[sf-lug] Installing Void and other systemd-free distroS onto BCM/b43 device

Thu Nov 9 19:09:46 PST 2017

[quoting aaron cohen]
>>I went ahead and formatted the drive with Void installed on it and am
planning to install on it some of the non-systemd distros I've used before,
in this order; Slackware 14.2 (like user 'bigbunny' at [3] >>on Apr '16),
devuan gnu+linux, Void Linux, and then finally antiX-17.  So far, I've
gotten Slackware 14.2 and devuan fully up and running, though w/o wireless
activated on either yet.

aaron;
have you taken a look @ Artix?...

message ends.
__________________

On Thu, Nov 9, 2017 at 3:51 PM, acohen36 <acohen36 at sdf.org> wrote:

>
> Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote at [1]:
>
> Last line got accidentally split, should be:
>>
>> b43-fwcutter -w "$FIRMWARE_INSTALL_DIR" broadcom-wl-5.100.138/linux/wl
>> _apsta.o
>>
>> Anyway, Aaron, please heed
>>
> https://forum.voidlinux.eu/t/wireless-card-bcm4312-firmware-not-there/566
>
>> , and not my regurgitation of what it said.
>>
>
> Thanks for the suggestions.
> Had to wipe out the drive with Void Linux on it and Start From Scratch,
> this as opposed to Linux From Scratch[2] ;-)
>
> I went ahead and formatted the drive with Void installed on it and am
> planning to install on it some of the non-systemd distros I've used before,
> in this order; Slackware 14.2 (like user 'bigbunny' at [3] on Apr '16),
> devuan gnu+linux, Void Linux, and then finally antiX-17.  So far, I've
> gotten Slackware 14.2 and devuan fully up and running, though w/o wireless
> activated on either yet. More on this below.
>
> You all would be entirely accurate to say that I don't prefer using
> systemd. My reasoning for using these particular non-systemd distros in
> this order is that from my experience, the outliers Slackware 14.2 and
> antiX-17 using Debian's Stable/Stretch are the _most_ likely to recognize
> the 4312-->4315 adapter.
>
>
>
> Akkana Peck <akkana at shallowsky.com> wrote at [4]:
>
> I've had to wrestle with too many Linux laptops
>> with Broadcom wi-fi chips over the years. By far the
>> best and easiest solution, if it's a laptop that's
>> relatively easy to open, is research what format the
>> Broadcom card is in your laptop (or just open it and
>> see), and then order an Intel wi-fi card of the same
>> size. They typically cost maybe $20-30, which is
>> well worth it versus the time and sweat and
>> frustration you'll put into fighting with the
>> Broadcom.
>>
>
> That's a good point, and is eerily similarly to problems myself and _many_
> other people had in the late 1990's with getting ppp to run on certain
> desktop PCI modem-cards called "Winmodems", in Linux. IIRC, although most
> of those Winmodems were super-cheap, they were invraiably DSP
> software-optimized to work on Windows _only_ grrrrrrr >:[ ......
> That typical cost of "maybe $20-30" for Intel wi-fi cards of the same size
> is what I eventually ended up paying for a cheap but decent 56K(max)
> external modem in the early post-millenial aught years.
>
>
>
> Ken Shaffer <kenshaffer80 at gmail.com> wrote at [5]:
>
> I've been waiting for the answer to Rick's critical question about
>> seeing if the firmware files are "not found" from the dmesg
>> output.  The b43 driver should work with your chip, so all you
>> should have to do is put the firmware files into the right
>> directory (usually /lib/firmware/b43, not /usr/lib/firmware...).
>> Your chip, the 4315  used to have a special fwcutter package
>> with ...lpy... in its name -- don't know if the new fwcutter
>> package had made that unnecessary.  Any distribution which
>> can run the fwcutter will product the firmware files, so you
>> can just put them on a USB and bring them to your system.
>>
>
>
> Thanks for the suggestion at the end.
> Getting right to the first point keeping in mind reference [3];
>
> -- current snippet of 'dmesg | grep b43' in Slackware --
> [**] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4312 WLAN found (core revision 15)
> [**] b43-phy0: Found PHY: Analog 6, Type 5 (LP), Revision 1
> [**] b43-phy0: Found Radio: Manuf 0x17F, ID 0x2062, Revision 2, Version 0
> [**] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load for b43/ucode15.fw failed with error
> -2
> [**] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load for b43/ucode15.fw failed with error
> -2
> [**] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load for b43-open/ucode15.fw failed with
