No Internet with the Last Intel Processors?

[finjs]

Following my "LMDE on Apple Mac?" thread, I'm starting a new thread because the internet capability is not recognized with the new Intel architecture, I think.

My Mac is the Apple Mac mini "Core i7" 2.3 (Late 2012) whose specs are here:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/m ... specs.html
Neither LMDE, nor LM 13 (Maya) can support internet. Note both do boot and seem to properly run apart from that.

I did try to enter MAC address, IP address, DNS server, etc. but there is nothing doing. I am out of my depth there and I can only pass the buck to LM developers.

[zerozero]

the internet capability has nothing to do with processors, i can see in the page you linked that

a 10/100/1000Base-T Gigabit Ethernet port, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi,

so ethernet and wifi are there, we just don't have the drivers for it (most probably)
in order to help others help you share the following command outputs

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inxi -N

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lspci

[AlbertP]

The CPU is unrelated. What matters is the type of (wired or wireless) network card that the computer has, like zerozero said. Please tell us if you want to use a wired or wireless connection.

[finjs]

zerozero, here are the results

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mint@mint ~ $ inxi -N
Network:   Card-1: Broadcom Device 1686
           Card-2: Broadcom BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n driver: bcma-pci-bridge
mint@mint ~ $ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Ivy Bridge DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Ivy Bridge PCI Express Root Port (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Ivy Bridge Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Panther Point USB xHCI Host Controller (rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Panther Point MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Panther Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Panther Point High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Panther Point PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev c4)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Panther Point PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev c4)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Panther Point PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev c4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Panther Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Panther Point LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Panther Point 6 port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation Panther Point SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation Device 1686 (rev 01)
01:00.1 SD Host controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM57765 Memory Card Reader (rev 01)
02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 02)
03:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): LSI Corporation FW643 PCI Express 1394b Controller (PHY/Link) (rev 08)
mint@mint ~ $


AlbertP, a wired connection would be fine, thanks.

[AlbertP]

I don't just know how to get "Broadcom Device 1686" working, it appears to be a new chip with no Linux support yet. For the Broadcom 4331 wifi, a driver can be installed... but you need to be connected to wired internet to do so. We can't just give you the b43 firmware for download because of licensing problems.

I'll look into getting wired internet working, when that's done it should be pretty easy to get wireless working too.

[AlbertP]

For the wired internet, you could try downloading the driver from http://www.broadcom.com/support/license ... 3.124c.zip
Inside that ZIP file will be a linux-3.124c.tar.gz file, which you can extract; then, you can go to the folder where you extracted it, right-click > Open in Terminal, and run:

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make
sudo make install

Then please reboot. Ethernet should be working.

When connected to ethernet, you can get firmware-b43-installer from Software Manager, then your wireless will work too after rebooting again.

[finjs]

I did the install but it didn't help. Internet is still off after reboot. You may want to know the messages I'm getting at boot time. There are some problems. I took a pict of the screen for you (didn't know how to capture that in another way). There are many more lines that come after those after some delay. The delay made me able to take the photo.

[AlbertP]

Could you run dmesg | grep tg3 to get the messages from the tg3 driver? If it returns nothing, please run sudo modprobe tg3, then try again.

[finjs]

Did it. Both commands return nothing. And I experienced my first freeze right after that. Just had to use the hard switch to stop the computer.

[AlbertP]

Ok, so the tg3 driver which you had installed seems to freeze your computer. Please go back to the directory where you extracted it, right-click > Open in Terminal, and run sudo make uninstall to remove the driver. That should fix the freeze, but not the ethernet unfortunately.

[AlbertP]

In this thread on the Ubuntu forums, some people got the BCM57766 to work. Note that any instructions for "quantal" would apply to Mint 14 - Mint 13 is based on Ubuntu Precise instead.

[finjs]

OK, I'll uninstall tg3.
FYI, I installed LMDE. All the tests I've made so far have been under LMDE, not LM 13 that showed a lack of internet connection too when I booted the image.

