Wifi driver Broadcom B43 usually doesn't work

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek]

Binary package hint: b43-fwcutter

I use 64-bit Karmic on Dell Latitude E6500. Hardware Drivers app shows two wifi drivers from Broadcom - B43 and STA. The latter either can't be installed (if I try to activate it, nothing happens) or crashes the whole OS, the former installs but don't work (at least in Network Manager).

WiFi LED is on. I could think that maybe the driver doesn't work at all but after one install it worked - just to the next reboot. Usually Network Manager doesn't even show it knows about any WiFi device (there is no "enable wireless" option - it was once this time it worked).

It's a major issue - Ubuntu without working internet isn't really usable...

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Oct 12 02:02:20 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Alpha amd64 (20091008)
Package: b43-fwcutter 1:012-1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-13.44-generic
SourcePackage: b43-fwcutter
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-13-generic x86_64
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:2432): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (gnome-settings-daemon:2432): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2564): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (nautilus:2524): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

I noticed this amongst messages printed in tty1 during the boot up process (I disabled splash quiet options in GRUB2):
b43-phy0 ERROR: FOUND UNSUPPORTED PHY (Analog 6, Type 5, Revision 1)

I hope it will help to investigate where the problem lies.

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

Now (there has been a lot of updates recently) even the WiFi LED is constantly off...

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek (mgol)]

I checked on my old ASUS and WiFi doesn't work there, either. I think it's a *REALLY* serious bug; RC is on its way, I'd advise to bump the priority. I assume we'd all want to have working WiFi on a LiveCD, otherwise a lot of people won't be able to use Ubuntu at all (not everyone have ethernet network available).