Broadcom drivers - *NO* internet connection... (SOLVED)

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beansandjeans

Broadcom drivers - *NO* internet connection... (SOLVED)

Post by beansandjeans »

So I recently installed Mint 13 XFCE on a netbook - Compaq Mini 702eg.

Everything went smoothly aside from the fact that neither the wireless internet *NOR* the wired ethernet connections work. I've searched around a fair bit for solutions, but most of the solutions assumed the existence of at least some kind of working internet connection on that computer.

I tried chasing around various .deb files such as the b43-fwcutter firmware-b43-installer and b43-fwcutter firmware-b43-lpphy-installer and their various dependencies and subdebendencies and so on with no luck. (I would copy the .debs over with a flash drive.)

I even tried doing it via the Windows .inf driver and wrapper method, using the file from here: http://www.stchman.com/install_ndis_broadcom.html but that didn't work either.

Finally I went into Synaptic on the netbook and tried to install the Broadcom drivers that way in order to get a full list of all the .deb files that were needed (and that it of course failed to download because there was not internet connection). This is the list:

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... 5_i386.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... 3_i386.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/r ... 1_i386.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... -4_all.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... u7_all.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... u7_all.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... 5_i386.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... 3_i386.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... .1_all.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... u1_all.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/ ... .1_all.deb
Could not resolve 'security.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... u3_all.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... 1_i386.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... -2_all.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... -4_all.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... 5_i386.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... 5_i386.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... 5_i386.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... 2_i386.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... -2_all.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... 2_i386.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... -2_all.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... -2_all.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... -1_all.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

W: Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/u ... .4_all.deb
Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

[End List]

So I then manually downloaded each of those .deb files and copied them all to the netbook via flash drive and tried to install them. But by the time I got about halfway through I hit yet another brick wall with some sort of bizarre dependency loop!

When I tried to install libstdc++6-4.6-dev_4.6.3-1ubuntu5_i386, it said that it had two unsatisfied dependencies. One of them was g++-4.6_4.6.3-1ubuntu5_i386 and one of them was libstdc++6-4.6-dev_4.6.3-1ubuntu5_i386 itself! Likewise, when trying to install g++-4.6_4.6.3-1ubuntu5_i386 it said it needed both libstdc++6-4.6-dev_4.6.3-1ubuntu5_i386 and itself :-/

So at this point I feel like I've hitten something of a dead end. Almost ready to just give up and go back to running WinXP on that computer, but it was sluggish on there and I prefer Mint. Wondering why the Broadcom stuff doesn't just come standard with the installation!

Anyway, does anyone here have some suggestions? I've heard of using a local apt repository, but not really sure how to do that. If there'd be a way to make that work then I've got all those .deb's sitting in a folder together ready to go. Or any other ideas?

Thanks in advance!...
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
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xenopeek
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Re: Broadcom drivers - *NO* internet connection...

Post by xenopeek »

Without knowing which ethernet and wireless chips you have, we can't recommend you which drivers to install (if any; sometimes all you need to do is blacklist or load some module). The various b43 packages you name are not all needed for all Broadcom chips; in fact installing them all may very likely not lead to a working wireless conifiguration. How about we start with you providing the output of the following command:

Code: Select all

inxi -Nxz
Yeah, sorry but we really need you to copy that from the computer that has no internet connection to this forum here :wink:
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beansandjeans

Re: Broadcom drivers - *NO* internet connection...

Post by beansandjeans »

xenopeek wrote: Yeah, sorry but we really need you to copy that from the computer that has no internet connection to this forum here :wink:
Lol, by now I'm pretty used to copying a bunch of stuff back and forth :-p

So here's the output:

Network: Card: Broadcom BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY bus-ID: 01:00.0

Thanks again :-)
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xenopeek
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Re: Broadcom drivers - *NO* internet connection...

Post by xenopeek »

For the BCM4312 you would follow these instructions: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiD ... net_access. You can download the linked packages on another computer. Then follow the steps, and note that step 2 and step 3 give three options each, with you needing to follow only the third option (the one labeled "12.04 Precise Pangolin"--which is the Ubuntu release on which Linux Mint 13 is based).

These would be the steps on a clean install, so I suggest you first try removing any packages you installed previously for this. As else those may conflict.
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beansandjeans

Re: Broadcom drivers - *NO* internet connection...

Post by beansandjeans »

xenopeek wrote:For the BCM4312 you would follow these instructions: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiD ... net_access.

...These would be the steps on a clean install, so I suggest you first try removing any packages you installed previously for this. As else those may conflict.

Thanks again Vincent...

A clean install wouldn't be a problem. I don't have anything yet saved on there (besides the stuff I copied over from my flash drive), so it's not a big deal for me to re-do the installation. I had actually done that once already before I posted here - just to see if that might help with a fresh start!

I believe I had actually been to that page you linked before, but got a bit confused there...

It says for number 1. "Install the b43-fwcutter package. This is usually located on the Ubuntu install media under /cdrom/pool/main/b/b43-fwcutter/ or you can download the binary '.deb' package by following the links on launchpad."

My netbook doesn't have a cd/dvd drive, so I installed from USB. And I don't know if there's a way to brows the directories like that from the bootable USBs (UNetBootin)...

For following the links that part was a bit confusing.

From the first page I clicked the link for i386 (I'm running the 32 bit version) - https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/b4 ... ld/2994322 Then from there, there's a list of four binary packages. I clicked the b43-fwcutter 1:015-9 one. Is that right? (The three other choices were firmware-b43-installer 1:015-9 and firmware-b43-lpphy-installer 1:015-9 and firmware-b43legacy-installer 1:015-9 )

If you can confirm that's the right one then I'll go ahead and re-install and give it a try. And hopefully the b43-fwcutter_015-9_i386.deb file (if that's the right one) doesn't have a bunch of dependencies and sub-dependencies and so on. :-/ Will be good feeling to finally get this working! :-)
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Re: Broadcom drivers - *NO* internet connection...

Post by xenopeek »

At the bottom of that page you linked, it has the list of built binaries. You download only the b43-fwcutter_015-9_i386.deb file. And this package only depends on libc6, which you will already have installed. Good luck with the reinstall!
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beansandjeans

Re: Broadcom drivers - *NO* internet connection...

Post by beansandjeans »

So last night I finally got around to reinstalling the OS and finally got the drivers correctly installed and I'm posting from the netbook now :-)

Funny how after hours of trying to chase down and download and copy countless deb files the actual solution ended taking just a couple minutes - simply a matter of downloading and copying one deb file and one tar, installing the deb, and copy-pasting a couple text commands into the terminal and re-starting.

Anyway, thanks once again Vincent for helping to cut through all the confusion!
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Re: Broadcom drivers - *NO* internet connection... (SOLVED)

Post by xenopeek »

Glad I could help :D
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