Wireless Needs Firmware on HP Mini

[jFord]

I'm using Fedora Linux on a HP Mini 1000 and everything is working fine. Everything except for my wireless card. When I click on the wireless icon it says, "firmware missing" replacing the ON/OFF option.

Where can I get the firmware I need so I can get the wireless working, or is there another solution to this problem?

Thanks

EDIT: I remembered I had the complete schematics of my laptop that a college student in IT gave me of my HP Mini 1000 Netbook. I almost through this away last week, I'm glad I didn't.
The schematics tells me that my laptop has a integrated WLAN by way of Broadcom BCM4312 802.11b/g WLAN module, and a integrated WWAN by way of HP un2400 Mobile Broadband Module, as well as a integrated personal area network (PAN) by way of Bluetooth module. I doubt that that Bluetooth module would help, but I'm clueless with laptop technology, so I'll leave it to the professionals and the fellow hobbyists to decide

Let me know if you need any more information.

Also, in case this helps, here's the technical information about my HP Mini laptop. s/n: CNU9134256 P/N: NM123UA#ABA and here is a link to HP's Web site concerning my laptop, HP Mini 1000 Netbook. I already checked to see if it has anything for Linux, but I don't think it'll help me at all.

[stoat]

I would try installing the firmware for the b43 driver first. If you can connect Fedora to the Internet with your wired NIC, then open a terminal and...

wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
cd broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver	
su
b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta_mimo.o

Reboot or restart NeworkManager and check for networks.

If you can't connect Fedora to the Internet by wired NIC, then use another operating system or computer to download that tarball in the first step. Somehow transfer it to the Fedora filesystem and pick up the steps with the tar step. If it doesn't work at first, return here to try some things known to help.

P.S.: The BCM4312 also is known to work with the broadcom-wl driver from RPM Fusion. But I recommend giving b43 your best effort first.

[jFord]

I can't connect it to the internet, however I can access the internet by means of another computer, so at least I can download and then transfer files via USB flash drive to my Linux computer. I tried the commands after wget but no matter where I placed the file I kept getting a message saying that the file was missing. What directory would I have to place the file before I can use the commands?

I'm a complete novice with Linux. I've only used Windows up until two days ago. I'm already liking it more than Windows.

[stoat]

It doesn't matter what directory. Your home folder or Desktop folder will do. Put the tarball there. Then open a terminal and change directories in the terminal (with the cd command) to the folder with the tarball. You can tell when you have changed directories to the right directory when the ls command in the terminal lists your tarball file. Anyway, then continue on, starting with the tar command.

[jFord]

On the last command, it keeps saying that it cannot open input file wl_apsta_mimo.o. I looked and I couldn't find any typo's in the previous, or current command. Should I start from the beginning and try again?

[stoat]

Should I start from the beginning and try again?

Yes, do it again, but not necessarily from the beginning. You already downloaded tarball (first step). And you probably got it untarred (second step). Start again where the commands stopped completing successfully. I just tried those steps again myself and they all still worked okay.

I was able to produce this error message by not changing directories to the /driver subfolder (the third step)...

Cannot open input file wl_apsta_mimo.o

I produced this error message by attempting the final command without getting root privileges with the preceding su command (the fourth step)...

This file is recognised as:
  ID         :  FW13
  filename   :  wl_apsta_mimo.o
  version    :  410.2160
  MD5        :  cb8d70972b885b1f8883b943c0261a3c
Extracting b43/pcm5.fw
failed to open file: Permission denied

I produced this error by omitting -w in the b43-fwcutter command (fifth step)...

Sorry, the input file is either wrong or not supported by b43-fwcutter.
This file has an unknown MD5sum d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e.

Did any of that help? If not, then run the steps again. When it fails, copy the entire terminal output and paste it in your next post for readers to examine for typos and errors. Here is my terminal output when I tried the steps...

