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I have a problem,

I have no Ethernet cable and I want to bypass the need of using it to install the WLAN and Wi-Fi Ubuntu driver. I did find a similar question here, but it is old and the answer is not exactly what I wanted. I want to install the driver from the Internet from OS X, and put it onto the USB. Then I will boot to Ubuntu partition, and install the driver from the USB. Is there a way to do it?

A possibility would also be to download it from Ubuntu on VirtualBox, which I officially intended to delete and move it to a partition, and then put it onto a USB

~$ lspci -nn | grep 0280
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n [14e4:4331]

Probably the standard MAC controller? I have an MBP 13-inch mid 2012

UPDATE: Decided to download from a .deb package. On the site it says (located here), that the firmware installer supports 4331. When i try to install it, it says: BCM4331 not supported. and in the software center, it says:

Supported Chipsets:

BCM4306/3

BCM4311

BCM4318

BCM4321

BCM4322 (only 14e4:432b)

UPDATE: I also tried a Broadcom patch to support, though it has no effect. The b43 driver in /lib/firmware didn't load, though i'm going to ask a separate question on that.

UPDATE: I found out why the B43 didn't load. Right at boot, before the login screen, this shows up in white text:

[   14.674744] irq 17: nobody cared (try booting withe the "irqpoll" option)
[   14.674801] handlers:
[   14.674809] [<ffffffffa00188b0>] sdhci_irq [sdhci]
[   14.674810] Disabling IRQ #17
[   14.717124] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode29_mimo.fw" not found
[   14.717125] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43-open/ucode29_mimo.fw not found
[   14.717126] b43-phy0 ERROR: Youmust go to http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43devicefirmware and download the correct
version. Please carefully read all instructions on this website

What does this mean and how do I fix this?

Community
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John K
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    You may be able to download the driver as a deb package, put it on the USB and then install it (depending of course on which driver is needed). Could you please edit into your post the output of the script here, which should allow us to help you with this issue. – Wilf Apr 17 '15 at 20:32
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    May we first verify your wireless device before we propose a solution? In a terminal: lspci -nn | grep 0280. – chili555 Apr 17 '15 at 20:32
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    Your 14e4:4331 device needs firmware. The method to install it without an internet connection as well as the needed file are here at post #7: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2098717 – chili555 Apr 17 '15 at 21:52
  • I followed the instructions that he has put, and it has no effect. Cannot connect with Edit Connections, and cannot see Wi-Fi networks in the connections. Need further instructions – John K Apr 18 '15 at 17:59
  • If you can make use of a cellphone as usb modem you may follow the steps from this post. It seems to fix the problem. – Thiago Zanetti May 15 '15 at 14:25
  • @ThiagoZanetti The question was on doing it without internet connection. I unfortunately cannot use a cellphone – John K May 15 '15 at 17:31
  • I'm sorry. I ran out of options to give. Hope you can find a way. – Thiago Zanetti May 15 '15 at 18:07
  • @ThiagoZanetti It is ok. I appreciate your try to help :) – John K May 15 '15 at 19:24

1 Answers1

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From other computer which has internet connection, or by using wired connection, do the following steps (copy to mbp and do make-make install):

wget http://bues.ch/b43/fwcutter/b43-fwcutter-018.tar.bz2 http://bues.ch/b43/fwcutter/b43-fwcutter-018.tar.bz2.asc 
tar xjf b43-fwcutter-018.tar.bz2
cd b43-fwcutter-018 
make 
sudo make install
cd ..

For Linux kernel 3.2 and newer we need to download and install version 5.100.138 of Broadcom’s proprietary driver (also from other computer which has internet connection and install it in mbp):

wget http://www.lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
tar xjf broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
mkdir -p lib/firmware
sudo b43-fwcutter -w "lib/firmware" broadcom-wl-5.100.138/linux/wl_apsta.o

The next step is to activate/deactivate one of wireless drivers because we have more than one. To deactivate,

sudo modprobe -r b43 bcma 
sudo modprobe -r wl

And to activate,

sudo modprobe b43
sudo modprobe wl
streof
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sugab
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  • THANKS. Absolute magic! I did stumble upon a 404. That is because it was broadcomwl.tar.bz2 instead of just bz. Also, it said wl not found as a module, but it worked without it anyway ;) – John K May 19 '15 at 17:48