Offline Broadcom 43xx firmware install just doesn't work

[leppy232]

System info: real hardware (Dell Inspiron 2200 laptop) with BCM4318 card, running R1/beta2 x86_gcc2 (hrev54154+111)

Upon downloading the BCM43xx firmwares using the script provided at ​https://www.haiku-os.org/docs/userguide/en/workshop-wlan.html, I copied the files over to my home folder and extracted the archive to the /root folder, as instructed. After running the install-wifi-firmwares.sh script, I recieved the following output:

Welcome to the Haiku shell.

~/Desktop> install-wifi-firmwares.sh
Acquiring firmware for iprowifi2100 ...
... firmware for iprowifi2100 will be installed.
Acquiring firmware for iprowifi2200 ...
... firmware for iprowifi2200 will be installed.
Acquiring firmware for broadcom43xx ...
Downloading http://www.haiku-files.org/files/wifi-firmwares/b43/fwcutter/b43-fwcutter-012.tar.bz2 ...
wget: unable to resolve host address ‘www.haiku-files.org’
OK
...failed. broadcom43xx's firmware will not be installed.
Acquiring firmware for marvell88w8335 ...
Downloading http://www.haiku-files.org/files/wifi-firmwares/marvell/malo-firmware-1.4.tgz ...
wget: unable to resolve host address ‘www.haiku-files.org’
OK
...failed. marvell88w8335's firmware will not be installed.
----- Package Info ----------------
header size:                     80
heap size:                   858295
TOC size:                       954
package attributes size:        744
total size:                  858375
-----------------------------------
~/Desktop> 

I verified that the firmwares were indeed extracting to the correct place, but they were not being recognized by the script. After manual installation of a wireless firmware hpkg with the firmwares, I can verify that the card works with Haiku.

[leppy232]

Image showing the firmware in the same folder as the Intel Pro firmware, but not being seen.

[diver]

There were some fixes to this script in hrev54488 but I think it was never backported to beta2 repo. Can you reproduce it in a nightly image?

[leppy232]

Replying to diver:

There were some fixes to this script in hrev54488 but I think it was never backported to beta2 repo. Can you reproduce it in a nightly image?

I will when I have a more stable internet connection, as is, Haiku drops my mobile hotspot wifi in intervals between every few minutes and every few seconds.

[diver]

Sounds like unstable wlan driver, check /var/log/syslog for errors.

[miqlas]

For the same sympthomes we used sucessfully the -ht (High Throughput) switch: “ifconfig /dev/net/%your_chipset%/0 -ht”

[diver]

I thought that ht thing was fixed a while ago. Maybe the fix wasn't applied to beta2?

[pulkomandy]

The -ht switch was only for one of the Intel drivers and I think update to a newer version of the FreeBSD driver has fixed it. As far as I know this is all included in beta2.

[twoprimehydroxyl]

Just tried setting up my WiFi in beta2, and I'm getting the same errors as OP. I tried manually copying the wireless firmware pkg mentioned into the /boot/system/packages folder (renamed to wifi_firmwares-1-any.hpkg) and re-running the install-wifi-firmwares.sh script and I get the same error above.

I am using a Lenovo Yoga 11s (Broadcomm 4330) with a fresh install of Haiku R1/beta2

[pulkomandy]

As mentionned in a previous comment, the script has been improved in current nightly builds and the soon to be released beta 3. It would be great if you could try one of the nightly builds or beta 3 test images and see if that fixes the problem already.

[twoprimehydroxyl]

I just downloaded and installed hrev55216, downloaded the firmware files and extracted them to the /boot directory according to the Wireless Networking Workshop page (​https://www.haiku-os.org/docs/userguide/en/workshop-wlan.html) and the script hangs for a bit at "Acquiring firmware for broadcom43xx . . ." before saying "Refreshing repository "Haiku" failed 0%: Server not found."

I also downloaded the hpkg again from OP's original forum post (​https://discuss.haiku-os.org/t/broadcom-43xx-driver-isnt-seen-by-the-install-driver-firmwares-sh-script/10119) and placed it into /boot/system/packages and rebooted. I re-ran the script and I got the same result.

EDIT: Image of script output here: ​https://imgur.com/a/7ki95b0

[miqlas]

I am using a Lenovo Yoga 11s (Broadcomm 4330) with a fresh install of Haiku R1/beta2

I fear even if you get the firmwares installed your hw is simply not supported: ​https://github.com/haiku/haiku/blob/fae4769be6dafe280c15222674025c6a8ee08aeb/src/add-ons/kernel/drivers/network/wlan/broadcom43xx/dev/bwi/if_bwi_pci.c#L89

You can replace your wlan card hopefully.

[cian]

This is still a problem on B3 - the install script does not appear to have any ability to handle looking for the .0 and building the source for the fwcutter in the location that the .zip created by the other-OS script file puts them in (as per ​https://www.haiku-os.org/docs/userguide/en/workshop-wlan.html)

It doesn't look like this was completely updated for package management, or the change to the install script wasn't completed - as the locations used by the created .zip file are very much package management era.

[cian]

Actually, it seems the change to change fwcutter to a package removed any ability for it to not be a package, making that entire set of instructions impossible

​https://git.haiku-os.org/haiku/commit/?h=hrev54488

[pulkomandy]

It seems the simplest solution is to include b43_fwcutter in Haiku images? Then the script would not need to install it. This should not be a problem. The firmware itself must be downloaded from broadcom (due to license restrictions), but the tool can be preinstalled.

If that's not desirable, we should update the install script to use the hpkg file if available locally, and the Linux script should download that.

[6foot3]

I recently acquired a Dell Latitude E6430 laptop that has a bcm43228 wifi adapter installed. An Ubuntu linux live session (18.04 LTS) cannot access the adapter but the installation appears to install the firmware since the wifi works once the installed version is booted. The output from lspci lists the wifi adapter as bcm43228. I do not have access to wired internet so I tried the offline install as outlined in the Wireless Networking Workshop page. The install-wifi-firmwares.sh script is still not seeing the files that have been extracted from the file downloaded by the script at the following link: ​https://www.haiku-os.org/files/download-data-for-wlan-firmwares.txt . Is any further thought being given to this?

[waddlesplash]

I don't know if this driver works at all anymore to be honest. It doesn't seem to be well tested on FreeBSD, and largely deprecated in favor of a newer driver that requires multiple bus systems and is not so easy to port. So no, I haven't really spent any time on this.

[waddlesplash]

PR merged.