Broadcom B43 drivers

linux_modder
   10 years ago
  -1

Works in LM 15/16/17 all ubuntu flavours (cinnamon/xfce/mate/kde)

in a terminal confirm you need broadcom drivers with this command:  inxi -Nnxx

sample output:

 inxi -Nnxx
Network:   Card-1: Broadcom brcm43xx  Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) 
           driver: b43 bus-ID: 14:00.0 chip-ID: 168c:002a
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <censored>
          Card-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
           driver: r8169 ver: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 4000 bus-ID: 0e:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <censored>
 
IF your card-1 or card-2  looks like Card-1 above then you need the firmware only:
 
 
to get this you have several ways:
 
using the live usb and a working ethernet cable or other supported usb wifi adapter:
Option 1: (Via Synaptic)  --the preferred method (given in #linuxmint-help)
1) Connect to a network 
2) open synaptic software manager ( Menu -> System-> Synaptic package manager (or use the search bar)
3) inside synaptic use the search bar and input: B43/bcmwl-kernel-source  or firmware-b43-installer (the later auto "pulls in " the fwcutter by default)
4) click "Mark for installation"
5) click  "Apply all actions"
6) (sometimes needed) in a terminal sudo modprobe b43 then reboot // upon reboot you should have wifi via the wifi adapter (can confirm by running lsmod |grep b43 /bcma or wl in the case of the kernel source option in a terminal or in synaptic you'll see a green filled checkbox for installed packages/apps/progs)
 
Option 2: (Via apt-get) aka terminal or cli route
1) connect to a network
2) sudo -s
<enter your login p/w>
3) apt(-get) install firmware-b43-installer or bcmwl-kernel-source  b43-fwcutter 
type Y on confirmation dialog
4) exit 
5) sudo modprobe b43 OR bcma / wl (depending on which driver the STA installs)
6) (sometimes needed) reboot
 
 
 
 
without a working connection of any kind:
 
Option 1:
1) reinsert install media (cd/dvd/usb)   and open driver manager  (may see a warning  like this http://imgur.com/a0HfFnr )  if you do head to software sources ( like you did to get to driver manager) and in additional repositories check the cdrom option then return to driver manageer and click OK 
the proprietary kernel  source should show up as 'bcmwl-kernel-source'   select it and hit install --  this is suffiecient to use daily but has been dodgy at times on some machines ---once a network connection is available (after a reboot in some cases like above)  you can replace with the b43 open-sourced drivers via above method.
 
Option 2:
 
prior to install use a browser and navigate to:
 
1) http://www.wireless.kernel.com/en/users/Drivers/b43 
 
and saving the extracted drivers to a usb or similiar follow these instructions:
Install b43-fwcutter
 
Use version 018 of b43-fwcutter.
Download, extract the b43-fwcutter tarball and build it:
 
 
Toggle line numbers
   1 wget http://bues.ch/b43/fwcutter/b43-fwcutter-018.tar.bz2 http://bues.ch/b43/fwcutter/b43-fwcutter-018.tar.bz2.asc
   2 gpg --verify b43-fwcutter-018.tar.bz2.asc
   3 tar xjf b43-fwcutter-018.tar.bz2
   4 cd b43-fwcutter-018
   5 make
   6 sudo make install
   7 cd ..
If verification of the GPG signature fails due to an unknown key, you need to import the following key:
 
Key ID = 4203454C
Key fingerprint = 757F AB7C ED18 14AE 15B4  836E 5FB0 2747 4203 454C
If you are using the b43 driver from 3.2 kernel or newer:
 
After installing b43-fwcutter, download version 5.100.138 of Broadcom's proprietary driver and extract the firmware from it:
 
 
Toggle line numbers
   1 export FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR="/lib/firmware"
   2 wget http://www.lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
   3 tar xjf broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
   4 sudo b43-fwcutter -w "$FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR" broadcom-wl-5.100.138/linux/wl_apsta.o

Install b43-fwcutter

Use version 018 of b43-fwcutter.
Download, extract the b43-fwcutter tarball and build it:

 

Toggle line numbers 
      1 wget http://bues.ch/b43/fwcutter/b43-fwcutter-018.tar.bz2 http://bues.ch/b43/fwcutter/b43-fwcutter-018.tar.bz2.asc
   2 gpg --verify b43-fwcutter-018.tar.bz2.asc
   3 tar xjf b43-fwcutter-018.tar.bz2
   4 cd b43-fwcutter-018
   5 make
   6 sudo make install
   7 cd ..

