[SOLVED]netinstall and broadcom wifi problems

damo · 2015-03-25 00:29:41

Assuming this is the right place to post this....

So I've been trying the netinstall plus BunsenLabs install scripts, and up until now I have had to use an ethernet cable on the laptop, then installed the firmware later. As expected, the install fails otherwise because of the broadcom wifi driver, but it also fails when using the firmware netinstall iso (http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unoff … -firmware/)

I tried this method, but the b43 driversfirmware files still weren't found ( - probably because they aren't included, although a helpful (not) b43 installer is!)

Debian wrote:

Firmware during the installation
In some cases the installer detects the need for non-free firmware and prompts the user to make the firmware available to the installer to complete the installation.
Before starting the installation process on hardware unfamiliar to you, a suggestion is to download the firmware tarball for your installation and unpack it into a directory named "firmware" in the root of a removable storage device. When the installer starts, it will automatically find the firmware files in the directory on the removable storage and, if needed, install the firmware for your hardware. The link to the firmware download for your Debian version is
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unoff … /firmware/.

The installer still couldn't find the relevant files, so I tried with dpkg. This doesn't work, because the firmware-b43-installer-xxxx.deb depends on....wait for it....

b43-fwcutter, bzip2, wget

......and a working connection of course!

--------------------------------------------------------------

Next attempt was to copy out all the /lib/firmware/b43/*.fw files on my working partition to the usb stick, but this time it failed because the installer couldn't see 2 of the files, which actually were there.

I found that there was a bug affecting some, when the installer couldn't find the files because of the partitioning of the usb drive. The workaround was to format it first without a partition table, but that method also failed for me

sudo mkfs.vfat -I /dev/sdc

-------------------------------------------------------------

So how do you do a Debian netinstall, with a Broadcom wireless card, and no ethernet? Crunchbang works OOTB on this hardware, so what did corenominal do to achieve that?

Last edited by damo (2015-03-25 16:54:39)

johnraff · 2015-03-25 01:38:40

The second question - all the drivers were already in the 700MB iso file. As you've found, installing the firmware in a running system is OK.

The first question - sorry I can't help. I tried in the past to follow Debian's instructions to install drivers from a usb stick but could never get it to work. Luckily for me the firmware iso contained what I needed.

tknomanzr · 2015-03-25 02:05:35

I think there is a bug active for the netinstall loading non-free drivers. It seems to loop you around endlessly. You might try a daily netinstall build and see if they have made progress on that. Of course, it goes without saying that a daily build may break other stuff. So far, I have been lucky enough to have one or the other working via free drivers.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-03-25 06:59:00

To load firmware from a USB stick the stick must be FAT-formatted and the firmware must be placed in a directory called /firmware

https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/ … idp6922064

EDIT: Which netinstall ISO image did you use?

The method described above works for the wheezy ISO but the jessie installer is still an RC (release candidate) and it still has a few bugs (last time I checked it would only install using XFS as the filesystem).

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2015-03-25 07:01:35)

damo · 2015-03-25 11:57:10

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

To load firmware from a USB stick the stick must be FAT-formatted and the firmware must be placed in a directory called /firmware
https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/ … idp6922064
EDIT: Which netinstall ISO image did you use?
The method described above works for the wheezy ISO but the jessie installer is still an RC (release candidate) and it still has a few bugs (last time I checked it would only install using XFS as the filesystem).

I followed that guide, and unpacked the firmware into /firmware on a FAT formatted usb stick (tried it with and without a partition table). I tried with just the debs in /firmware, and also the files themselves in /firmware/b43 (which is what the error message said it was looking for) The system installs OK, it just doesn't find all the files on the stick, and I don't know how to set up networking from scratch (yet!) without a connection.

I used this netinstall iso: firmware-jessie-DI-rc1-amd64-netinst.iso. md5sum checked OK.

damo · 2015-03-25 16:53:14

I found a method which worked, but it wouldn't be useful without access to a working installation.
I copied the firmware files from a jessie installation to the usb stick and went from there...

Force format a FAT system on usb-stick, without a partition table:
(Installer bug - doesn't find firmware on partitioned media)

sudo mkfs.vfat -I /dev/sdx

Copy the firmware files to usb

sudo mount /dev/sdx /media

sudo mkdir -p /media/firmware/b43-open

sudo cp -r /lib/firmware/b43 /media/firmware/ 
sudo cp /lib/firmware/b43/* /media/firmware/b43-open/

Boot to netinstall usb (firmware-jessie-DI-rc1-amd64-netinst.iso)

At the "Detect Network Hardware" stage, insert the usb with the firmware when prompted.
I then got an error (even though the files were present): "Missing firmware (lp0initvals15.fw,...)"

I repeated "Load missing firmware from removable media" a couple of times - success! (Maybe if I had tried to repeat this first time round it might have worked?)

Install, reboot and win a free internet using http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=39027 (by pvsage)

Happy days

Last edited by damo (2015-03-25 16:56:24)

CrunchBang Linux

SEARCH

#1 2015-03-25 00:29:41

[SOLVED]netinstall and broadcom wifi problems

#2 2015-03-25 01:38:40

Re: [SOLVED]netinstall and broadcom wifi problems

#3 2015-03-25 02:05:35

Re: [SOLVED]netinstall and broadcom wifi problems

#4 2015-03-25 06:59:00

Re: [SOLVED]netinstall and broadcom wifi problems

#5 2015-03-25 11:57:10

Re: [SOLVED]netinstall and broadcom wifi problems

#6 2015-03-25 16:53:14

Re: [SOLVED]netinstall and broadcom wifi problems

Board footer