> error -2
> [**] b43 ssb0:0: Direct firmware load for b43-open/ucode15.fw failed with
> error -2
> [**] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode15.fw" not found
> [**] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43-open/ucode15.fw" not found
> [ **] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to
> http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware
> and download the correct firmware for this driver version.
> Please carefully read all instructions on this website.
> -----------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> I still find it awfully confusing -- even in Slackware -- which of the
> various b43 drivers I should use.
>
> Quoting the b43-fwcutter SlackBuilds page at [6]:
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> b43-fwcutter is a tool to extract Broadcom's wireless chip(s) firmware.
>
> Maintained by: Robby Workman
> Keywords: broadcom,b43,bcm3xx,bcm,firmware,cutter,fwcutter
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
> Seems simple enough, right?
> Not exactly.
>
> Now directly quoting the broadcom-sta SlackBuilds page at [7]:
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> The broadcom-sta package includes the kernel module 'wl', which contains
> the Broadcom-provided proprietary kernel driver that supports a number of
> their cards.  Known supported model numbers include the listed chipsets.
>
> BCM4311 (PCI IDs 14e4:4311, 14e4:4312, 14e4:4313)
> BCM4312 (PCI ID 14e4:4315)
> BCM4313 (PCI ID 14e4:4727)
> BCM4321 (PCI IDs 14e4:4328, 14e4:4329, 14e4:432a)
> BCM4322 (PCI IDs 14e4:432b, 14e4:432c, 14e4:432d)
> BCM43142 (PCI ID 14e4:4365)
> BCM43224 (PCI ID 14e4:4353)
> BCM43225 (PCI ID 14e4:4357)
> BCM43227 (PCI ID 14e4:4358)
> BCM43228 (PCI ID 14e4:4359)
> BCM4331 (PCI ID 14e4:4331)
> BCM4360 (PCI ID 14e4:43a0)
> BCM4352 (PCI ID 14e4:43b1)
>
> Some of these devices are also supported by the free b43 and brcm80211
> drivers.  In order to avoid conflicts /etc/modprobe.d/b43_blacklist.conf
> disables these drivers.
>
> Read the included LICENSE.txt file (placed in /usr/doc) before using the
> proprietary driver.
>
> If you would like to name your interface wlan0 instead of eth1, either
> rename the device in /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules or build
> the package with:
>
>     IFNAME=wlan ./broadcom-sta.SlackBuild
>
> Maintained by: Andreas Voegele
> Keywords: wireless,driver,network,wifi,broadcom
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Since my exact WiFi card BCM4312 (PCI ID 14e4:4315) is specifically
> mentioned in the latter, it seems to me that this latter broadcom-sta
> method should be tried first _before_ using Ken's (and possibly others')
> b43-fwcutter method to extract the fitting driver.
>
> In addition, the two-year-old 'Broadcom wireless' suggestions from one of
> the antiX developers at [8] seems similar enoug to the steps just described
> for Slackware's broadcom-sta driver-build SlackBuild, namely, disabling the
> b43 driver in /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-dkms.conf before running
> 'modprobe' for the [presumably] correct driver.
>
> -A
>
>
>
> ================================
> References
> ================================
>
> [1]http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/2017q4/012949.html
> [2]http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/2017q4/012950.html
> [3]http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/
> [4]https://forum.voidlinux.eu/t/wireless-card-bcm4312-firmwa
> re-not-there/566
> [5]http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/2017q4/012955.html
> [6]https://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/network/b43-fwcutter/
> [7]https://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/network/broadcom-sta/
> [8]https://mxlinux.org/wiki/hardware-networking/broadcom-wireless
>
> ================================
>
>
> acohen36 at sdf.org
> SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> sf-lug mailing list
> sf-lug at linuxmafia.com
> http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/sf-lug
> Information about SF-LUG is at http://www.sf-lug.org/<br>
> Related Information <br>
> http://www.shallowsky.com/blog/<br>
> http://explainshell.com/ <br>
>

-- 

*~the quieter you become, the more you are able to hear...*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/attachments/20171109/c1bc19f9/attachment.html>