Ubuntu
b43-fwcutter package

how to download b43-fwcutter to a pc with no wireless connection.

Asked by howard rathbun

My wife's pc has ubuntu 8.04 and a bcm43.6 wireless card but it won't connect to the internet. My PC has ubuntu 8.04 with a wireless router which does connect to the internet. I found "WifiDocsDriverbcm43xx" which states that I need to download some proprietary firmware which is not included with Ubuntu and to do that I can use the "b43-fwcutter" package which must be downloaded. So, how can I download that package onto my PC (the only one here with an internet connection) and then transfer and install the appropriate files into our other PC via a memory stick?

Any help will be greatly appreciated. (I am a newbe).

Howard

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howard rathbun
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Revision history for this message
Ian Hodgkinson (ian-hodgkinson) said : 		#1

The easiest way would be to get the laptop connected to the Internet with a network cable and either enable it using system->admin->hardware drivers or by installing the b43-fwcutter with the package manager. If this is absolutely not an option for you then I will need some extra information to try and help. Could you open a terminal, enter the following commands and report the results back here;

lspci

uname -r

Revision history for this message
howard rathbun (hmrathbun) said : 		#2

Ian:

I hadn't thought of moving my wife's PC (tower, monitor, keyboard, etc.) to my cable modem, but will do so if that is the only solution. Otherwise I'd like to see if your other suggestion will work. Attached is the screen shot of the response to the two commands.

Thanks for your help.

Howard

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ian Hodgkinson" <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Sent: Wednesday, November 5, 2008 3:38:48 PM GMT -07:00 US/Canada Mountain
Subject: Re: [Question #50318]: how to download b43-fwcutter to a pc with no wireless connection.

Your question #50318 on b43-fwcutter in ubuntu changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/b43-fwcutter/+question/50318

Status: Open => Answered

Ian Hodgkinson proposed the following answer:
The easiest way would be to get the laptop connected to the Internet
with a network cable and either enable it using system->admin->hardware
drivers or by installing the b43-fwcutter with the package manager. If
this is absolutely not an option for you then I will need some extra
information to try and help. Could you open a terminal, enter the
following commands and report the results back here;

lspci

uname -r

--
If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
know that it is solved:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/b43-fwcutter/+question/50318/+confirm?answer_id=0

If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
following page to enter your feedback:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/b43-fwcutter/+question/50318

You received this question notification because you are a direct
subscriber of the question.

Revision history for this message
howard rathbun (hmrathbun) said : 		#3

I just moved my wife's PC and connected it directly to the internet (via the high speed modem). I accessed the Synaptic Package Manger to down load the b43-fwcutter package and discovered that that package was already installed. I then did a file search for b43-fwcutter and got 10 hits, including an b43-fwcutter.exe file in /user/bin. There were two b43-fwcutter folders in /usr/share and /usr/share/doc. I found a readme file which said the the firmware files were stored in /lib/firmware/b43 and /lib/firmware/b43legacy. Each of those directories contained lots of files.

So, does this mean that the b43-fwcutter package was already downloaded and installed? If so what do I do now?

Howard

Revision history for this message
Onkar Shinde (onkarshinde) said : 		#4

@howard,

Try this command 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure b43-fwcutter'. It will ask if you want to download the firmware. Say yes. Make sure that you are already connected to internet.

Revision history for this message
howard rathbun (hmrathbun) said : 		#5

Onkar, I executed the command in a terminal as you suggested and answered 'yes' to the question. When I hit 'return' I was immediately brought back to the prompt, with no messages of any kind. So I couldn't tell if anything happened. Anyway, I still could not get on the internet.

So I then powered down, removed the wireless card, reseated it, and tried connecting again. Nothing.

Next I opened the Synaptic Package manager, and reinstalled the b43-fwcutter package. That appeared to work, according to the messages anyway. Still no wireless connection.

In the Network Manager I have the wireless card checked and set to DHCP protocoll. Using Network tools I can ping to the wireless card but not to the net.

I don't know what else to do. Please help.

Thanks in advance.

Howard

Revision history for this message
howard rathbun (hmrathbun) said : 		#6

I discovered that the wireless adapter I was using (Buffalo WL12-PCI-G54S with a Broadcom 4306 chip set) would never work with Ubuntu. So I bought a new wireless adapter from D-Link (WDA-2320), installed it, made a few changes in the Network settings (System > Admin > Network) and everything worked just fine. This D-Link adapter makes no mention on the box of working with Linux, but the salesman at Circuit City got on the web and found out that this adapter DOES work with Linux.

So, problem solved.

Howard

Revision history for this message
R A A L (raal-) said : 		#7

Hi, Howard.

Hope this answer helps you out with your problem, just clic (or copy and paste in your browser) the following link:

http://packages.debian.org/sid/i386/b43-fwcutter/download

and then select the nearest server to the place where you live from the list, download it, and then, take this file to your problem pc, and execute it.

This will do the job.

Greetings from Mexico.