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.
4 responses to “Firmware file “b43legacy/ucode4.fw” not found or load failed.”
Dude you ROCK!!!! I’ve spent the past four hours reading every ‘how to…’ and ‘well what you need to do is…’ all of them beating around the bush, what I needed was exactly what you posted here, thanks, this was very much appreciated! I’m trying to get ZMLarch (Arch Linux) on a BCM4320 which is b43legacy… I think this did it, (just have to polish out all the scratches I made here in there in the system ;o) )
P.S… IT WORKS!
THANK YOU VERY MUCH, Derak or whoever you are.
I am running Linux Mint 13 on a H-P nx9010 with a
BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller ver. 02.
After struggling for several days running in circles around
the Net trying different things to get my wireless working,
I found your easy, 4-step, direct-to-the-point fix and it
worked perfectly for me on the first try.
Thanks
Just another big THANK YOU here. :) I had given up on using my old Dell Latitude D800 because of a faulty TP-Link USB-WiFi dongle until I found your post which allowed me to ressuscitate my old PCMCIA card, which also is much more stable. :)