The old BCM 4306

crook · #1 2nd February 2009, 11:29 PM

Ok guys,

Complex request, I hope someone knows what they are doing!

Recently installed Fedora 10 on my old desktop, however, I need to enable my wireless card.

Done much reading, this card is the pci card bcm4306 (non legacy), so is supported.

The problem with getting it running is that I can't connect the pc to the internet by any other means, and the only way I have read about installing the firmware etc... is by having it connected to the internet.

I have downloaded the b43 fwcutter and the broadcom wl 4.150 firmware file.

(http://bu3sch.de/b43/fwcutter/b43-fwcutter-011.tar.bz2 is the cutter file I downloaded, and http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/b...0.10.5.tar.bz2 is the firmware file I downloaded)

So, I have transfered these files via cd and decompressed them on the desk top.

So, I am totally new to Linux and now want to know if it is possible to get this device up and running without internet connection, and if it is, are these the files I need?

If so, what should I do next with these files?

Hope this lot gives someone something to ponder over.

Regards,

Crook.

stoat · #2 2nd February 2009, 11:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crook

I have downloaded the b43 fwcutter and the broadcom wl 4.150 firmware file.

(http://bu3sch.de/b43/fwcutter/b43-fwcutter-011.tar.bz2 is the cutter file I downloaded, and http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/b...0.10.5.tar.bz2 is the firmware file I downloaded)

Hello crook,

I use three BCM4306 cards with b43 and NetworkManager. I currently use that very same version of the Broadcom driver tarball to obtain the firmware files. Here is all I have to do nowadays to use my wireless cards...

Extract the firmware files directly to /lib/firmware using b43-fwcutter (it creates a /b43 subdirectory for the files), or sometimes I simply copy the actual firmware files from another system or a backup file to /lib/firmware/b43. Either way, you should have about 3 dozen .fw files in the directory /lib/firmware/b43 like this...

Code:

ls /lib/firmware/b43
a0g0bsinitvals4.fw   a0g1initvals5.fw     lp0bsinitvals13.fw  pcm5.fw
a0g0bsinitvals5.fw   a0g1initvals9.fw     lp0bsinitvals14.fw  ucode11.fw
a0g0bsinitvals9.fw   b0g0bsinitvals13.fw  lp0bsinitvals15.fw  ucode13.fw
a0g0initvals4.fw     b0g0bsinitvals4.fw   lp0initvals13.fw    ucode14.fw
a0g0initvals5.fw     b0g0bsinitvals5.fw   lp0initvals14.fw    ucode15.fw
a0g0initvals9.fw     b0g0bsinitvals9.fw   lp0initvals15.fw    ucode4.fw
a0g1bsinitvals13.fw  b0g0initvals13.fw    n0absinitvals11.fw  ucode5.fw
a0g1bsinitvals5.fw   b0g0initvals4.fw     n0bsinitvals11.fw   ucode9.fw
a0g1bsinitvals9.fw   b0g0initvals5.fw     n0initvals11.fw
a0g1initvals13.fw    b0g0initvals9.fw     pcm4.fw

Enable NetworkManager (if it is not already enabled)...
Code:
```
su
chkconfig NetworkManager on
```
Restart NetworkManager (or reboot)...
Code:
```
su
service NetworkManager restart
```
Select my network in the list of available networks in the NetworkManager panel tray icon and give the requested information.

That's it. After that, I connect every time I boot within seconds of seeing the desktop and stay connected until I shut down.

crook · #3 3rd February 2009, 12:00 AM

Thank you Stoat,

That helps alot, so I have the right files, and it is possible.

Next question, what commands do I use to use the fwcutter???

Regards,

Crook.

stoat · #4 3rd February 2009, 12:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crook

Next question, what commands do I use to use the fwcutter???

Just for completeness and future readers, here are all of the steps that I do related to the firmware.

Get the current (as of today) Broadcom driver file from which the firmware is extracted...
Code:
```
wget http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
```

Untar the tarball and change directories...

Code:

tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
cd broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver

Extract the firmware files from the driver file...
Code:
```
su
b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta_mimo.o
```

After all of that, you should be able to see the firmware files in /lib/firmware/b43 as I demonstrated in post #2. Now do the things I recommended in post #2 related to NetworkManager.

P.S.: Just FYI, I no longer do anything in the old Network Configuration utility (system-config-network). I have no wireless connection established in that. I do not have a file named /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-wlan0. I no longer have to create a wpa_supplicant.conf file. I no longer have to enter anything in /etc/sysconfig/wpa_supplicant. I recommend that you also avoid those unnecessary things. NetworkManager handles all of that for me. I expect that it will for you, too.

P.P.S.: If you do not have SSID broadcast turned on in your router, then you will not see your network (router SSID) in the list of available networks in the NetworkManager panel tray icon. I recommend that you turn SSID broadcast on. If you insist that it be turned off, then left-click on the NetworkManager panel tray icon and choose "Connect to hidden wireless network" or "Connect to other wireless network". Then enter the information that it requests

crook · #5 3rd February 2009, 10:18 PM

Thanks again Stoat,

However, I know I'll be getting annoying now with being clueless.

Ok, so as I said before, I have downloaded the fwcutter and driver on another machine, and put the compressed files on the linux pc with via cd, I have then copied the files over onto the desktop on the linux machine.

So, without sounding totaly useless, when I tried to move the folder into the lib/firmware/ folder it came up with some sort of access denied error message.

In short, I have the right files, they are on the desktop, what commands etc... do I use to extract them with the fwcutter from that location to get them extracted and in the right folder?

Any further help would be much appreciated.

Regards,

Crook.

stoat · #6 3rd February 2009, 10:53 PM

You are not supposed to move the files to /lib/firmware. b43-fwcutter does that. Just put the Broadcom tarball file that you downloaded on your desktop, open a terminal, cd to that directory, and run the commands exactly as already shown above. Start at step #2 since you have already done step #1.

P.S.: That b43-fwcutter file that you have there (in post #1) is a source tarball. I'm not at all sure you are set up and ready for the task of compiling software from source. b43-fwcutter is usually already installed in Fedora by default these days. Check for that like this...

Code:

rpm -q b43-fwcutter

If it is installed, then forget about the b43-fwcutter tarball. In fact, delete it. All you need is the Broadcom driver tarball.

crook · #7 3rd February 2009, 11:08 PM

I'm sure it's of no surprise to you, but your instructions were perfect and I am now on the internet.

I can't thank you enough.

Regards,

Colin.