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#1 2019-01-05 03:41:22

aependell
Member
Registered: 2019-01-05
Posts: 6

Is It Possible to Load b34 Alongside the Installer?

I am trying to install Arch Linux on my Dell Latitude XT laptop from around 2007. Most of the hardware in the system works just fine, except for the WiFi, being a Broadcom chip. I have used some articles on the wiki to determine that the driver which would fix this is the b34 package.

My issue is this. I do not have other methods to connect to the internet on this machine. Ethernet is not an option for me. So is there a way to sideload the b34 driver package alongside the live USB while I am installing Arch onto my system?

My ideal situation would be to run the live USB, insert another USB which has the driver package on it, then within the live usb, mount the usb containing b34, somehow run it in such a way that does not alter files on my live usb - it's fine if it alters files in the b34 usb - and I am able to then connect to the internet and use pacstrap to install arch onto my hard drive, making sure to include b34 in the packages to install onto the hard drive.

Is this possible? And if it is, could one please provide me with the commands to do so, as I'm still relatively new and just saying what needs to be done will likely leave me just as clueless if I don't know what commands to run to do it. Sorry.

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#2 2019-01-05 04:54:29

Trilby
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Registered: 2011-11-29
Posts: 29,444
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Re: Is It Possible to Load b34 Alongside the Installer?

aependell wrote:

Is this possible?

Yes.  Just as you describe it.

aependel wrote:

just saying what needs to be done will likely leave me just as clueless if I don't know what commands to run to do it.

Which parts do you need help with?  Given that most of this will have to be done in a non-arch system, we'd need to know what kind of system it is.

You need to download the b43-fwcutter package (a *.pkg.tar.xz file) and save it on the secondary flash drive.  You'll also need the appropriate b43 firware package from the aur and it's upstream source file.  If that's b43-firmware you'd need the PKGBUILD and the .install file from the AUR, and you'd need to also download and save the upstream source tarball referenced in the PKGBUILD (in this case http://www.lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/br … 46.tar.bz2).

With all those files on the secondary usb, boot the iso.  Then mount the secondary usb, install the fwcutter package with `pacman -U /path/to/the-package.pkg.tar.xz`.  Then `cd` to wherever the other three files are, and run `makepkg -i`.

From there you'd just have to `modprobe b43` and potentially remove other conflicting modules if there are any.

Last edited by Trilby (2019-01-05 16:01:51)


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#3 2019-01-05 15:52:49

ewaller
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From: Pasadena, CA
Registered: 2009-07-13
Posts: 19,739

Re: Is It Possible to Load b34 Alongside the Installer?

On a side note, if you have a phone with a data package, you can USB tether it for the purpose of installing Arch Linux..  It will show up as a wired connection.  All you have to do after setting up the phone for tethering is run dhcpcd on the phone.


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#4 2019-01-05 16:36:31

Slithery
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From: Norfolk, UK
Registered: 2013-12-01
Posts: 5,776

Re: Is It Possible to Load b34 Alongside the Installer?

You don't even need a data package. A lot of phones will tether their WiFi over USB meaning none of your mobile data is used.


No, it didn't "fix" anything. It just shifted the brokeness one space to the right. - jasonwryan
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#5 2019-01-06 05:29:47

eschwartz
Fellow
Registered: 2014-08-08
Posts: 4,097

Re: Is It Possible to Load b34 Alongside the Installer?

Trilby wrote:

You need to download the b43-fwcutter package (a *.pkg.tar.xz file) and save it on the secondary flash drive.  You'll also need the appropriate b43 firware package from the aur and it's upstream source file.  If that's b43-firmware you'd need the PKGBUILD and the .install file from the AUR, and you'd need to also download and save the upstream source tarball referenced in the PKGBUILD (in this case http://www.lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/br … 46.tar.bz2).

With all those files on the secondary usb, boot the iso.  Then mount the secondary usb, install the fwcutter package with `pacman -U /path/to/the-package.pkg.tar.xz`.  Then `cd` to wherever the other three files are, and run `makepkg -i`.

