davidwatson.org: Broadcom BCM4306 on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Broadcom BCM4306 on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn

I've now completed upgrading all of my machines to various versions of Ubuntu Feisty Fawn and I'm pleased to report that it has gone more smoothly than any previous version of Ubuntu in each case. I've got 3 machines running Ubuntu and 2 running Kubuntu, and with the exception of the nvidia drivers on my dual opteron AMD64 Kubuntu at work, everything works great.

One thing that may not be obvious, even for seasoned Linux users, is that much less configuration is required with ndiswrapper on Feisty. If you're using a wireless laptop with Feisty, and like me, you've got a Broadcom bcm4306 card, you actually don't have to do much of anything to get wireless working with Feisty.

Simply install the package bcm43xx-fwcutter from your favorite package manager (synaptic, adept, or good ole apt-get or aptitude) and it will prompt you to download and install the firmware required for the Broadcom chipset. Once this install is complete, just reboot and the wireless chipset will connect without issue.

UPDATE

Thanks to Thomas who commented on this post below:: Just wanted to update everyone on bcm43xx-fwcutter. Because the boredlinks.googlepages.com/wl_apsta.o is no longer existent the setup is not automatic as it was before. Now you must download the driver yourself and extract the firmware and place it in your /lib/firmware folder.; Link to driver:; http://sidulus.textdrive.com/bcmwl5sys.zip; Command:; sudo bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware ~/Desktop/bcmwl5.sys

38 Comments:

James said...: Thank you so much! I spent 7hrs trying to get the damn thing to work before finding this.; 7:09 PM
David Watson said...: You're welcome. I figured I wasn't the only one that found the lack of documentation for this particular combination of wifi on feisty confusing.; 8:13 PM
damian said...: I still can't seem to get any wireless connectivity after following your steps.

Using Feisty on an HP laptop with Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03).

Any ideas?; 6:08 PM
David Watson said...: If you right click on the network icon in the launch bar, do you see your WAP listed? On mine, when I did these steps the WAP was listed, but didn't connect automagically. I had to select the WAP and tell it to connect manually. Also, try disabling the wired connection, if you have one and then restart networking with...

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Good luck!; 6:44 PM
MagnusTheViking said...: I can't thank you enough for this, you actually made ubuntu useable for me!
I even made this account just so I would be able to thank you!
THANK YOU!; 7:22 AM
David Watson said...: You're welcome. It's been interesting to watch people trickle in with this problem. It's a shame this isn't documented better. Maybe I should join the ubuntu docs team?; 6:33 PM
Luis said...: I've been messing around with this for about 3 months now. This morning I woke up and did a search for "feisty bcm4303", found your blog, followed your instructions and ... like magic!!! Thanks!!! you just made my laptop mobile again.; 2:02 AM
gatorchief said...: Thank you very much! I had been reluctant to install Linux on my work laptop (HP Nx9600) because of the lack of WiFi support for the BCM4306 Wireless chip. While I had previously seen a howto for this setup on the Ubuntu forums, it did not compare to how easy your documentation made this setup possible. Again, thanks for saving us a lot of hassle.; 3:21 AM
Robert said...: You are a gentleman and a scholar!; 5:50 PM
Jesse said...: This works perfectly on my Latitude X300 with Kubuntu 7.04. I followed your instructions by doing:

apt-get install bcm43xx-fwcutter

Then I rebooted and it automatically located nearby wireless networks. I connected via WEP without any issues. Thank you!; 9:43 AM
Sean said...: Already had a few hours of frustration under my belt...in 2 minutes, this saved me many more hours to come.

Great work!; 11:13 AM
YesmoreLight said...: DUDE
Thanks so much for this.
Spent about 10 hours trying to do it with Ndiswrapper and such before finding this and BANG!
I truely rejoiced once my laptop was internet bound once again!
You sir prevented me from giving up on linux.; 1:23 PM
Iconoclast said...: Hi, i get:

Setting up bcm43xx-fwcutter (006-1) ...
--20:54:02-- http://boredklink.googlepages.com/wl_apsta.o
=> `wl_apsta.o'
Resolving boredklink.googlepages.com... 72.14.203.118
Connecting to boredklink.googlepages.com|72.14.203.118|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 404 Not Found
20:54:04 ERROR 404: Not Found.

Whats happening? Thanks!; 3:59 AM
David Watson said...: iconoclast, this error means that the package could not download some required files from a website. It may be that the error is transient. Nevertheless, you need a working network connection for that to work. I'd suggest using a wired connection until you have the package installed. Then switch to wireless. Hope this helps.; 9:45 PM
Farhan said...: i had the same problem as iconclast. i was very hopeful for a bit there :) -AlfaTrion [AlfaTrion.com]; 9:28 PM
Thomas said...: Just wanted to update everyone on bcm43xx-fwcutter. Because the boredlinks.googlepages.com/wl_apsta.o is no longer existent the setup is not automatic as it was before. Now you must download the driver yourself and extract the firmware and place it in your /lib/firmware folder. Link to driver: http://sidulus.textdrive.com/bcmwl5sys.zip
Command: sudo bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware ~/Desktop/bcmwl5.sys; 6:57 AM
Bryce said...: I can't tell you how EXTREMELY grateful I am. I've been trying to get used to linux for over a month now and every time I tried, I wouldn't be able to get my wifi to work. I got closer than ever today when I found a site that showed how to use ndiswrapper to do it. That didn't work. Then I found this site!!!!! OH MY GOOODNESS!!! Worked like a charm, only thing I had to do extra was download it myself like thomas said, and extract it to lib/firmware in terminal.; 10:59 PM
Garth said...: Props. Great How to.; 1:13 PM
William said...: Thanks you ... Thank You ... Thank You ....

