Offline install of b43-fwcutter and firmware for Broadcom Wireless cards

Linux Tips & Tricks
1

For an “Offline” install of b43-fwcutter and firmware in Ubuntu…
(ie. without an working internet connection on the Ubuntu PC)

[EDIT]

New instructions for Ubuntu 12.04 can be found at this link:
http://linuxforums.org.uk/index.php?topic=5842.msg81040#msg81040

[END EDIT]

[EDIT 2]

New instructions for Ubuntu 14.04 can be found at this link:
http://linuxforums.org.uk/index.php?topic=5842.msg104688#msg104688

[END EDIT 2]

Supported models include:
BCM4301 BCM4306/2, BCM4306/3, BCM4311, BCM4312, BCM4318, BCM4320

Install b43-fwcutter:
With the Ubuntu CDROM inserted… navigate on the CD to:
/pool/main/b/b43-fwcutter/
and double-click the b43-fwcutter .deb package contained there.
When the Ubuntu Software Centre opens… click “Install”

Install patch:
With the Ubuntu CDROM inserted… navigate on the CD to:
/pool/main/p/patch/
and double-click the patch .deb package contained there.
When the Ubuntu Software Centre opens… click “Install”

On a separate PC that has a working internet connection, download these 2 files:

http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
and
http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2

Now transfer them to your Home folder on the Ubuntu PC.

Open a terminal and enter these 6 commands.

cd ~
tar -xjvf broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
sudo b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
sudo b43-fwcutter --unsupported -w /lib/firmware broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver/wl_apsta_mimo.o
sudo chmod 775 /lib/firmware/b43
sudo chmod 775 /lib/firmware/b43legacy

hitting enter after each line, and your password when asked.

at this point, you may need to reboot.

Now see if the b43 driver is available for activation in System>Administration>Additional Drivers

Most of this is in the “b43 - No internet access” section here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx

Except for the 2 chmod 775 commands which I found were necessary… at least for me.

2

IT WORKED!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D And this post is over a year old!

I have a Dell D630 with Ubuntu 12.04 and Broadcom Wireless card 4312. After searching and searching and searching for an offline solution – and one that’s easy for a newbie to follow – I tried yours and I now have Ubuntu 12.04 online!!! Thank you thank you thank you.

The only thing different was that the B43 and B43legacy directories were in /lib/firmware rather than in modules.

3

Hi kiai, and welcome to the forum :slight_smile:

I’m glad it helped, and thanks for the feedback … I’m sure your update to the instructions (for 12.04) will be a help others … Cheers :slight_smile:

I’ve changed the original instructions to reflect the directory change you mentioned … thanks

4

I don’t have the install cdrom…I’m downloading with the Windows installer…can i still fix this?

5

It can be done in a WUBI install … but it will be more awkward.

By FAR the easiest method will be to just connect to your router with an ethernet cable … then install the wireless drivers.

6

Can you explain how do you install broadcom firmware on wubi ? Im running ubuntu 12.04 LTS

7

Is it 12.04 32bit or 64 bit ?

If you’re not sure … open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and post the output from:

uname -a
8

32bits

9

OK, try this …

For an “Offline” install of b43-fwcutter and firmware in Ubuntu 12.04.1 32bit…
(ie. without an working internet connection on the Ubuntu PC)

Supported models include:
BCM4301 BCM4306/2, BCM4306/3, BCM4311, BCM4312, BCM4318, BCM4320

On a separate PC that has a working internet connection, download these 3 files:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11876059/b43-fwcutter_015-9_i386.deb
and
http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
and
http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2

Now transfer them to your Home folder on the Ubuntu PC.

Open a terminal and enter these 7 commands.

cd ~
sudo dpkg -i b43-fwcutter_015-9_i386.deb
tar -xjvf broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
sudo b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
sudo b43-fwcutter --unsupported -w /lib/firmware broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver/wl_apsta_mimo.o
sudo chmod 775 /lib/firmware/b43
sudo chmod 775 /lib/firmware/b43legacy

hitting enter after each line, and your password when asked.

at this point, you may need to reboot.

Now see if the b43 driver is available for activation in System>Administration>Additional Drivers

10

Solved, thank you so much.

11

You’re welcome :slight_smile:

12

Now my wireless connection is always dropping, and i have to manually disconnect/connect to function properly. Any thoughts ?

13
Now my wireless connection is always dropping, and i have to manually disconnect/connect to function properly. Any thoughts ?

This might not have anything to do with your problem, but I had a similar problem with a different card.
The soulution was to disable the power saving for the card. As when this did kick in, the card was not coping well,
and was dropping the connection.

14

SeZo is right, it may be an LPPHY card which needs different firmware, or it could need the wl driver instead of b43 … so first lets’ find out exactly which adapter you have.

Can you open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and poost the output from these 2 commands:

sudo lshw -C network

and

lspci -vnn | grep -A7 -i "net"

Be aware Linux commands ARE case sensitive (so that’s a capital C in the first command), and it may take a short while for the first command to complete.

15 
  *-network               
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: 82562GT 10/100 Network Connection
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 19
       bus info: pci@0000:00:19.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 03
       serial: 00:1f:29:8e:8d:45
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi cap_list ethernet physical
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=e1000e latency=0 multicast=yes
       resources: irq:22 memory:e4600000-e461ffff memory:e4620000-e4620fff ioport:4020(size=32)
  *-network
       description: Network controller
       product: BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:10:00.0
       version: 01
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
       configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=0
       resources: irq:17 memory:e4000000-e4003fff
  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       physical id: 2
       logical name: wlan0
       serial: 00:21:00:23:d7:58
       capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=b43 driverversion=3.2.0-32-generic-pae firmware=410.2160 ip=192.168.1.93 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg


00:19.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation 82562GT 10/100 Network Connection [8086:10c4] (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:30d8]
	Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 22
	Memory at e4600000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=128K]
	Memory at e4620000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=4K]
	I/O ports at 4020 [disabled] [size=32]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: e1000e
--
10:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY [14e4:4315] (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company BCM4312 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller [103c:137d]
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
	Memory at e4000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
	Kernel modules: ssb
16

Yup it’s an LPPHY (low power card) … normally you’d just need to install firmware-b43-lpphy-installer but with you having done an offline install of the firmware, I can’t guarantee what will happen.

But let’s try it anyway:

sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-lpphy-installer

then reboot to test.

What model of HP laptop is this ?

17

I just installed the b43-lpphy firmware, gonna report soon.
The notebook is an old HP 6720s.

18

Please let us know how it goes :slight_smile:

If you ever decide you want to get the wired connection working … according to this (old) bug report:

Updating the BIOS seems to fix the issue on your HP 6270s

As does the kernel boot parameter pci=noacpi
But this parameter may also have undesired consequences … so the BIOS update is a better solution.

but temporarily using that kernel boot parameter may be handy for us to get your wireless fixed if the LPPHY firmware doesn’t fix the issue.

19

Already tried both. Neither the boot parameter or the latest bios worked for me :
I flashed this one: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=3442832&prodNameId=3442833&swEnvOID=1093&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=ob-66972-1

20

I guess it needs to be specifically F04 version, but it seems a bad idea to downgrade bios :\