Setting up wireless firmware without a wired connection

[lucaspt]

Hi I'm new to Fedora and not sure how to get wireless firmware without direct access(I can access the internet onother computers). Im using a dell latitude e5400 with Broadcom Coorporation BCM4312 802.11 b/g LP-PHY chipset. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[stevea]

What does this command return ?
yum list installed b43\*

Also post the complete output of this,
uname -a

[lucaspt]

Stevea,
the first returns

Loaded pluggins:langpacks, presto, refresh packagekit
Error: Cannot retrieve repositoryh metadata for repository:fedora. Please vrify its path and try again.

the second returns

Linux iQuantum 2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.i686 #1 SMP Mon May 9 20:43:14 UTC 2011 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

Thanks!

---------- Post added at 05:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:52 PM ----------

Stevea,
the first returns

Loaded pluggins:langpacks, presto, refresh packagekit
Error: Cannot retrieve repositoryh metadata for repository:fedora. Please vrify its path and try again.

the second returns

Linux iQuantum 2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.i686 #1 SMP Mon May 9 20:43:14 UTC 2011 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

Thanks!

[PabloTwo]

To get around the error on the first command (yum fails because the machine isn't online), use:

rpm -qa | grep b43

or

yum --disablerepo=* list b43\*

[lucaspt]

Okay. Now it says

b43-fwcutter-013-3.fc15.i686
rmt-0.4-0.10.b43.fc15.i686
dump-0.4-0.10.b43.fc15.i686
b43-openfwwf-5.2-6.fc15.noarch

for the first.

the second reports something similar. Thanks.

---------- Post added at 06:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:17 PM ----------

Okay. Now it says

b43-fwcutter-013-3.fc15.i686
rmt-0.4-0.10.b43.fc15.i686
dump-0.4-0.10.b43.fc15.i686
b43-openfwwf-5.2-6.fc15.noarch

for the first.

the second reports something similar. Thanks.

[stoat]

With that BCM4312 chipset, you have two good options IMO. One is to download and install the firmware for the built-in b43 driver module. The other option is to download and install the broadcom-wl driver from RPM Fusion. Either can be accomplished in an offline situation. Even when both options work, I would prefer b43. It has always worked well for me, and you would be free of dependence on a third party repo for wireless. But not all BCM4312 chipsets work with b43. All of them work with broadcom-wl. So that is the situation IMO.

To try b43, use another computer or operating system to navigate back to this page and download this file from OpenWrt and somehow transfer it to the wireless computer...

broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2

Then open a terminal, change directories to the folder with the tarball, and enter these commands one after the other...

tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
cd broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver	
su
b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta_mimo.o

Now reboot or restart NetworkManager and look in the NetworkManager panel icon for available networks (left-click the icon). If it doesn't work at first, see the Broadcom wireless HOWTO for some things to try before giving up. But return here to ask questions about anything you read there.

If you never get anywhere with b43 (or decided not to try it at all), then it's reasonable to move on to broadcom-wl. To install that while offline, use another computer or operating system to navigate back to this page and download these three files for the kernel version you posted earlier today...

kmod-wl-2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.i686-5.60.48.36-2.fc15.1.i686.rpm
kmod-wl-5.60.48.36-2.fc15.1.i686.rpm
broadcom-wl-5.60.48.36-1.fc13.noarch.rpm

Somehow transfer them to the wireless computer, open a terminal, change directories to the folder with the three files, and install them all at once (important) in one command.

su
rpm -ivh *.rpm

Or this way if you're a yum purist (nothing wrong with that)...

su
yum --disablerepo=* --nogpgcheck localinstall *.rpm

Now reboot or restart NetworkManager and look in the NetworkManager panel icon for available networks (left-click the icon). Now install the RPM Fusion repos (important). If it doesn't work at first, see the Broadcom wireless HOWTO for some things to try before giving up. But return here to ask questions about anything you read there.