If verification of the GPG signature fails due to an unknown key, you need to import the following key:

 Key ID = 4203454C
Key fingerprint = 757F AB7C ED18 14AE 15B4  836E 5FB0 2747 4203 454C

 

If you are using the b43 driver from 3.2 kernel or newer:

After installing b43-fwcutter, download version 5.100.138 of Broadcom's proprietary driver and extract the firmware from it:

 

Toggle line numbers 
      1 export FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR="/lib/firmware"
   2 wget http://www.lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
   3 tar xjf broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
   4 sudo b43-fwcutter -w "$FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR" broadcom-wl-5.100.138/linux/wl_apsta.o
 
 
afterwards: on the machine needing wifi drivers
 
 
1) open a terminal:
2) sudo -s
3) mount your usb or like  with the following syntax:  mount  /dev/sdX /mnt
4) then df -h
 
sample output:
linuxcrypt Fri, 04 Jul 12:56:26 ~# df -h
Filesystem                Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/mint-root      20G  4.6G   14G  25% /
none                      4.0K     0  4.0K   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
udev                      1.9G   12K  1.9G   1% /dev
tmpfs                     392M  1.5M  391M   1% /run
none                      5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
none                      2.0G   25M  1.9G   2% /run/shm
none                      100M   12K  100M   1% /run/user
/dev/sdb2                 976M  120M  790M  14% /boot
/dev/mapper/mint-opt      9.8G  356M  8.9G   4% /opt
/dev/mapper/mint-sandbox  197G  3.1G  184G   2% /sandbox
/dev/mapper/mint-var      9.8G  1.2G  8.1G  13% /var
/dev/mapper/mint-home     342G  9.8G  315G   4% /home
linuxcrypt Fri, 04 Jul 12:56:26 ~# df -h
Filesystem                Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/mint-root      20G  4.6G   14G  25% /
none                      4.0K     0  4.0K   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
udev                      1.9G   12K  1.9G   1% /dev
tmpfs                     392M  1.5M  391M   1% /run
none                      5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
none                      2.0G   25M  1.9G   2% /run/shm
none                      100M   12K  100M   1% /run/user
/dev/sdb2                 976M  120M  790M  14% /boot
/dev/mapper/mint-opt      9.8G  356M  8.9G   4% /opt
/dev/mapper/mint-sandbox  197G  3.1G  184G   2% /sandbox
/dev/mapper/mint-var      9.8G  1.2G  8.1G  13% /var
/dev/mapper/mint-home     342G  9.8G  315G   4% /home
linuxcrypt Fri, 04 Jul 12:56:26 ~# df -h
Filesystem                Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/mint-root      20G  4.6G   14G  25% /
none                      4.0K     0  4.0K   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
udev                      1.9G   12K  1.9G   1% /dev
tmpfs                     392M  1.5M  391M   1% /run
none                      5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
none                      2.0G   25M  1.9G   2% /run/shm
none                      100M   12K  100M   1% /run/user
/dev/sdb2                 976M  120M  790M  14% /boot
/dev/mapper/mint-opt      9.8G  356M  8.9G   4% /opt
/dev/mapper/mint-sandbox  197G  3.1G  184G   2% /sandbox
/dev/mapper/mint-var      9.8G  1.2G  8.1G  13% /var
/dev/mapper/mint-home     342G  9.8G  315G   4% /home
linuxcrypt Fri, 04 Jul 12:56:26 ~# df -h
Filesystem                Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/mint-root      20G  4.6G   14G  25% /
none                      4.0K     0  4.0K   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
udev                      1.9G   12K  1.9G   1% /dev
tmpfs                     392M  1.5M  391M   1% /run
none                      5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
none                      2.0G   25M  1.9G   2% /run/shm
none                      100M   12K  100M   1% /run/user
/dev/sdb2                 976M  120M  790M  14% /boot
/dev/mapper/mint-opt      9.8G  356M  8.9G   4% /opt
/dev/mapper/mint-sandbox  197G  3.1G  184G   2% /sandbox
/dev/mapper/mint-var      9.8G  1.2G  8.1G  13% /var
/dev/mapper/mint-home     342G  9.8G  315G   4% /home
linuxcrypt Fri, 04 Jul 12:56:26 ~# df -h
Filesystem                Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/mint-root      20G  4.6G   14G  25% /
none                      4.0K     0  4.0K   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
udev                      1.9G   12K  1.9G   1% /dev
tmpfs                     392M  1.5M  391M   1% /run
none                      5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
none                      2.0G   25M  1.9G   2% /run/shm
none                      100M   12K  100M   1% /run/user
/dev/sdb2                 976M  120M  790M  14% /boot
/dev/mapper/mint-opt      9.8G  356M  8.9G   4% /opt
/dev/mapper/mint-sandbox  197G  3.1G  184G   2% /sandbox
/dev/mapper/mint-var      9.8G  1.2G  8.1G  13% /var
/dev/mapper/mint-home     342G  9.8G  315G   4% /home
/dev/sdc1                 7.5G  5.5G  2.0G  74% /media/neo/ISO/b43
 