From there you'd just have to `modprobe b43` and potentially remove other conflicting modules if there are any.

In this case, the archiso contains b43-fwcutter for the explicit purpose of making it easier for users who need the b43 drivers to do all this. No need to download possibly mismatched packages; just acquire the b43 firmware sources and use b43-fwcutter to extract them (with or without the AUR package).

If one was going to copy packages over via USB, one should copy the b43-firmware package over. big_smile


Managing AUR repos The Right Way -- aurpublish (now a standalone tool)

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#6 2019-01-06 09:18:00

aependell
Member
Registered: 2019-01-05
Posts: 6

Re: Is It Possible to Load b34 Alongside the Installer?

eschwartz wrote:
Trilby wrote:

You need to download the b43-fwcutter package (a *.pkg.tar.xz file) and save it on the secondary flash drive.  You'll also need the appropriate b43 firware package from the aur and it's upstream source file.  If that's b43-firmware you'd need the PKGBUILD and the .install file from the AUR, and you'd need to also download and save the upstream source tarball referenced in the PKGBUILD (in this case http://www.lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/br … 46.tar.bz2).

With all those files on the secondary usb, boot the iso.  Then mount the secondary usb, install the fwcutter package with `pacman -U /path/to/the-package.pkg.tar.xz`.  Then `cd` to wherever the other three files are, and run `makepkg -i`.

From there you'd just have to `modprobe b43` and potentially remove other conflicting modules if there are any.

In this case, the archiso contains b43-fwcutter for the explicit purpose of making it easier for users who need the b43 drivers to do all this. No need to download possibly mismatched packages; just acquire the b43 firmware sources and use b43-fwcutter to extract them (with or without the AUR package).

If one was going to copy packages over via USB, one should copy the b43-firmware package over. big_smile

Does this mean that I only need to download the package listed as Source in the b43-firmware page? Then I boot the live usb, mount the usb drive with that .tar.bz2 file on it, cd to it, and run `makepkg -i` then check `modprobe b43` to make sure everything's okay, and I'm good to go?

Will this mean that, when installing Arch with pacstrap, I will still have to install the b43-firmware onto the installed system myself? Perhaps using the exact same process I did in the live usb? And, while the package is "installed" when running off the live usb, where does it go? Simply into memory? Thanks for helping out~

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#7 2019-01-06 09:36:03

aependell
Member
Registered: 2019-01-05
Posts: 6

Re: Is It Possible to Load b34 Alongside the Installer?

Trilby wrote:
aependell wrote:

Is this possible?

Yes.  Just as you describe it.

aependel wrote:

just saying what needs to be done will likely leave me just as clueless if I don't know what commands to run to do it.

Which parts do you need help with?  Given that most of this will have to be done in a non-arch system, we'd need to know what kind of system it is.

You need to download the b43-fwcutter package (a *.pkg.tar.xz file) and save it on the secondary flash drive.  You'll also need the appropriate b43 firware package from the aur and it's upstream source file.  If that's b43-firmware you'd need the PKGBUILD and the .install file from the AUR, and you'd need to also download and save the upstream source tarball referenced in the PKGBUILD (in this case http://www.lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/br … 46.tar.bz2).

With all those files on the secondary usb, boot the iso.  Then mount the secondary usb, install the fwcutter package with `pacman -U /path/to/the-package.pkg.tar.xz`.  Then `cd` to wherever the other three files are, and run `makepkg -i`.

From there you'd just have to `modprobe b43` and potentially remove other conflicting modules if there are any.

Big problem... I can't run `makepkg -i` in the live usb, since I'm root, it tells me I cannot do that as it has the potential to cause serious damage to the system...

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#8 2019-01-06 17:59:47

eschwartz
Fellow
Registered: 2014-08-08
Posts: 4,097

Re: Is It Possible to Load b34 Alongside the Installer?

