[SOLVED] How to figure out wireless drivers?

Wolf.Linux · 06-14-2020, 02:20 PM

So I'm back way sooner than expected,

My laptop: Dell E6430
Distro: Debian 10 buster
(In advance, I do have access to an ethernet cord next to me for grabbing whatever I need)

So I went to reformat my main HDD and was greeted with:

Quote:

Some of your hardware needs nonfree firmware to operate. The firmware can be loaded from removable media such as USB/Floppy.

The missing firmware files are:

b43/ucode30_mimo.fw
b43/ucode30_mimo.fw
b43-open/ucode30_mimo.fw
b43-open/ucode30_mimo.fw

Now my question is, how do I figure out what drivers like this I need and where to get them for myself so I can stop bothering you guys? lol

searching and copy, paste N' Pray typically works out for things like this for me but I want to learn.

a quick Google of the error leads me here: https://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx#b43-b43legacy

How do I know if this is correct, and if I need the legacy or regular?

and googling my pc specs say:

Quote:

Connectivity: 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet Wireless LAN and WiMAX Options: Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6205, Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N + WiMAX 62503, Intel® Centrino® Ultimate-N 6300, Dell Wireless™ 1504 (802.11g/n 1x1), Dell Wireless 1540 (802.11n 2x2) Mobile Broadband11 & GPS Options: Dell Wireless 5630 Multi-mode HSPA-EVDO Mini Card (Gobi™ 3000) with A-GPS3, Dell Wireless 5560 Single- mode HSPA Mini Card with A-GPS3, Dell Wireless 5802 LTE Mobile Broadband (Verizon-US only), Dell Wireless 5804 LTE Mobile Broadband (AT&T-US only) Bluetooth Option: Dell Wireless 380 Bluetooth® 4.0

are there certain commands I should type to see exactly what I have? and where do I go from there? if that makes any sort of sense.

Thanks in advance

-SomeNewbWolf

sp331yi · 06-14-2020, 02:50 PM

Gentoo org has a page on this wireless card/modem and what it takes to make it work. Hope it helps!

cordx · 06-14-2020, 04:39 PM

lspci | grep -i network should give you the name of your network adapters. lshw -C network (may need to be run as root) will give you more detailed info about those adapters (ls - list hw - hardware).

lspci in general will give you info about the pci devices in your system. lsusb does the same for usb. there other helpful ls- commands like this. lscpu comes to mind. you can always check the man page (man lsusb for example) or info page (info lsusb) for helpful options like the -C i used with lshw.

cordx · 06-14-2020, 05:00 PM

looks like a bit more info might be needed from

Code:

lspci -vnn -d 14e4

(as seen here and here) which you would then compare to the chart by device id and chipset name.

frankbell · 06-14-2020, 08:19 PM

You could try a web search. A search for "debian b43 wireless" turned up this: https://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx

beachboy2 · 06-15-2020, 03:48 AM

Wolf.Linux,

Back so soon?

Those two firmware files are from firmware-b43-installer_019-4_all.deb in Debian 10.

https://debian.pkgs.org/10/debian-co...4_all.deb.html

Add contrib to your sources.list and then:

Update the package index:

Code:

 sudo apt update

Install firmware-b43-installer deb package:

Code:

sudo apt install firmware-b43-installer

Wolf.Linux · 06-17-2020, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cordx

lspci | grep -i network should give you the name of your network adapters. lshw -C network (may need to be run as root) will give you more detailed info about those adapters (ls - list hw - hardware).

lspci in general will give you info about the pci devices in your system. lsusb does the same for usb. there other helpful ls- commands like this. lscpu comes to mind. you can always check the man page (man lsusb for example) or info page (info lsusb) for helpful options like the -C i used with lshw.

looks like a bit more info might be needed from

Code:

lspci -vnn -d 14e4

(as seen here and here) which you would then compare to the chart by device id and chipset name.

very helpful, thank you!

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankbell

You could try a web search. A search for "debian b43 wireless" turned up this: https://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx

Rightttt, appreciate the effort.
I had it running seconds after I posted the thread, the point wasn't to just get it working or relying on Google, but figuring out in general what steps I should take to try to figure out exactly what I needed. by doing the most narrowing down I can do in research.

Further:

Quote:

Drivers

There are multiple drivers supporting Broadcom wireless LAN chips.

Linux kernel drivers:

b43*(supported devices)

Introduced in Linux 2.6.24.Supports BCM4321 and BCM4322 as of Linux 2.6.38.

b43legacy*(supported devices)

For 802.11b-only devices and the BCM4306 revision 2.Introduced in Linux 2.6.24.

- https://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx

Since I needed driver "Bcm43228“ according to

Code:

lspci -k

and I take that quote at literal face value Neither on of those are what I need since non of them explicitly say:"bcm43228"

again, appreciate the effort.

Quote:

Originally Posted by beachboy2

Wolf.Linux,

Back so soon?

Those two firmware files are from firmware-b43-installer_019-4_all.deb in Debian 10.

https://debian.pkgs.org/10/debian-co...4_all.deb.html

Add contrib to your sources.list and then:

Update the package index:

Code:

 sudo apt update

Install firmware-b43-installer deb package:

Code:

sudo apt install firmware-b43-installer

Awesome, I already had enabled contrib and non free sources for some other odds and ends. how did you find out that those files were included in the package? is there a way to tell that from the command line?

ultimately the only thing I did was:

Code:

sudo apt install broadcom-sta-dkms*

then ifconfig and the wireless interface was showing so I copied it over to wicd and bam. good to go.

beachboy2 · 06-17-2020, 03:21 PM

Wolf.Linux,

Just use Google (or other) with b43/ucode30_mimo.fw Debian 10 to bring up:
https://packages.debian.org/stretch/...-b43-installer