcom 43XX thread

#3 2012-07-07 21:46:34

Re: [SOLVED] Yet another Broadcom 43XX thread

#4 2012-07-07 21:59:43

Re: [SOLVED] Yet another Broadcom 43XX thread

#5 2012-07-07 22:06:57

Re: [SOLVED] Yet another Broadcom 43XX thread

#6 2012-07-07 22:31:47

Re: [SOLVED] Yet another Broadcom 43XX thread

#7 2012-07-07 22:54:36

Re: [SOLVED] Yet another Broadcom 43XX thread

#8 2012-07-07 23:02:36

Re: [SOLVED] Yet another Broadcom 43XX thread

#9 2012-07-08 01:38:07

Re: [SOLVED] Yet another Broadcom 43XX thread

#10 2012-07-08 02:03:14

Re: [SOLVED] Yet another Broadcom 43XX thread

#11 2012-07-08 02:11:47

Re: [SOLVED] Yet another Broadcom 43XX thread

#12 2012-07-21 06:17:06

Re: [SOLVED] Yet another Broadcom 43XX thread

#13 2012-07-21 06:23:58

Re: [SOLVED] Yet another Broadcom 43XX thread

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