b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found -> BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4318] (rev 02) not working on Dell Inspiron 531 in Ubuntu 9.04

Check BIOS settings. Wireless may be switched off there.

Try to install different wireless driver according your wireless card.

Try to instal madwifi wireless driver.

WBR
minivoolf

 have you tried to bring it up manually?

sudo ifconfig wlan0 up
   then
sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

 BTW i stumbled on this at ubuntuforums.org:

  http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Ubuntu_9.04

I tried
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up
   then
sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

as suggested by Carl Filby but got the following mesage:
SIOCSIFFLAGS:

No such file or directory

the: Unknown host

ifconfig: --help gives usage information

I've also checked the BIOS as suggested by Minivoolf but no suggestion switch in the BIOS

I tried
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up
   then
sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

as suggested by Carl Filby but got the following mesage:
SIOCSIFFLAGS:

No such file or directory

the: Unknown host

ifconfig: --help gives usage information

I've also checked the BIOS as suggested by Minivoolf but no suggestion switch in the BIOS

Hi,

Please first connect your network card to the wireless router using an ethernet cable (also known as a LAN cable).

In order to gather essential troubleshooting information about your wireless card, please follow this procedure:

Step 1: Open Terminal from "Applications->Accessories->
Terminal"

Step 2: Run the following commands (copy-paste each line below to the Terminal then hit <enter> after each line)

sudo iwlist scanning
lspci -nn
lsusb
uname -a
dmesg | grep ound
dmesg | grep witch
iwconfig
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude dist-upgrade
sudo aptitude install b43-fwcutter

Step 3: Please post results (copy/paste terminal output from each command) on this thread

Step 4: Reboot your pc and retest wireless connection

Step 5: If wireless still does not work, please resend output of the following 2 commands:

sudo lshw -C network
dmesg | grep ound

Keep in mind that one or more of the following 4 basic components need to be configured correctly so that wireless can work correctly in Linux:

Wireless configuration in the BIOS, hardware wireless switch setting, active wireless driver version, and firmware for the wireless chipset (stored as a file in Linux).

Regards,

Mark

To: Mark
I followed your instructions and the output of the terminal is below. Since the wireless remained off after steps 1-4, the output of step 5 is also included below:

jim@jim-desktop:~$ sudo iwlist scanning
[sudo] password for jim:
lo Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

