Getting the wireless to work on a Dell Latitude D600 under ubuntu or debian is a pain.
Problem:
The network manager under gnome says ‘firmware missing or not installed’.
and “sudo dmesg | grep ERROR
” returns a message like
b43legacy-phy3 ERROR: Firmware file "b43legacy/ucode4.fw" not found or load failed.
b43legacy-phy3 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware (version 3).
Solution:
Go here:
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#Ubuntu.2FDebian and download the ‘b43legacy’
sudo su
cd ~
wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
Install the b43-fwcutter utility.
apt-get install b43-fwcutter
Use the utility to extract the firmware.
b43-fwcutter ./wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
This will create a directory in the current directory with the firmware files. It will be called “b43legacy”.
Move the folder into your /lib/firmware directory and reboot and you should find the firmware needed by your wireless card.
mv ./b43legacy /lib/firmware/
reboot
And enjoy wifi goodness on your linux powered laptop.