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I am fairly new to ubuntu so a step by step answer would be appreciated. My wireless card is Broadcom BCM4331. Thank You.

I also have no way to connect to the Internet on it except my original osx partion. So a solution that works offline is required. My Mac mini is a 6,1 model.

Jonas
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Alex Pechlivanos
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  • I have the same issue with Ubuntu 13.04: http://askubuntu.com/questions/290658/no-network-interfaces-detected-when-installing-ubuntu-server-on-mac-mini – Jonas Jun 29 '13 at 13:09

3 Answers3

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I ran into the same problem as you. I solved it by following the instructions on the help pages. The [instructions if you have wired internet] are the easiest - it will most probably be something like:

sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer

and after a reboot you'll be good to go.

I, however, didn't have a wired connection at hand (seems my ethernet is not working) and I had to follow the no-internet instructions. Basically, I first got the .deb files on another computer where I had internet:

  • b43-fwcutter
  • firmware-b43-installer

You have to search the packages portal under your Ubuntu version. You can install them with:

sudo dpkg -i b43-fwcutter*
sudo dpkg -i firmware-b43-installer*

Now, the second one will fail, as it tries to download the latest firmware from the internet. We can copy the link that it wanted to fetch, however, and make understanding our hardware specifics and finding the appropriate version that much easier. For me the url was:

http://lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2

You can then get that file, copy it to the problematic machine, extract it:

tar xfvj broadcom-wl-*

and install it manually with something like:

sudo b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware broadcom-wl-5.100.138/linux/wl_apsta.o

(the exact details, file name, driver version, will probably differ, and you should conclude for yourself based on the help page and some common sense).

A reboot was then enough for my driver to start working, but there is some talk of potentially having to blacklist other drivers - explore this if it still doesn't work for you.

metakermit
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    Can confirm that this works on late-2012 Mac Mini with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Network sharing from wifi to ethernet with a Macbook worked. – cclloyd May 16 '18 at 01:01
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Please run the terminal command:

lspci -nn

Is your wireless device ID 14e4:4331? If so, please download this file and transfer it to your Ubuntu machine on a USB key or similar. Drop it on your desktop. Right-click it and select 'Extract Here.' Now back to the terminal and do:

sudo mkdir /lib/firmware/b43

The folder may already exist; that's fine, just proceed.

sudo cp Desktop/b43/*  /lib/firmware/b43
sudo modprobe -r b43 && sudo modprobe b43

Your wireless should now be working.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/58267392/b43.zip

If this is not your device ID, please post it and we'll proceed.