wmaster0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

wlan0 Interface doesn't support scanning : Network is down

pan0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

jim@jim-desktop:~$ lspci -nn
00:00.0 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Memory Controller [10de:03ea] (rev a1)
00:01.0 ISA bridge [0601]: nVidia Corporation MCP61 LPC Bridge [10de:03e0] (rev a2)
00:01.1 SMBus [0c05]: nVidia Corporation MCP61 SMBus [10de:03eb] (rev a2)
00:01.2 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Memory Controller [10de:03f5] (rev a2)
00:02.0 USB Controller [0c03]: nVidia Corporation MCP61 USB Controller [10de:03f1] (rev a3)
00:02.1 USB Controller [0c03]: nVidia Corporation MCP61 USB Controller [10de:03f2] (rev a3)
00:04.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI bridge [10de:03f3] (rev a1)
00:05.0 Audio device [0403]: nVidia Corporation MCP61 High Definition Audio [10de:03f0] (rev a2)
00:06.0 IDE interface [0101]: nVidia Corporation MCP61 IDE [10de:03ec] (rev a2)
00:07.0 Bridge [0680]: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Ethernet [10de:03ef] (rev a2)
00:08.0 IDE interface [0101]: nVidia Corporation MCP61 SATA Controller [10de:03f6] (rev a2)
00:08.1 IDE interface [0101]: nVidia Corporation MCP61 SATA Controller [10de:03f6] (rev a2)
00:09.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge [10de:03e8] (rev a2)
00:0b.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge [10de:03e9] (rev a2)
00:18.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration [1022:1100]
00:18.1 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map [1022:1101]
00:18.2 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller [1022:1102]
00:18.3 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control [1022:1103]
01:09.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4318] (rev 02)
01:0a.0 Communication controller [0780]: Conexant Systems, Inc. HSF 56k Data/Fax Modem [14f1:2f20]
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8600 GT [10de:0402] (rev a1)
jim@jim-desktop:~$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 03f0:4e11 Hewlett-Packard Photosmart 2570 series
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 050d:0234 Belkin Components F5U234 USB 2.0 4-Port Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 10c4:ea60 Cygnal Integrated Products, Inc. CP210x Composite Device
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 413c:2003 Dell Computer Corp. Keyboard
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 413c:3012 Dell Computer Corp.
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
jim@jim-desktop:~$ uname -a
Linux jim-desktop 2.6.28-11-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 17 01:57:59 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux
jim@jim-desktop:~$ dmesg | grep ound
[ 0.000000] found SMP MP-table at [c00f4c70] 000f4c70
[ 0.434901] ACPI: No dock devices found.
[ 0.508445] pnp: PnP ACPI: found 10 devices
[ 1.157666] pcieport-driver 0000:00:09.0: found MSI capability
[ 1.157754] pcieport-driver 0000:00:0b.0: found MSI capability
[ 1.515494] isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
[ 3.404106] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 3.462069] hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 3.462316] PNP: No PS/2 controller found. Probing ports directly.
[ 3.481414] device-mapper: multipath round-robin: version 1.0.0 loaded
[ 3.482918] powernow-k8: Found 1 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4000+ processors (2 cpu cores) (version 2.20.00)
[ 3.483320] BIOS EDD facility v0.16 2004-Jun-25, 0 devices found
[ 3.737100] ssb: Sonics Silicon Backplane found on PCI device 0000:01:09.0
[ 3.849641] hub 1-1:1.0: USB hub found
[ 6.149307] usb-storage: device found at 6
[ 9.404953] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4318 WLAN found
[ 10.470703] lp: driver loaded but no devices found
[ 20.192693] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found
[ 20.238255] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found
[ 64.986876] UDF-fs: No VRS found
jim@jim-desktop:~$ dmesg | grep witch
[ 0.500014] Switched to high resolution mode on CPU 0
[ 0.500287] Switched to high resolution mode on CPU 1
jim@jim-desktop:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:""
          Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
          Tx-Power=20 dBm
          Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

pan0 no wireless extensions.

jim@jim-desktop:~$ sudo aptitude update
Writing extended state information... Done
Err http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security Release.gpg
  Could not resolve 'security.ubuntu.com'
Err http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/main Translation-en_US
  Could not resolve 'security.ubuntu.com'
Err http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/restricted Translation-en_US
  Could not resolve 'security.ubuntu.com'
Err http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/universe Translation-en_US
  Could not resolve 'security.ubuntu.com'
Err http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/multiverse Translation-en_US
  Could not resolve 'security.ubuntu.com'
Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty Release.gpg
  Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Translation-en_US
  Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/restricted Translation-en_US
  Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/universe Translation-en_US
  Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/multiverse Translation-en_US
  Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates Release.gpg
  Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/main Translation-en_US
  Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/restricted Translation-en_US
  Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/universe Translation-en_US
  Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Err http://us.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/multiverse Translation-en_US
  Could not resolve 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Reading package lists... Done

jim@jim-desktop:~$ sudo aptitude dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 0B will be used.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done

jim@jim-desktop:~$ sudo aptitude install b43-fwcutter
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "b43-fwcutter"
Couldn't find any package whose name or description matched "b43-fwcutter"
No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 0B will be used.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done

