Broadcom B43 wireless driver fails to activate/install

[Stenten]

The install just fails and asks me to check /var/log/jockey.log.

Reinstalled b43-fwcutter, with no difference.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: jockey-gtk 0.5.9-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-14.19-generic 2.6.35
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-14-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Aug 4 16:30:17 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Alpha i386 (20100803.1)
Lsusb:
 Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 002: ID 045e:0750 Microsoft Corp.
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
MachineType: Dell Inc. Latitude D505
PackageArchitecture: all
PccardctlIdent:
 Socket 0:
   no product info available
PccardctlStatus:
 Socket 0:
   no card
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-14-generic root=UUID=49b7ead8-8de5-4040-9bcc-da4f9b1b8f71 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: jockey
dmi.bios.date: 11/03/2006
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A11
dmi.board.name: 0H2049
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA11:bd11/03/2006:svnDellInc.:pnLatitudeD505:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0H2049:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Latitude D505
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[Stenten (stenten)]

This appears a couple times in dmesg:
[ 15.373341] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" not found
[ 15.373348] b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43-open/ucode5.fw" not found
[ 15.373353] b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware for this driver version. Please carefully read all instructions on this website.

Went to the website and reinstalled b43-fwcutter, but it didn't solve the problem.

[FriedChicken (domlyons)]

Let's take a look ath the changelog of b43-fwcutter:

> b43-fwcutter (1:013~git20100413-1) unstable; urgency=low
> * remove b43-fwcutters debconf question
> * don't try to extract the firmware in b43-fwcutter, split out into
> extra installer packages (which are then properly versioned and
> can check for needed kernel/chipsets)

The downloading and extraction part is now in a new (virtual) package firmware-b43-installer (and firmware-b43legacy-installer, firmware-b43lppy-installer).

So there are two solutions:
1) b43-fwcutter should depend on firmware-b43-installer and firmare-b43legacy-installer (firmware-b43lppy-installer is a special case of firmware-b43-installer that supports less device but seems to be more power efficient for the B4312; users who need this can install it later on). b43 should at lest recommend that packages!
2) Jockey should take care of installing the needed package (Pro: can take care which one of the three packages is needed, Contra: users installing b43-fwcutter manually as they were used to probably don't know that they need an extra package)

As I'm not sure which solutions is better I added b43-fwcutter as affected, too.

[FriedChicken (domlyons)]

I forgot to add the workaround (although it should be obious):

Installing firmware-b43-installer solved the problem.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the issue is similar to bug #595344