No wireless or ethernet? Have a smartphone?

[Spec-chum]

I was showing the gf the delights of LDME last night and booted up from USB only to find no wireless support out-of-the-box for the Broadcom wireless adaptor in her Dell laptop

But, then I had a brainwave, I remembered my HTC Desire phone has a USB tethering function, allowing internet access to be passed through the phone to the laptop. So I activated the wireless on my phone, plugged the USB cable into the laptop, then into the phone and selected USB tethering and, waited...nothing happened at first but then the internet connection symbol spun and behold! "wired wireless" using "USB auto1" (or something similar, not on laptop right now).

Apologies if this is teaching anyone to suck eggs, but I've noticed lots of posts on here in regards to "no wireless" and "no ethernet" so thought this might be useful to anyone with a smartphone.

ps GF loved LMDE and will be installing it once she's backed up her massive collection of photos!

Spec

[xenopeek]

That is a useful tip, thanks. Hadn't thought about that

[AlbertP]

It's just amazing that a smartphone has better Linux compatibility than a Broadcom card which is used in many computers. Smartphone internet is not used that often by laptop users.

Broadcom wireless needs firmware (or a driver) which cannot be redistributed with Linux distros due to the restrictive licence.

[TBABill]

Broadcom wireless needs firmware (or a driver) which cannot be redistributed with Linux distros due to the restrictive licence.

I have seen messages like that on other forums as well, but it's a fact that even Ubuntu distributes its liveCD with the Broadcom driver and firmware included. It does not "auto install" so you still have to click on the "restricted drivers" icon (or go to additional drivers), but it is entirely possible to activate and use the Broadcom proprietary driver (wl module) directly from the CD without ever connecting to the Internet to download it. It's right on the CD itself.

Ultimate Edition, PCLinuxOS and Sabayon include the capability to do so as well from their disks. I'd think Mint would do so as well but theirs is broken. It points you to the online repo instead of the disk (and the disk may not even contain the driver like Ubuntu's does). However, LMDE does not contain the ability to do it, nor does Debian itself. Both of those do require access and the addition of other the multimedia repo is needed in Debian, but already cared for in LMDE.

[AlbertP]

On Broadcom, the driver needs to load 'firmware' into the card - that's a number of files made by Broadcom with a restrictive licence. Mint can't just redistribute that firmware. And on Broadcom wireless, Linux needs to sort out which network is used, which encryption, the key/password to get access, etc.

On a smartphone, the phone has already made the connection to the network. That way Mint does not need to supply firmware and connection data, and does not have to care about networks and encryption. Those things are sorted out by the phone, when you connect it to internet. When Mint connects to the phone over USB, the phone already has done everything necessary to get connection and Mint can just use it for internet.
Because of this, it is much easier to write a Linux driver for a smartphone that handles everything by itself, than for a card that Mint has to dictate everything.

[TBABill]

Fortunately Ubuntu includes the firmware as well on their LiveCD. Unsure why Mint couldn't do the same since they go even further than Ubuntu by also including codecs that Ubuntu will not.

[Jersey]

I have ran into this many times now. I usually plug in to the wired network but I would really like to see the drivers be available without having to get a connection to the net. That is a great tip though. I still havnt used the tethering capabilities on this phone. What app do you use?

There's no place like ~
Sent from my Leedroid rooted Inspire 4G using Tapatalk

[AlbertP]

Fortunately Ubuntu includes the firmware as well on their LiveCD. Unsure why Mint couldn't do the same since they go even further than Ubuntu by also including codecs that Ubuntu will not.

Ubuntu do not include firmware. They include Broadcom's STA driver, and NOT the B43 firmware as that is illegal.
The .deb package of b43 in the repository also does not include firmware for the same reason. It downloads the firmware from other websites.

[TBABill]

Fortunately Ubuntu includes the firmware as well on their LiveCD. Unsure why Mint couldn't do the same since they go even further than Ubuntu by also including codecs that Ubuntu will not.

Ubuntu do not include firmware. They include Broadcom's STA driver, and NOT the B43 firmware as that is illegal.
The .deb package of b43 in the repository also does not include firmware for the same reason. It downloads the firmware from other websites.

AlbertP, grab an Ubuntu liveCD without connecting to the net in any way on a laptop equipped with a Broadcom BCM4312, as mine is. In the live session, click activate for the STA driver. Then without restarting, open a terminal and

Code: Select all

sudo modprobe wl

and let me know if you have problems getting a connection. For me it works every time. I do not EVER connect in any way on Ubuntu, but I have to for Debian, Mint and most other distros. This behavior works the same on Ultimate Edition (since it's based on Ubuntu), but does not work in Mint.

If the firmware is not present on the Live session of Ubuntu, how is it I can enable the driver fully and then install and include updates, Flash, codecs without every plugging in? I have no other wireless device so it relies completely on my Broadcom. In addition, once the install is done in this manner the driver is automatically installed to the installed OS as well. No need to add the driver later.

Edit: Details here under "STA - No Internet Access": https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiD ... er/bcm43xx
Edit 2: I only meant this was possible for the STA driver, not the b43, since the b43 still relies on Broadcom's proprietary firmware.

[AlbertP]

The 'STA' driver has the driver + firmware in 1 proprietary package which has a licence that allows Ubuntu to redistribute it. What I mean is that they don't have seperate B43 firmware for the chips that do not support STA - redistributing just the firmware (not the whole driver) is illegal.

[TIMONLINE]

I tried this using my HTC Desire HD but rather than selecting wifi I enabled tethering from the task bar menu when connecting via USB. My Linux Mint PC appeared to see the connection but it was teehee out not letting me connect to it.

Any ideas?