Enabling Broadcom NIC, Debian

[torema]

Well, I promised to be back with a dumb question. I now have a running Debian 10 system and would like to enable the Broadcom 4321 chipset to connect to a WiFi network. As I understand it the correct command to install the driver for this NIC is apt install firmware-b43-installer. This command started to run and then reported, "unable to locate package firmware-b43-installer" which actually didn't surprise me. How should I either obtain this package or indicate the source to the apt command?

And, while I'm at it, where does Debian store pci ids? There is no /usr/share/hwdata directory and, therefore, no pci.ids file.

 

[wizardfromoz]

where does Debian store pci ids

misinformation on the net, it is at

/usr/share/misc/pci.ids

if you run

sudo update-pciids

it will update that file and save the old to a .old file

As I understand it the correct command to install the driver for this NIC is apt install firmware-b43-installer

did you preface that with

sudo

?

chris turner
wizardfromoz

not silly questions, nor your other thread. welcome to linux.org

 

[Tolkem]

As I understand it the correct command to install the driver for this NIC is apt install firmware-b43-installer. This command started to run and then reported, "unable to locate package firmware-b43-installer" which actually didn't surprise me.

Did you install Buster via netinst.iso? Chances are that you need to enable/add the non-free repositories since they're not by default to install any firmware package. Check your sources list first

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

and see if they are present, they're probably disabled, enable one by commenting it out. If they're not, you could add it to your sources.list

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free

disable the default one

#deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main

then run

sudo apt-get update

and try to install the firmware

sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer

once it's installed revert your changes in sources.list back to defaults, just comment the non-free repository and comment out the main one, update your sources and that shuld be it.

Hope this helps!

 

[torema]

Did you install Buster via netinst.iso? Chances are that you need to enable/add the non-free repositories since they're not by default to install any firmware package. Check your sources list first

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

and see if they are present, they're probably disabled, enable one by commenting it out. If they're not, you could add it to your sources.list

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free

disable the default one

#deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main

then run

sudo apt-get update

and try to install the firmware

sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer

once it's installed revert your changes in sources.list back to defaults, just comment the non-free repository and comment out the main one, update your sources and that shuld be it.

Hope this helps!

Well, this will be helpful once I work all the way through it. First, is there a list of incompatibilities or deltas between buster and stretch. I loaded this system with an iso off the Debian site but I see in the source.list file a lot of stretch updates. Relative to the non-free it has:

# buster-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch main contrib:non-free
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib:non-free

I didn't worry about this assuming the buster update would overwrite anything different in the stretch update since it came later in the sources.list.

 

[torema]

Well, this will be helpful once I work all the way through it. First, is there a list of incompatibilities or deltas between buster and stretch. I loaded this system with an iso off the Debian site but I see in the source.list file a lot of stretch updates. Relative to the non-free it has:

# buster-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch main contrib:non-free
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib:non-free

I didn't worry about this assuming the buster update would overwrite anything different in the stretch update since it came later in the sources.list.

One of the beauties of Unix/Linux is it does exactly what you tell it to do with little or no complaint or comment. Once I looked at my own post I noted my own typos. These drivers are now installed and I'll move on to the next steps in connecting to a wifi network.

 

[Tolkem]

# buster-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch main contrib:non-free
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib:non-free

Did you bootstrapped the system from debian.org? Hmmm ... never done that but I think it might be better to disable the stretch ones and leave but buster's only. So, IMHO sources.list should look like this:

# buster-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main
#deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main
#deb http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch main contrib:non-free
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib:non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security buster-security main

then update the system and install the firmware. I think that's the best approach.

 

[Vrai]

One of the beauties of Unix/Linux is it does exactly what you tell it to do with little or no complaint or comment.

This is a very good point - and one worth mentioning!
Linux will do whatever it is told to do "with little or no complaint or comment" - up to and including deleting itself!
All Linux users need to be aware of this and be cautious when issuing commands and be especially cautious when copy/pasting commands found on the 'net'.

 

[torema]

To respond to the replies from Tolkem and Vrai. When I had contrib:non-free it wouldn't work. When I removed the : it worked. I think because I've been away from UNIX for so long and am jumping back in the the middle of this I'm having a lot of version issues. Because I am struggling I go to the web a lot and I've found you MUST pay attention to when something was posted because standard commands have and are evolving. I simply cannot get the wifi to work. Of course I was trying to use ifconfig, which apparently was deprecated a long time ago. I've then tried to us ip but I see in some posts on the web I should be using iw (sigh).

I am now at the point that when I use ip a I find the interface is designated enp0s20. (Wherethehell did this nomenclature come from?) When I use sudo iwlist enp0s20 scan | grep ssid I get interface doesn't support scanning. Still poking at it.

 

[Vrai]

when I use ip a I find the interface is designated enp0s20. (Wherethehell did this nomenclature come from?)

Oh, I hear you! LOL
It's like learning a whole other language.
But try we must if we are to use it to our benefit and bend it to our will.

 

[Tolkem]

To respond to the replies from Tolkem and Vrai. When I had contrib:non-free it wouldn't work. When I removed the : it worked. I think because I've been away from UNIX for so long and am jumping back in the the middle of this I'm having a lot of version issues. Because I am struggling I go to the web a lot and I've found you MUST pay attention to when something was posted because standard commands have and are evolving. I simply cannot get the wifi to work. Of course I was trying to use ifconfig, which apparently was deprecated a long time ago. I've then tried to us ip but I see in some posts on the web I should be using iw (sigh).

I am now at the point that when I use ip a I find the interface is designated enp0s20. (Wherethehell did this nomenclature come from?) When I use sudo iwlist enp0s20 scan | grep ssid I get interface doesn't support scanning. Still poking at it.

Try with dhcpcd, if you get "command not found" install it

sudo apt-get install dhcpcd5

once installed run it from the terminal

sudo dhcpcd

I recently had this same issue where I couldn't get my wifi working in bullseye and that fixed it so I think it migth work for you too given yours it's a Debian system as well.

 

[torema]

Thank you Tolkem. This was exactly what was needed and another clear proof point of how UNIX/Linux have and are evolving. I've never heard of dhcpcd but I've spent about an hour reading about it. I now have a fully functional Debian system that I can begin to tune and play with.

 

[Tolkem]

Thank you Tolkem. This was exactly what was needed and another clear proof point of how UNIX/Linux have and are evolving. I've never heard of dhcpcd but I've spent about an hour reading about it. I now have a fully functional Debian system that I can begin to tune and play with.

Glad it worked! Remember to mark the thread as solved to make easier for others having the same or similar issue to find it.You can do that by editing your first post and inserting (SOLVED) in the title.