ubuntu 10.04 and b43-fwcutter

[Joep L. Blom]

Frans Ketelaars wrote:
> 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
> 
> 
Frans and all the others,
Thanks for all the helpful messages.
The statements in > 
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#fw-b43legacy

didn't work in my setting as I followed the instructions for ubuntu 
Lucid. However, with the help offered by the wireless chat-channel I was 
able to install the right driver (it actually turned out to be the b43 
driver and not the b43legacy one) and suddenly wireless worked although 
wicd is apparently broken as wicd-client still complains and won't 
connect but apparently it is not necessary.
My only problem is that I have tried so many different things I cannot 
retrace what was the correct thing(s) I did. It is especially shamefull 
for somebody who has worked for over 25 years a a research scientist not 
to document every move when working on the computer! Well, it proves 
that retirement makes you sloppy.
Anyway, thanks again everybody,
Joep