HELP: Broadcom BCM4318 [Airforce One 54g] just won work!

[shengzhoumi]

I have gone on several ubuntu and kubuntu fourms. I've tried just about everything I could think of. Every time I try to enable my Broadcom B43 wireless driver, it gives a message" while the driver itself is free software, it relies on proprietary firmware which cannot be legally shipped with the operating system. Your hardware will not work without the firmware." I am frustrated and lost and considering switching back to xp!

My laptop is a Inspiron 6000 and here's a description of my hardware:

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller [8086:2590] (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM Express PCI Express Root Port [8086:2591] (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 [8086:2658] (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 [8086:2659] (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 [8086:265a] (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 [8086:265b] (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller [8086:265c] (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448](rev d3)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller [8086:266e] (rev 03)
00:1e.3 Modem [0703]: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Modem Controller [8086:266d] (rev 03)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge [8086:2641] (rev 03)
00:1f.2 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) SATA Controller[8086:2653] (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc M22 [Mobility Radeon X300] [1002:5460]
03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX [14e4:170c] (rev 02)
03:01.0 CardBus bridge [0607]: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II [1180:0476] (rev b3)
03:01.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C552 IEEE 1394 Controller [1180:0552] (rev 08)
03:01.2 SD Host controller [0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter [1180:0822] (rev 17)
03:03.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4318] (rev 02)

PLEASE HELP. I really would appreciate it.

[kubicle]

Re: HELP: Broadcom BCM4318 [Airforce One 54g] just won work!

Can you get online by other means (ethernet)?

If you can, you can install broadcom firmware by installing the package 'b43-fwcutter' via Adept or with the command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter

[shengzhoumi]

Re: HELP: Broadcom BCM4318 [Airforce One 54g] just won work!

It still doesn't work. When I tried the apt-get command to get the b43-fwcutter, it gives me:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
b43-fwcutter is already the newest version.
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
openoffice.org-filter-mobiledev libservlet2.4-java openoffice.org-math
openoffice.org-officebean libhsqldb-java openoffice.org-base
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Dunno what to do.

[kubicle]

Re: HELP: Broadcom BCM4318 [Airforce One 54g] just won work!

Right...let's check a few things first.

1. Are the firmware files installed?:
the firmware files should reside in /lib/firmware/b43/ - are they there?

2. are the b43 modules loaded?:

lsmod | grep b43

should list a number of b43 related modules if they are loaded

This page might be of use as well (although not exactly new user friendly, if you are one):
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43

[shengzhoumi]

Re: HELP: Broadcom BCM4318 [Airforce One 54g] just won work!

Wo-hoo. The WiFi button lit up. I'm in business. Thank you so much.

[jdtiede]

Re: HELP: Broadcom BCM4318 [Airforce One 54g] just won work!

Re: Reply #3 (kubicle):
The firmware files are in the location specified but the b43 modules aren't loaded. I find them in /usr/src and /lib/modules but don't know which to install or now. To use insmod I have to specify each individual file and I find that very confusing.

[kubicle]

Re: HELP: Broadcom BCM4318 [Airforce One 54g] just won work!

Re: Reply #3 (kubicle):
The firmware files are in the location specified but the b43 modules aren't loaded. I find them in /usr/src and /lib/modules but don't know which to install or now. To use insmod I have to specify each individual file and I find that very confusing.

The module should be loaded automatically if your card is recognized. To troubleshoot why they aren't, you can run:

dmesg | grep b43

(that should print out the kernel messages related to your broadcom device)

You can also try to manually load the module with:

sudo modprobe b43

(to see if you get any errors)