chili555
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  • @Chill555That is my device I.D. But when I ran your suggested commands but they didn't work this is what I got: alex@alex-Macmini:~$ sudo mkdir /lib/firmware/b43 [sudo] password for alex: alex@alex-Macmini:~$ sudo cp Desktop/b43/* cp: target `Desktop/b43/ucode9.fw' is not a directory alex@alex-Macmini:~$ sudo cp Desktop/b43/* cp: target `Desktop/b43/ucode9.fw' is not a directory alex@alex-Macmini:~$ /lib/firmware/b43 bash: /lib/firmware/b43: Is a directory alex@alex-Macmini:~$ sudo modprobe -r b43 && sudo modprobe b43 – Alex Pechlivanos Jan 03 '13 at 19:19
  • Sorry about the format I did press enter at the proper time. – Alex Pechlivanos Jan 03 '13 at 19:27
  • Your second command should be: sudo cp Desktop/b43/* /lib/firmware/b43. All in one command but with a space between the * and the following /. In human language, it means, as super user, copy everything in 'Desktop/b43' to '/lib/firmware/b43. It has to be in one command on one line. Please try again. – chili555 Jan 03 '13 at 21:58
  • I did everything correctly and nothing happened. So I filled the file map into the file system and found all the files had successfully copyed into the driver section but nothing is happening I performed a reboot as well and still nothing. Any ideas? – Alex Pechlivanos Jan 05 '13 at 01:49
  • Let's see if there are any clues here: dmesg | grep b43. Then a second command: rfkill list all. That funny pipe symbol | is on the right side of my US keyboard on the same key with \. – chili555 Jan 05 '13 at 01:59
  • It says 0: hci0: Bluetooth soft blocked: no hard blocked: no – Alex Pechlivanos Jan 07 '13 at 01:23
  • Nothing in the dmesg command? – chili555 Jan 07 '13 at 14:17
  • No it just gave me a new line to start typing I'll try again. What should I be getting? – Alex Pechlivanos Jan 10 '13 at 20:46
  • You should be getting an error or message to go on related to the driver b43. Please try: sudo modprobe b43 && dmesg | grep b43. It ought to give us some clue as to what's wrong. – chili555 Jan 10 '13 at 21:56
  • b43-phy0: Broadcom 4331 WLAN found (core revision 29) – Alex Pechlivanos Jan 12 '13 at 23:23
  • What does this mean – Alex Pechlivanos Jan 13 '13 at 02:39
  • I am not at all sure yet. Please reboot so we have a clean slate and then do: sudo modprobe b43; dmesg > alex.txt. Find the text file in your user directory and transfer it on a USB key or similar to your OSX partition and then post it here: http://paste.ubuntu.com/ When you paste it, a link will be created so you can put it here and we can review it. – chili555 Jan 13 '13 at 02:53
  • http://paste.ubuntu.com/1529261/ – Alex Pechlivanos Jan 13 '13 at 22:08
  • https://dl.dropbox.com/u/58267392/mimo.zip Please download this file also. Drag and drop it to your desktop. Right-click it and select Extract Here. Then, in a terminal, do: sudo cp Desktop/mimo/* /lib/firmware/b43. Reboot and your wireless should be working. – chili555 Jan 14 '13 at 01:19
  • Reference from your pastebin: b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode29_mimo.fw" not found – chili555 Jan 14 '13 at 14:23
  • Still not working watch this. This is me. http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=v-fsCX_U2AA&feature=youtube_gdata_player&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dv-fsCX_U2AA%26feature%3Dyoutube_gdata_player – Alex Pechlivanos Jan 15 '13 at 00:03
  • Wow! My very first youtube reply, awesome. Are the mimo files in /lib/frmware/b43? ls /lib/firmware/b43 | grep mimo. If so,let's see another pastebin of dmesg after a reboot. – chili555 Jan 15 '13 at 02:10
  • http://paste.ubuntu.com/1557127/ – Alex Pechlivanos Jan 22 '13 at 00:45
  • There it is sorry about taking so long – Alex Pechlivanos Jan 27 '13 at 17:59
  • are you still there? – Alex Pechlivanos Jan 27 '13 at 20:21
  • I am barely here. I don't see much wrong here. Again, using pastebin, reboot so we have a clean slate and paste: lsmod; dmesg | grep b43. Thanks. – chili555 Jan 28 '13 at 14:29
  • http://paste.ubuntu.com/1594007/ – Alex Pechlivanos Jan 31 '13 at 19:57
  • The expected driver, b43, isn't present in lsmod. Please try again, but this time: sudo modprobe b43; sudo modprobe bcma; lsmod; dmesg | grep b43. – chili555 Jan 31 '13 at 20:55
  • Figured out a workaround for the wifi issue. I have usb tethering on my phone and this connects it to the Internet. What commands can I use to get the drivers. – Alex Pechlivanos Feb 10 '13 at 22:01
  • sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-nonfree – chili555 Feb 10 '13 at 22:55
  • It says unable to locate package – Alex Pechlivanos Feb 11 '13 at 01:06
  • Download the package here: http://packages.ubuntu.com/quantal/all/linux-firmware-nonfree/download Install it with: sudo dpkg -i Downloads/linux*.deb <--or wherever you downloaded the package if not to 'Downloads.' – chili555 Feb 11 '13 at 01:17
  • Before I try this should I do a clean wipe and install then do the install connected to the Internet through my phone. Will this fetch the drivers automatically? – Alex Pechlivanos Feb 11 '13 at 23:26
  • Download the file with your phone. Install it as I said above and then detach the phone and reboot. Now does it work? – chili555 Feb 12 '13 at 01:09
  • @chili555 I did all the steps you've described above and this is what I get when I attempt the modprobe's: "[ 1947.406525] bcma: PMU resource config unknown for device 0x4331" – James Feb 12 '13 at 06:25
  • Actually despite that message, I am able to now bring up the interface. However, it seems to think the interface is only B/G, and not B/G/N, and when I try to do a iwconfig + dhclient...it takes forever, and never seems to actually connect. – James Feb 12 '13 at 06:50
  • Pastebin of my output after trying to connect: http://pastebin.com/4zYjtJiu – James Feb 12 '13 at 07:18
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Broadcom chips are not supported well with linux, if you need more information about why the Arch linux documentation provides a good inside (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Broadcom_wireless).

Lets get the wifi driver installed,

You need to make sure that repository sources are set to download and compile drivers from the source package itself, inorder to enable source code repositories refer to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu#Adding_Ubuntu_Software_Repositories, usually in linux mint/ubuntu in “Software sources” application should have a option to enable “source code” option.

After enabling source packages open up a terminal and run following commands, in order to compile a package from the source, you need kernel headers and debian package developer tools.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic linux-headers-`uname -r`
sudo apt-get install dpkg-dev debhelper dh-modaliases
sudo apt-get install --reinstall bcmwl-kernel-source
Purinda Gunasekara
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