Linux is great but not worth the hassle without the mobility. You have saved my bacon :)

I spent two days trying everything I could to get this bugger to link up to the internet and then I happened across your site. Up and running in less than 15 minutes!

Simple fix ... and I mean simple!

You're the best man!!!!!

Bill; 9:46 AM
David said...: Great! Thanks, man. Now if only I could get WPA working, too.; 10:56 AM
David Shepard said...: Wow! A great job......third attempt to use Ubuntu in the last three years. This should be the default instructions in all Ubuntu forums concerning bcm 4306. You must integrate the extra steps Thomas gave to David! It works! Another nail in the windows coffin.; 5:07 PM
Dan said...: Excellent. You're a scholar and a gentleman, I'm finally in a place where I can consider Linux solely on my laptop. Yee Hah!; 2:28 PM
nick said...: hi yes i did the steps using a wired connection.i installed the package with the error then downloaded the link you told us to download. moved it to where it belongs. now my wireless light turns on but the second i unplug my ethernet cable i get no connection. no wireless connection is working even though the light is on. could you help me out; 2:31 PM
Joe said...: I am still having issues, I have the firware extracted to /lib/firmware but network manager is still not showing my AP. I have WEP enabled and I have manually gone into the wireless network settings and added the key; 10:16 AM
shadowstrike said...: You, sir, are a lifesaver.
You deserve a snickers bar.; 7:10 PM
Dan said...: The only issue I'm coming up with is now anytime I try to install a new package through Automatix2 or Synaptic or... it looks for the BCM43XXX package and fails again. How do I clear that up? Any help?; 11:17 AM
Big said...: I just installed Ubuntu for the first time on my Fujitsu S6120 notebook. After I tried hours to get my wireless card to work, then I found your website and it works great for me. I appreciate it. Many thanks.; 7:03 AM
Austin said...: To a fellow Pittsburghian:

Just installed a fresh copy of ubuntu on my laptop, and now have wireless working thanks to your post.

I had previously had an FC system on this comp using ndiswrapper a few years back and was unfamiliar with fwcutter - thanks a bunch!; 10:56 PM
David Watson said...: No problem. Glad to see ubuntu spreading generally and in Pittsburgh specifically.; 4:32 AM
Ed said...: I tried to run the command you posted "sudo bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware ~/Desktop/bcmwl5.sys" But it returned "sudo: bcm43xx-fwcutter: command not found"

I tired changed the xx's to 06 (4306) that didn't help. And I changed the ~ to the correct directory for my desktop. What am I doing wrong?; 6:24 PM
David Watson said...: You need to install the bcm43xx-fwcutter first using synaptic, adept, apt-get, or aptitude. That is,

sudo apt-get install bcm43xx-fwcutter

then run the sudo bcm43xx-fwcutter command.; 10:50 AM
Christian said...: For HARDY HERON!

I uninstalled both Bcm43 fwcutter and b43 fwcutter synaptic, then opened up the terminal and wrote

sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter

This automated the installation; downloaded the firmware (via ethernet) and after a 3 minute pause, got my wireless running. *Do it from the terminal, not Synaptic*; 10:05 AM
yahooshua said...: I tried this on my Compaq Presario M2000 with Gutsy. Did not work.; 3:27 AM
Christian said...: I can confirm that Christian's (a different Christian, not me) instructions for Hardy Heron work. I'm using an HP Compaq nx9010 with bcm4306 chipset.; 2:36 PM
blog me said...: hi,
searching hi and low and finally found this.... thanks david.
it certainly help me!; 1:18 AM
John said...: Thanks Dave,

I have been trying to get wifi to work on a compaq presario 2108 with little success. After reading your posts, I selected my Ubuntu Synaptic package manager and did a search for Broadcom. bcm43xx-fwcutter came up. I installed the firmware and rebooted. My wireless connection immediately came to life!

Thanks again for making this so easy.
John; 6:38 PM
Mauro said...: Thanks David and Thomas. I completed the manual steps but I get the feeling that my wireless card is still not working. How do I check if it's alive? I can't just try connecting to an available network because they are all wpa protected and my installation doesn't support it. (i've tried to install wpasupplicant, but guess what: it also downloads files from boredklink). My computer doesn't have any fancy lights to show this.; 7:43 AM
blog me said...: now i use hardy heron. my broadcom is in complete silence... can you help? im using LAN cable now...; 10:07 PM

Links to this post:

<$BlogBacklinkTitle$>: <$BlogBacklinkSnippet$>
<$I18NPostedByBacklinkAuthor$> @ <$BlogBacklinkDateTime$>

Create a Link

<< Home

davidwatson.org

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Broadcom BCM4306 on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn

38 Comments:

Links to this post:

About Me

Previous Posts