Debian(lenny), problems getting wireless to work.

**Rebopper** · 09-29-2008

Hello, I am new to Linux (about a week) and have been trying to get my wireless card to work for 2 days, to no avail. I WILL NOT GIVE UP THOUGH!
Details:
Debian (lenny) 2.6.26-1-686
Linksys card with Broadcom BCM4306 chipset
I have been following the same besic steps, which were successful, as I did with another one of my laptops (same distro and broadcom card as well) but I think I have failed somewhere along the line this time.

lspci:

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 82)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL (ICH4/ICH4-L) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DB (ICH4) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 02)
02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01)
02:04.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1510 PC card Cardbus Controller
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)

dmesg (excerpt):

Code:

[   14.144067] pccard: CardBus card inserted into slot 0
[   14.144298] b43-pci-bridge 0000:03:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[   14.144311] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:00.0[A] -> Link [LNKA] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
[   14.144326] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:03:00.0 to 64
[   14.148073] ssb: Sonics Silicon Backplane found on PCI device 0000:03:00.0
[   14.567934] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4306 WLAN found
[   14.612637] phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'pid'
[   14.752163] Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PMLR, Firmware-ID: FW13 ]
[   15.686277] Adding 746980k swap on /dev/hdc5.  Priority:-1 extents:1 across:746980k
[   16.337797] EXT3 FS on hdc1, internal journal
[   16.708153] loop: module loaded
[   18.300415] input: b43-phy0 as /class/input/input9
[   18.376125] firmware: requesting b43/ucode5.fw
[   18.448418] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found or load failed.
[   18.448418] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the latest firmware (version 4).
[   18.484535] input: b43-phy0 as /class/input/input10
[   18.528093] firmware: requesting b43/ucode5.fw
[   18.537716] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found or load failed.
[   18.537811] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the latest firmware (version 4).
[   82.488376] input: b43-phy0 as /class/input/input11
[   82.532102] firmware: requesting b43/ucode5.fw
[   82.540698] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found or load failed.
[   82.540795] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the latest firmware (version 4).
[   90.073942] lp: driver loaded but no devices found
[   90.107653] ppdev: user-space parallel port driver
[   90.738966] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[   90.739702] lo: Disabled Privacy Extensions
[   93.036045] pcmcia: Detected deprecated PCMCIA ioctl usage from process: discover.
[   93.036045] pcmcia: This interface will soon be removed from the kernel; please expect breakage unless you upgrade to new tools.
[   93.036045] pcmcia: see http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/pcmcia/pcmcia.html for details.
[   93.036045] cs: memory probe 0xf8000000-0xfdffffff: excluding 0xf8000000-0xfc7fffff 0xfce00000-0xfd3fffff
[   93.936025] warning: `avahi-daemon' uses 32-bit capabilities (legacy support in use)
[   96.458319] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.11
[   96.461421] NET: Registered protocol family 31
[   96.461436] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
[   96.461441] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
[   96.587143] Bluetooth: L2CAP ver 2.9
[   96.587156] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
[   96.611148] Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
[   96.611178] Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
[   96.611181] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.8
[  100.610539] input: b43-phy0 as /class/input/input12
[  100.652102] firmware: requesting b43/ucode5.fw
[  100.671512] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found or load failed.
[  100.671528] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the latest firmware (version 4).
[  101.685191] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
[  101.713990] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:02.0[A] -> Link [LNKA] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
[  101.714011] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:02.0 to 64
[  101.714170] [drm] Initialized i915 1.6.0 20060119 on minor 0
[  228.962219] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[  229.080198] input: b43-phy0 as /class/input/input13
[  229.130038] firmware: requesting b43/ucode5.fw
[  229.175832] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found or load failed.
[  229.175846] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the latest firmware (version 4).
[  231.816203] b44: eth0: Link is up at 100 Mbps, full duplex.
[  231.816211] b44: eth0: Flow control is off for TX and off for RX.
[  231.816849] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
[  241.984030] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
[ 2068.048825] input: b43-phy0 as /class/input/input14
[ 2068.073802] firmware: requesting b43/ucode5.fw
[ 2068.465088] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found or load failed.
[ 2068.465088] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the latest firmware (version 4).
[ 2419.275340] input: b43-phy0 as /class/input/input15
[ 2419.298616] firmware: requesting b43/ucode5.fw
[ 2419.356382] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found or load failed.
[ 2419.356382] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the latest firmware (version 4).
[ 2429.257440] input: b43-phy0 as /class/input/input16
[ 2429.304103] firmware: requesting b43/ucode5.fw
[ 2429.314572] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found or load failed.
[ 2429.314588] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the latest firmware (version 4).
[ 2446.104385] input: b43-phy0 as /class/input/input17
[ 2446.148102] firmware: requesting b43/ucode5.fw
[ 2446.158331] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found or load failed.
[ 2446.158348] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the latest firmware (version 4).

ifconfig:

Code:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0d:56:b4:80:67  
          inet addr:192.168.1.6  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::20d:56ff:feb4:8067/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:7385 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:7705 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:5453555 (5.2 MiB)  TX bytes:1427463 (1.3 MiB)
          Interrupt:7 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:560 (560.0 B)  TX bytes:560 (560.0 B)

The steps I used successfully last time were found here: Get your webcam, video, and wireless rolling quickly on Debian Lenny - debiantutorials.org - from Windows to Debian GNU/Linux
The other machine I did this on had wireless working in minutes.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that apt-get has not worked for me at all (cannot find package, I think it said) and I have had to manually use wget with the address.

