ubuntu 10.04 and b43-fwcutter

[Frans Ketelaars]

On Sun, 26 Sep 2010 06:24:47 -0700, Li Li wrote:

> On Sat, 2010-09-25 at 19:36 -0400, Tom H wrote:
> 
>> Maybe you're just missing a "modprobe b43legacy". If yes, for
>> persistence, you'll have to add b43legacy to "/etc/modules".
>> 
>> ANyone else using b43/b43legacy? Is it supposed to be this long-winded
>> a process?!
>> 
> This worked automatically for a family member with an old laptop (Acer
> Aspire 5000, purchased in the summer of 2005) with both Mint (an Ubuntu
> respin with some added tools and no sickening purples or browns) and
> with #! Statler.
> 
> I recall that for Mint, at least, he had to download the "proprietary
> driver," which was probably the fw-cutter thing.  It was all so easy and
> automatic that I didn't really pay attention to it.  Not sure what he
> did with #!, but it couldn't have been much since there was no cursing
> involved.

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#device_firmware_installation
(on the page the OP posted a link to) says:

"The Broadcom wireless chip needs software, called "firmware", that runs 
on the wireless chip itself during operation. This firmware is 
copyrighted by Broadcom and must be extracted from Broadcom's proprietary 
drivers. To get such firmware on your system, you must download the 
driver from a legal distribution point, as noted below. Then you must 
extract the firmware from that Broadcom driver by using b43-fwcutter (or 
bcm43xx-fwcutter) and install it in the special directory for firmware - 
usually /lib/firmware. Please note that the firmware from the binary 
drivers is copyrighted by Broadcom Corporation and must not be 
redistributed."

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#Ubuntu.2BAC8-Debian then
says:

"Ubuntu/Debian

In recent versions of Ubuntu and Debian, installing the b43-fwcutter
package will handle everything for you:

   1 sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter

You will be asked to automatically fetch and install the firmware into
the right location."

>  He's off traveling with the laptop right now and emailing using the
> b43xx chip.  Maybe the OP should try one of the above as a liveCD.

I hope this explains something more about the process of installing
the firmware. Now if Broadcom licensed the firmware in such a way that
it could be distributed legally by Linux distro's it wouldn't be
necessary to extract the firmware from the downloaded Windows driver.

The OP might mention this to Broadcom :)

    -Frans