Wireless Firmware Missing BCM4306 [SOLVED]

[RayGauthier]

I've browsed the forum and mistakenly tried the first solution I found but I realize now I installed the wrong firmware so I thought I shouid ask for some help before I get myself in more trouble.

My wireless connection does not work and I am getting the Wireless Firmware Missing notice in Network.
My machine is a Dell Inspiron 9100 and I am running Linux Mint Maya Cinamon

When I run lspci I get: (note: full lspci and lsmod posted below in case they are relevant)
02:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11a/b/g (rev 03)

The mistake I made was to "sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer" which I realize now is the wrong firmware for BCM4306 but I am not 100% positive what the "right"firmware is or how to find out nor do I know how to un-install my mistake.

Can you please provide instructions on how best to proceed.

Thanks!
Ray

lspci:

Code: Select all

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P AGP Bridge (rev 02)
00:06.0 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P Processor to I/O Memory Interface (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev c2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV350 [Mobility Radeon 9600 M10]
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01)
02:01.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI4510 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 02)
02:01.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCI4510 IEEE-1394 Controller
02:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11a/b/g (rev 03)

lsmod:

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Module                  Size  Used by
bnep                   17830  2
rfcomm                 38139  0
bluetooth             158438  10 bnep,rfcomm
parport_pc             32114  0
ppdev                  12849  0
binfmt_misc            17292  1
snd_intel8x0           33455  2
snd_ac97_codec        106082  1 snd_intel8x0
ac97_bus               12642  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm                80845  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec
joydev                 17393  0
snd_seq_midi           13132  0
snd_rawmidi            25424  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event     14475  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                51567  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
arc4                   12473  2
b43                   342643  0
mac80211              436455  1 b43
snd_timer              28931  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device         14172  3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
radeon                729591  3
ttm                    65344  1 radeon
drm_kms_helper         45466  1 radeon
drm                   197692  5 radeon,ttm,drm_kms_helper
pcmcia                 39791  0
snd                    62064  11 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
dell_laptop            13671  0
cfg80211              178679  2 b43,mac80211
dcdbas                 14098  1 dell_laptop
bcma                   25651  1 b43
soundcore              14635  1 snd
snd_page_alloc         14115  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
yenta_socket           27428  0
psmouse                87140  0
pcmcia_rsrc            18367  1 yenta_socket
serio_raw              13027  0
pcmcia_core            21511  3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,pcmcia_rsrc
irda                  185517  0
video                  19068  0
i2c_algo_bit           13199  1 radeon
crc_ccitt              12595  1 irda
mac_hid                13077  0
shpchp                 32325  0
lp                     17455  0
parport                40930  3 parport_pc,ppdev,lp
firewire_ohci          40180  0
b44                    31412  0
firewire_core          56906  1 firewire_ohci
ssb                    50691  2 b43,b44
crc_itu_t              12627  1 firewire_core


[gn2]

Don't know about Mint Maya, but the instructions contained here have always worked for me with my son's Broadcom b43 wireless adaptor in previous versions.

[RayGauthier]

No luck.

Still getting "Wireless Firmware Missing" in network and, under Additional Drivers,I get "No proprietary drivers are in use on this system"

Here is what I have done so far...

1) sudo apt-get update
2) sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer
3) I also did "sudo apt-get remove bcmwl-kernel-source" z indicated on another post but I get this response:
Package bcmwl-kernel-source is not installed, so not removed
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 6 not upgraded.

4) Hard shutdown and restart. Still "Wireless Firmware Missing"

Followed @gn2 suggestion (thank-you) and followed instructions https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx#b43_-_No_Internet_access

5) sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter
6) Hard shutdown and restart. Still "Wireless Firmware Missing"

7) just in case... sudo apt-get install firmware-b43legacy-installer
8) checked and under Additional Drivers,I still get "No proprietary drivers are in use on this system"

9) Hard shutdown and restart.
10) checked and still "Wireless firmware missing" and "No proprietary drivers are in use on this system"

[RayGauthier]

Okay - I'm completely baffled and have a sinking feeling that Mint Maya just doesn't support BCM4306/3

To check, I did a fresh install and ran the basic
sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter firmware-b43-installer

Here's what I got.

Code: Select all

ray@Inspiron-9100 ~ $ sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter firmware-b43-installer
[sudo] password for ray:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  b43-fwcutter firmware-b43-installer
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 73 not upgraded.
Need to get 22.4 kB of archives.
After this operation, 111 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main b43-fwcutter i386 1:015-9 [18.9 kB]
Get:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/multiverse firmware-b43-installer all 1:015-9 [3,524 B]
Fetched 22.4 kB in 0s (38.1 kB/s)                 
Selecting previously unselected package b43-fwcutter.
(Reading database ... 144204 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking b43-fwcutter (from .../b43-fwcutter_1%3a015-9_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously unselected package firmware-b43-installer.
Unpacking firmware-b43-installer (from .../firmware-b43-installer_1%3a015-9_all.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up b43-fwcutter (1:015-9) ...
Setting up firmware-b43-installer (1:015-9) ...
No chroot environment found. Starting normal installation
An unsupported BCM4301, BCM4306 or BCM4306/2 device was found.
Use b43legacy firmware (firmware-b43legacy-installer package) instead.
Aborting.