 
 
the  last line in the text above is the important one:
 
once you have similiar readout:
 
cp -Ra /media/neo/ISO/b43/*   /lib/firmware/b43
OR 
cp-Ra /media/neo/ISO/bcmwl/* /lib/firmware/bcmwl
 
(substituting neo for YOUR username)
if it states the /lib/firmware/b43 doesnt exist   run mkdir /lib/firmware/b43 and rerun the previous command
 
then ls /lib/firmware/b43 should output some files this is normal and good 
 
 
sudo modprobe b43  OR bcma / wl
 
 
reboot and voila
 
Option 3:  (using pkgs.org)
 
 
1) Connect to a network 
2) navigate in a browser to:
http://pkgs.org/search/firmware-b43
 
and select:   firmware-b43-installer_018-2_all.deb from the ubuntu 14.04LTS (LM17) Ubuntu 13.10 ( LM16) Ubuntu 13.04 (LM15)
 
and download to a usb 
 
also search for b43-fwcutter from the same site and repeat above steps;
however for b43-fwcutter YOU DO NEED the proper 32 or 64 bit version 
 
 
once both are saved to usb insert in pc 
 
3) open terminal (or revisit if still open from other operations)
4)sudo -s 
<enter login p/w>
5) mount the usb as mentioned above (i.e. mount /dev/sdX /media/neo/ISO/b43)
6) dpkg -i /media/neo/ISO/b43/*.deb or dpkg -i /media/neo/ISO/bcma (or wl)
7) modprobe b43 OR bcma / wl 
8) reboot
 
 
 
hope this was helpful if not or you have other issues feel free to open the Hexchat (or xchat in LM15/16) and head to the second auto-joined channel #linuxmint-help and ask your questions, the channel is always open24/7 and is multi-lingual (use of google-translate or apertium is advised as is install of pastebinit and inxi/trusty as these tools make helping easier)
 
Corey84
 
 
 
Comments
sloshnmosh 9 years ago

in Linux Mint 17 to install broadcom drivers OFFLINE simply: reinsert the install disk and browse to /pool/main/e/eglibc and click on: libc-dev-bin_2.19-0ubuntu6.3_amd64.deb and after that installs click on: libc6-dev_2.19-0ubuntu6.3_amd64.deb after that installs browse the disk to:/main/b/bcmwl and install bcmwl-kernel-source_6.30.223.141+bdcom-0ubuntu2_amd64.deb you should now have wifi. This bit of foolishness is probably due to copyright b/s.