jim@jim-desktop:~$

im@jim-desktop:~$ sudo lshw -C network
[sudo] password for jim:
  *-network
       description: Network controller
       product: BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 9
       bus info: pci@0000:01:09.0
       version: 02
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master
       configuration: driver=b43-pci-bridge latency=32 module=ssb
  *-network:0 DISABLED
       description: Wireless interface
       physical id: 1
       logical name: wlan0
       serial: 00:1d:60:00:68:9a
       capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg
  *-network:1 DISABLED
       description: Ethernet interface
       physical id: 2
       logical name: pan0
       serial: 8e:86:99:d4:d1:35
       capabilities: ethernet physical
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=bridge driverversion=2.3 firmware=N/A link=yes multicast=yes
jim@jim-desktop:~$ dmesg | grep ound
[ 0.000000] found SMP MP-table at [c00f4c70] 000f4c70
[ 0.434897] ACPI: No dock devices found.
[ 0.508445] pnp: PnP ACPI: found 10 devices
[ 1.157694] pcieport-driver 0000:00:09.0: found MSI capability
[ 1.157782] pcieport-driver 0000:00:0b.0: found MSI capability
[ 1.515552] isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
[ 3.404107] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 3.462070] hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
[ 3.462318] PNP: No PS/2 controller found. Probing ports directly.
[ 3.481415] device-mapper: multipath round-robin: version 1.0.0 loaded
[ 3.482923] powernow-k8: Found 1 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4000+ processors (2 cpu cores) (version 2.20.00)
[ 3.483325] BIOS EDD facility v0.16 2004-Jun-25, 0 devices found
[ 3.776061] ssb: Sonics Silicon Backplane found on PCI device 0000:01:09.0
[ 3.850245] hub 1-1:1.0: USB hub found
[ 6.082478] usb-storage: device found at 6
[ 9.246895] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4318 WLAN found
[ 10.320913] lp: driver loaded but no devices found
[ 20.159074] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found
[ 20.205899] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found
[ 37.168357] UDF-fs: No VRS found
jim@jim-desktop:~$

Hi,

The first part of my instructions was "Please first connect your network card to the wireless router using an ethernet cable (also known as a LAN cable)."

Did you connect your network card to the router using an ethernet cable? Does this wired connection give a working Internet connection?

You will need this wired Internet connection to be able to install b43-fwcutter

Regards,

Mark

Hi Mark:

I did not do the ethernet-to-wireless router test because the router is physically located in another building and it would be quite difficult to haul the desktop to this other building to run this test.

A little History:
I have a ThinkPad working off the same router in the same remote building as the Dell. The operating system in the ThinkPad is Ubuntu 9.04 as well and it has no problems communicating with the router. Up to Monday I was running the Dell with VISTA operating system and it had no problems communicating with the same router. But because I was having all kinds of other problems with VISTA I decided to try Ubuntu and this is where I ran into wireless problems.

I might also add I have another desktop in the same building as the router and it has no problems communicating with the router. It has MS XP operating system.

So bottom line is I do not have a router problem. I believe Ubuntu is not compatible with the wireless BCM4318 inside the Dell for whatever reason.

You earlier sent me a link to Ubuntu 9.04-dell-reinstall-iso and I am in the process of downloading it which is quite large (1.8 GB). I've downloaded about 1/2 this file. If I'm successful in downloading the whole file and if I'm successful in loading it in the Dell using a 3 GB Flash Drive (the Dell BIOS indicates it can boot from the USB Flash Drive) we'll see if this solves the problem.
Thanks, Jim

Hi JimB,

I did not say that you have a router problem. Ubuntu IS compatible with your BCM4318 wireless chip, but you need to install b43-fwcutter in order to be able to use that Broadcom chip. For that you need a WIRED Internet connection. The b43-fwcutter firmware files are not included in Ubuntu, because they are proprietary, not open-source...

Here is how I successfully solved the issue with the BCM4318 wireless chipset in the past:

https://answers.launchpad.net/~markrijckenberg/+questions?field.search_text=BCM4318&field.sort=NEWEST_FIRST&field.sort-empty-marker=1&field.actions.search=Search&field.language=de&field.language=en&field.language=fr&field.language=nl&field.language-empty-marker=1&field.status=SOLVED&field.status-empty-marker=1

Regards,

Mark

Thanks Mark for all your help.

Is it possible to download the proprietary driver files to my ThinkPad which is located 8 feet from the dell and transfer the drivers to the Dell, and then install them?

Jim

Mark you are genius. It worked!
Jim