So, I tried to install legacy and it appeared to work.

Code: Select all

ray@Inspiron-9100 ~ $ sudo apt-get firmware-b43legacy-installer
E: Invalid operation firmware-b43legacy-installer
ray@Inspiron-9100 ~ $ sudo apt-get install firmware-b43legacy-installer
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  firmware-b43legacy-installer
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 73 not upgraded.
Need to get 3,000 B of archives.
After this operation, 33.8 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/multiverse firmware-b43legacy-installer all 1:015-9 [3,000 B]
Fetched 3,000 B in 0s (5,838 B/s)                 
Selecting previously unselected package firmware-b43legacy-installer.
(Reading database ... 144215 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking firmware-b43legacy-installer (from .../firmware-b43legacy-installer_1%3a015-9_all.deb) ...
Setting up firmware-b43legacy-installer (1:015-9) ...
No chroot environment found. Starting normal installation
--2012-05-21 22:41:45--  http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
Resolving downloads.openwrt.org (downloads.openwrt.org)... 78.24.191.177
Connecting to downloads.openwrt.org (downloads.openwrt.org)|78.24.191.177|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 652866 (638K) [text/plain]
Saving to: `wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o'

100%[======================================>] 652,866      413K/s   in 1.5s   

2012-05-21 22:41:48 (413 KB/s) - `wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o' saved [652866/652866]

This file is recognised as:
  filename   :  wl_apsta.o
  version    :  295.14
  MD5        :  e08665c5c5b66beb9c3b2dd54aa80cb3
Extracting b43legacy/ucode2.fw
Extracting b43legacy/ucode4.fw
Extracting b43legacy/ucode5.fw
Extracting b43legacy/ucode11.fw
Extracting b43legacy/pcm4.fw
Extracting b43legacy/pcm5.fw
Extracting b43legacy/a0g0bsinitvals2.fw
Extracting b43legacy/b0g0bsinitvals5.fw
Extracting b43legacy/a0g0initvals5.fw
Extracting b43legacy/a0g1bsinitvals5.fw
Extracting b43legacy/a0g0initvals2.fw
Extracting b43legacy/a0g1initvals5.fw
Extracting b43legacy/b0g0bsinitvals2.fw
Extracting b43legacy/b0g0initvals5.fw
Extracting b43legacy/b0g0initvals2.fw
Extracting b43legacy/a0g0bsinitvals5.fw
ray@Inspiron-9100 ~ $


Performed a hard reboot and still "WIreless - No firmware" and there are no "additional drivers to install.

I got a pretty good lead from
http://askubuntu.com/questions/38327/how-can-i-get-broadcom-bcm4311-wireless-working

I ran a check to see if by some odd coincidence bcm43xx was blacklisted and indeed it was.
performed: cat /etc/modprobe.d/* | grep bcm and commented out the blacklist b43xx line.

Hard reboot - uninstall and reinstalled fwcutter and b43-installer.
got the same message as in code above that my card was not supported so installed legacy.

Reboot

Still no Wireless Firmware and no new driver to install.

Checked rfkill
ray@Inspiron-9100 ~ $ rfkill list
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

nothing blocked but no driver installed.

Stumped. Probably going back to XP. Just wanted to run LAMP. Will have to live with WAMP.
Has anyone got Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11a/b/g (rev 03) to work on MInt Maya yet?

[gn2]

Rather than go back to Xp, why not just buy a cheap mini usb adaptor which is known to work?

e.g: http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/18658448/-/Product.html

[RayGauthier]

Excellent suggestion gn2 - thanks for sticking with me. Not sure why I didn't think of that. Too busy trying to fit a square peg in a round hole I think. I will thy that and post results.

In the meantime, it looks like there is a bug report (951687) for bcm4306 on Ununtu 12.04 (which mint13 is built on) so my last ditch attempt is to install Mint 11 rather than Mint 13 since forums seem to eventually solve the Missing Firmware issue with Mint11. Odd thing though. Mint 11 picks my network controller us as BCM4309 instead of BCM3406 that Mint 13 was picking up.

So -- working on that now and if that doesn't work - I'll just get the miniusm adaptor as you suggested. Either way I'll post here as there seems to be a lot of views with people looking at simitar issue.

[RayGauthier]

Well - that was fast. I just ran $ sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer and rebooted and wireless network came up immediately. It's a problem with Ubuntu 12.04. I'm good to go.