[AlbertP]

Then please try installing tg3 on Mint 13 instead of LMDE, since it's confirmed to work on Precise according to the Ubuntu forum thread I linked.

[viking777]

If you have now installed LMDE then can you please start a new thread in the LMDE section of the forum. If you intend to follow AlbertP's suggestion and install tg3 on Mint 13 you may continue to post here.

Thanks.

[finjs]

AlbertP, I'm sorry I can't install LM 13 right now. My Mac has got a little video problem and is going to be replaced by Apple. And now I'm busy with transferring all my data. Next I'll have to redo all the work I did (partitioning, formating, installing...) before running LM again. Fortunately, I now know what works and what doesn't. Also, I've no experience whatsoever with LM 13 whereas I've been using LMDE for about a year.

viking777, you're right. It may be wise to start a thread in the LMDE section when I'm operative again. They (Debian) might even already have integrated an available driver for the new Broadcom Device 1686.

[finjs]

AlbertP, I've been up and running for a few days. I tried to install LM13 twice but I couldn't even boot it. Twice I got the message "Missing OS after install". I then installed LMDE again and it worked at first time again. Next I installed the Broadcom driver again and that time it worked as well. I've just experienced a single freeze (when two applications needed an internet access at the same time). The driver may not be stable yet.

A few remarks about the LM13 installation. As it was the first I installed it I could compare it with LMDE. The LM13 installation is simpler than LMDE's. It's very short too, about twice less long than LMDE installation. Too short, too simple? First, the partioning tool is simpler than GParted in LMDE; I found it less clear and less easy to use than GParted but that just may be an impression. Secondly, I couldn't choose my Apple keyboard at install; there are less choices offered to the user. Thirdly, automatic choices - unknown to the user - about the bootloader and the grub file are made that might explain the OS is not found.

I thought you might want to know all that. Now I'm down again with my second new mac mini. Hard disk trouble this time. Third mac mini on its way and all my data transfer to be redone again!

Incidently, what's going on with LMDE? I had to take an incredible update for more than an hour this morning after clicking the update shield. It was more like a complete reinstall because I had to tell what volume I wanted my grub file installed on.

[zerozero]

Incidently, what's going on with LMDE? I had to take an incredible update for more than an hour this morning after clicking the update shield. It was more like a complete reinstall because I had to tell what volume I wanted my grub file installed on.

just a note on this: the iso you installed is from april 2012, after that we had UP5 http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2170 (the rationale of UP here http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1781)
in the end of this year/beginning of next we'll have a new iso with the upcoming UP6.

[finjs]

AlbertP and zerozero, a piece of information you might find useful. The Broadcom tg3 driver installs and works only if LM is installed in English/American language! It's never worked with the 5 or 6 French installations I've made and it's worked with the couple of English installations I've made. There must be some code to change in the source but I'm not proficient enough to know what. Well, I believe you will be able to spot it.

[AlbertP]

Probably it now works because your English installation is newer, and so it has installed a more recent kernel. You can try installing the kernel updates from Synaptic Package Manager on the French one too: it's the linux-headers and linux-image packages in Status > Installed (upgradeable).
Or you could add French language on your existing English Mint: Localization or Language Support can be found in the menu.

[finjs]

AlbertP, what I wrote above is wrong. The Broadcom tg3 driver doesn't work most of time (9/10) when installed with "make" and "sudo make install" from the archive, independently of the chosen language (it was just a coincidence the times it worked I'd made English installations). Indeed the right way to install the tg3 driver is described here:
http://www.frozenindustries.com/2012/11 ... late-2012/
That procedure works like a charm. Since it's for Ubuntu, let me know if you think there is something that might be wrong with LM, please. I don't think so but we never know.

So now I've got a internet connection but I can't install any application, neither with Software Manager, nor with Synaptic. SM does find the package, shows a green flash in the lower advancing bar and stops right away without installing anything. Same behaviour with Synaptic. I checked the repos, everything seems alright. Any ideas?