[user@localhost ~]$ wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
--2011-09-07 07:34:21--  http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
Resolving downloads.openwrt.org... 78.24.191.177
Connecting to downloads.openwrt.org|78.24.191.177|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 3888794 (3.7M) [text/plain]
Saving to: “broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2”

100%[======================================>] 3,888,794    692K/s   in 7.5s    

2011-09-07 07:34:29 (508 KB/s) - “broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2” saved [3888794/3888794]

[user@localhost ~]$ tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
[user@localhost ~]$ cd broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver
[user@localhost driver]$ su
Password: 
[root@localhost driver]# b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta_mimo.o
This file is recognised as:
  ID         :  FW13
  filename   :  wl_apsta_mimo.o
  version    :  410.2160
  MD5        :  cb8d70972b885b1f8883b943c0261a3c
Extracting b43/pcm5.fw
Extracting b43/ucode15.fw
Extracting b43/ucode14.fw
Extracting b43/ucode13.fw
Extracting b43/ucode11.fw
Extracting b43/ucode9.fw
Extracting b43/ucode5.fw
Extracting b43/lp0bsinitvals15.fw
Extracting b43/lp0initvals15.fw
Extracting b43/lp0bsinitvals14.fw
Extracting b43/lp0initvals14.fw
Extracting b43/a0g1bsinitvals13.fw
Extracting b43/a0g1initvals13.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0bsinitvals13.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0initvals13.fw
Extracting b43/lp0bsinitvals13.fw
Extracting b43/lp0initvals13.fw
Extracting b43/n0absinitvals11.fw
Extracting b43/n0bsinitvals11.fw
Extracting b43/n0initvals11.fw
Extracting b43/a0g1bsinitvals9.fw
Extracting b43/a0g0bsinitvals9.fw
Extracting b43/a0g1initvals9.fw
Extracting b43/a0g0initvals9.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0bsinitvals9.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0initvals9.fw
Extracting b43/a0g1bsinitvals5.fw
Extracting b43/a0g0bsinitvals5.fw
Extracting b43/a0g1initvals5.fw
Extracting b43/a0g0initvals5.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0bsinitvals5.fw
Extracting b43/b0g0initvals5.fw

P.S.: I just want to remind you and any future readers that the five steps with which you are struggling take about thirty seconds to do, not two or three days. None of the problems you have described here are inherently related to the steps that I outlined. You have been making simple errors related to using the terminal and entering commands at its command prompt. The command line interface (aka CLI) is very useful but very unforgiving of mistakes and errors. I don't want you or anyone else reading this to think that what you are doing is something long and complicated. It isn't. After you've done it once, it can be even faster by saving a copy of the extracted .fw files in a safe place and merely copying them to new installtions (and not just Fedora either). I've been doing that for what seems like several years now. If you find b43 and this firmware working for you, then you can do that, too. Just save the .fw firmware files somewhere and simply copy them to /lib/firmware/b43 from now on.

[jFord]

Okay, I got it all working now. The problem was that I was trying to do the last command without changing the directory to the driver folder in the downloaded file. Instead I was trying to do the last command where the file was downloaded and extracted to. I guess I kinda over looked your second command.

Well, thanks a bunch for your help!

[jFord]

I've been having a problem where my wireless frequently disconnects. The only solution I've found so far is if I reboot my computer I can connect again. I should note that any attempt to update software or when I surf the web too fast seems to be what causes the disconnection. The connection does seem to be fine if I don't access the internet at all either. By that I mean it doesn't seem to disconnect.

[sauk42]

I would try installing the firmware for the b43 driver first. If you can connect Fedora to the Internet with your wired NIC, then open a terminal and...

wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
cd broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver	
su
b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta_mimo.o

Reboot or restart NeworkManager and check for networks.

If you can't connect Fedora to the Internet by wired NIC, then use another operating system or computer to download that tarball in the first step. Somehow transfer it to the Fedora filesystem and pick up the steps with the tar step. If it doesn't work at first, return here to try some things known to help.

P.S.: The BCM4312 also is known to work with the broadcom-wl driver from RPM Fusion. But I recommend giving b43 your best effort first.

The above commands worked beuitifully! Thanks!