b43-fwcutter

[Bjay]

Can someone please point me to where I can download and get newbee instructions for installing and using b43-fwcuter, I have Intrepid Ibex installed.

[D-cat]

It's available from the Ubuntu main repository. Enter in a terminal window:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter

[Bjay]

It's available from the Ubuntu main repository. Enter in a terminal window:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter

Many thanks D-cat.

[bigtomrodney]

I've had quite a lot of fun getting the Broadcom drivers working in Intrepid and Hardy. The open source driver combined with the official firmware often gave me either a weak signal or a lower rate such as 1Mbps. I generally found myself going back to ndiswrapper and having to blacklist modules and in some cases running scripts to ensure my wired card would still load.

Jaunty (Ubuntu 9.04) has switched to the newer STA driver and it works a lot better giving both better rates and better signal. If you install/upgrade to Jaunty all you need to do is open Hardware Drivers while connected to the internet via network cable and you will have the driver installed automatically.

[waterhead]

I don't believe that the Broadcom STA driver will work for all Broadcom wireless devices. I did some research on this, and posted an entry in the "Downloads" section:

http://dir.linuxforums.org/category/53/program/583/

This driver in known to support these wireless chips: 4311, 4312 (4315), 4321 (4328, 4329), 4322 (432B).

The chipsets in parenthesis are synonyms. I don't know how Linux reports these, if it uses the real chipset number or the synonym.

Yesterday I tried the Broadcom STA driver on a Suse 11 PC with a Broadcom 4318 chipset. After removing and blacklisting the b43 module, the wireless would not work with the wl driver. It isn't in my list of supported devices, but I had to try!

[waterhead]

It's available from the Ubuntu main repository. Enter in a terminal window:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter

when you installed b43-fwcutter, it will automatically install the firmware for you. This saves a lot of head-scratching.

Taken from here:
b43 Firmware Installation

2. in latest versions of Ubuntu (all flavors) and Debian just need to install the b43-fwcutter package: sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter
when you are asked "Fetch and install firmware?" answer "Yes" (just press "Enter")

[waterhead]

I just tried this on my laptop, with a 4306 chipset, and it didn't work for that one either.

[bigtomrodney]

Thanks for the updates Paul, if there's anyone I trust to know about wifi on Linux, it's you

[waterhead]

I am actually hoping that more people would try this driver, instead of the b43 driver. I would like to know exactly what it works on. So far it seems that my list is correct.

I really wish that it would work for my 4318 wireless. It is in the garage, and the reception is horrible. I understand that the wl driver is better in this area.