You'd need to download both the tar.bz2 for the firmware blob, and the snapshot.tar.gz from the AUR itself, which contains the PKGBUILD.

The PKGBUILD is just a bash script run by makepkg which automates the process of using b43-fwcutter for you. But it also creates a package which is useful for the installed system.

As for running makepkg as root, you can create a new user with useradd and then change users to that user in order to run makepkg. Or reuse an existing user like the "nobody" user. Make sure the user you use has write permission to the directory you use for running makepkg.


Managing AUR repos The Right Way -- aurpublish (now a standalone tool)

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#9 2019-01-07 00:32:44

aependell
Member
Registered: 2019-01-05
Posts: 6

Re: Is It Possible to Load b34 Alongside the Installer?

eschwartz wrote:

You'd need to download both the tar.bz2 for the firmware blob, and the snapshot.tar.gz from the AUR itself, which contains the PKGBUILD.

The PKGBUILD is just a bash script run by makepkg which automates the process of using b43-fwcutter for you. But it also creates a package which is useful for the installed system.

As for running makepkg as root, you can create a new user with useradd and then change users to that user in order to run makepkg. Or reuse an existing user like the "nobody" user. Make sure the user you use has write permission to the directory you use for running makepkg.

Is the nobody user built into the achiso? I read that "nobody" has no permissions. So I would have to add nobody to the wheel group, I assume. I know how to add a user to a group when creating it, but not after the fact...

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#10 2019-01-07 00:40:12

eschwartz
Fellow
Registered: 2014-08-08
Posts: 4,097

Re: Is It Possible to Load b34 Alongside the Installer?

The "nobody" user is one of the users created by the base install.

It does not have permission to run sudo pacman, correct... but why do you need that?

mkdir /tmp/builds
cp ... /tmp/builds
chown -R nobody:nobody /tmp/builds
cd /tmp/builds/
runuser -u nobody makepkg # build the package as the "nobody" user
pacman -U builtpkg-version.pkg.tar.xz

The last command is being run by root and not by "nobody" since you exited the subshell running as "nobody"... why does it need sudo?


Managing AUR repos The Right Way -- aurpublish (now a standalone tool)

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#11 2019-01-07 00:46:52

aependell
Member
Registered: 2019-01-05
Posts: 6

Re: Is It Possible to Load b34 Alongside the Installer?

eschwartz wrote:

The "nobody" user is one of the users created by the base install.

It does not have permission to run sudo pacman, correct... but why do you need that?

mkdir /tmp/builds
cp ... /tmp/builds
chown -R nobody:nobody /tmp/builds
cd /tmp/builds/
runuser -u nobody makepkg # build the package as the "nobody" user
pacman -U builtpkg-version.pkg.tar.xz

The last command is being run by root and not by "nobody" since you exited the subshell running as "nobody"... why does it need sudo?

You said "nobody" was created by the base install... Does that mean it is not present in the archiso? Because if it isn't, I'm back at square one. I cannot install the base install onto my system without my wifi working, which is what I am trying to do.

I never said I needed to use sudo, the archiso was getting mad at me for just using `makepkg -i`. No sudo involved. It was not mad at me for attempting to use sudo, it was mad at me for attempting to run makepkg as root.

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#12 2019-01-07 00:57:18

eschwartz
Fellow
Registered: 2014-08-08
Posts: 4,097

Re: Is It Possible to Load b34 Alongside the Installer?

I'm confused, I thought you were asking if you needed to modify the "nobody" user in order to have sudo permission in order to use it to build. My answer is

aependell wrote:

I read that "nobody" has no permissions. So I would have to add nobody to the wheel group, I assume. I know how to add a user to a group when creating it, but not after the fact...

You assumed wrong.

...

As for being in the base install, the archiso is a live USB containing a base arch install plus a few additional packages useful for installing arch or just getting an internet connection. It therefore has anything the base install has.


Managing AUR repos The Right Way -- aurpublish (now a standalone tool)

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