Broadcom 4312 doesn't work with Lucid - needs upstream b43-fwcutter v.13

[John Gilmore]

Binary package hint: b43-fwcutter

When first booting Lucid Netbook remix on Acer Aspire One D150, it fails to access wireless because it needs some proprietary firmware. Even after installing that with jockey, though, it barely works (very slow access, 1-second ping times, etc).

Before installing the firmware, the kernel presented a detailed message saying to go to this web site and read it ALL and follow the instructions:

  wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43

On that page it says that recent Ubuntu's "just work" -- but it doesn't, and I think I figured out why. It also says that my wireless chipset (Broadcom 4312) uses an "LP" (low power) physical interface, and thus also needs a different firmware (4.178.10.4) and a later version of b43-fwcutter (v.13). Ubuntu ships Lucid with b43-fwcutter v.12 -- and the install script doesn't know to get the 4.178.10.4 firmware for this hardware.

I think if the new version of b43-fwcutter was provided, and the script fixed to match the kernel page, then it would probably Just Work, as promised.

   ---

As a second minor thing, the description of the "proprietary drivers" in jockey for this hardware is not understandable. It offers both "Broadcom B43 wireless driver" (which is really fwcutter, which doesn't install ANY drivers, just installs firmware that the Linux driver can push into the chip), and "Broadcom STA wireless driver", which is something else entirely, and which appears to involve a kernel rebuild, possibly adding proprietary binary modules to it. To the naive user (or even experienced guys like me), how would I pick between the two? There's no button for further details, and little guidance; you just have to try each one and see, which is dumb.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: b43-fwcutter 1:012-1build1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun May 16 02:12:18 2010
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Netbook 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429.4)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: b43-fwcutter

[John Gilmore (gnu-gilmore)]

I thought ubuntu-bug was going to add my dmesg and such, but stupidly it didn't, so here is dmesg and lspci -vnn.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

John Gilmore, thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu. Lucid Desktop reached EOL on May 9, 2013.
See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

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