**waterhead** · 09-29-2008

I have that exact same wireless in my laptop. I have gotten it to work in Suse, Fedora and the Ubuntu derivative Linux Mint. And Ubuntu is a Debian derivative.

You actually have the reason and the solution right under your nose:

Code:

[  229.130038] firmware: requesting b43/ucode5.fw
[  229.175832] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found or load failed.
[  229.175846] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the latest firmware (version 4).

All you need to do is follow what it says. There are instructions for installing the firmware at that web site. Just be sure to put the firmware in a /lib/firmware sub folder named /b43, like the error message says.

**Rebopper** · 09-29-2008

I thought that may be the case. But being a linux noob, I wanted to double check before I started moving things around.

From the website (b43 - Linux Wireless)

"Ubuntu (all flavors) and Debian use the following command:

Code:

      sudo /usr/share/b43-fwcutter/install_bcm43xx_firmware.sh

"

The result:

Code:

sudo: /usr/share/b43-fwcutter/install_bcm43xx_firmware.sh: command not found

I don't understand that bit.

Or this:

Code:

export FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR="/lib/firmware"
wget http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
cd broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver
sudo ../../b43-fwcutter-011/b43-fwcutter -w "$FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR" wl_apsta_mimo.o

results in:

Code:

export /lib/firmware/b43="/lib/firmware"
bash: export: `/lib/firmware/b43=/lib/firmware': not a valid identifier
debian:/lib/firmware# wget http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/b...0.10.5.tar.bz2
--2008-09-29 15:55:43--  http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/b...0.10.5.tar.bz2
Resolving mirror2.openwrt.org... 88.198.39.176
Connecting to mirror2.openwrt.org|88.198.39.176|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 3888794 (3.7M) [application/x-tar]
Saving to: `broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2'

100%[======================================>] 3,888,794    421K/s   in 8.8s    

2008-09-29 15:55:52 (434 KB/s) - `broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2' saved [3888794/3888794]

debian:/lib/firmware# tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2

debian:/lib/firmware# cd broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver
debian:/lib/firmware/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver# sudo ../../b43-fwcutter-011/b43-fwcutter -w "$/lib/firmware/b43" wl_apsta_mimo.o
sudo: ../../b43-fwcutter-011/b43-fwcutter: command not found
debian:/lib/firmware/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver#

**waterhead** · 09-29-2008

Since that is a scipt that you are trying to run, I would do this.

Enter the folder where the scritpt is:

Code:

cd /usr/share/b43-fwcutter

And now run the script:

Code:

sudo ./install_bcm43xx_firmware.sh

If that won't work, try it this way:

Code:

sudo sh install_bcm43xx_firmware.sh

Edit: You may need to make the b43 folder first:

Code:

sudo mkdir /lib/firmware/b43

I think the script will take care of the rest.

**Rebopper** · 09-29-2008

I think I'm getting closer, but...

Code:

debian:/lib/firmware/b43# cd /usr/share/b43-fwcutter
bash: cd: /usr/share/b43-fwcutter: No such file or directory

EDIT: "You may need to make the b43 folder first:" Already did that.

**waterhead** · 09-29-2008

I think you need to install it first.

Code:

apt-get install b43-fwcutter

If you need a specific version, use the package manager to see if it is available. There is version 009 and version 011.

You can just install it with apt, then check for the version;

Code:

b43-fwcutter -v

**Rebopper** · 09-29-2008

I think you need to install it first.

Code:

apt-get install b43-fwcutter

Yes. Every other time I tried it, apt-get would say it was not found. Worked this time for some reason, a bunch of stuff happened.

**Rebopper** · 09-29-2008

Thanks so much. After rebooting I am now running wireless. With no problems!

Obligatory:

**waterhead** · 09-29-2008

Originally Posted by Rebopper

Yes. Every other time I tried it, apt-get would say it was not found. Worked this time for some reason, a bunch of stuff happened.

It must be my good karma.

Glad to hear it's working.

Enjoy!!!

**pierremenard** · 07-18-2010

I had exactly the same problem. After reading this thread, I solved it with the following 3 steps:

1) Added "contrib" to the /etc/apt/sources.list file at line
deb .../debian/ lenny main contrib

2) Updated the packages list

Code:

# apt-get update

3) Installed b43-fwcutter

Code:

# apt-get install b43-fwcutter

responding "Yes" when asked if I wanted to download and install the firmware files.

After that, dmesg showed:

Code:

# dmesg
...
[78705.934190] input: b43-phy0 as /class/input/input658
[78705.972657] firmware: requesting b43/ucode5.fw
[78705.996074] firmware: requesting b43/pcm5.fw
[78706.044991] firmware: requesting b43/b0g0initvals5.fw
[78706.096979] firmware: requesting b43/b0g0bsinitvals5.fw
[78706.270745] b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10)
[78707.502035] Registered led device: b43-phy0::tx
[78707.502501] Registered led device: b43-phy0::rx
[78707.502921] Registered led device: b43-phy0::radio

and ifconfig showed:

Code:

# ifconfig
...
wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:11:24:a8:a1:cb
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

wmaster0  Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-11-24-A8-A1-CB-10-0B-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

Adding contrib to /etc/apt/sources.list was necessary because b43-fwcutter is not located in the main area of the Debian archive .

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