Followup to my last...

[R. Toby Richards]

I'm installing Debian 11. The installer says that it is missing firmware files: b43/ucode11.fw, b43/ucode11.fw, b43-open/ucode11.fw and b43-open/ucode.fw. If you have such media available now, insert it, and continue.

I downloaded the dang unofficial DVD ISO that supposedly has non-free binaries, but the installer won't accept that media as having the Broadcom drivers that I need. Sneakernet doesn't work because every iteration of the ISO that I try has no working dpkg. I cannot dpkg the stuff I need for dpkg to work if dpkg is not working.

I appreciate your stance on non-free binaries, but at least throw me a bone on the unofficial ISO files.

--

R. Toby Richards

[Keith Bainbridge]

> _R. Toby Richards_
>
>
>
Good afternoon Toby

Just a quick response

Please advise the full name of your install .iso

And output of command
lspci

at least the network controllers

I've used b43 firmware in the past and it worked; but that macbook died
about 5 years ago, so no recent knowledge
--
All the best

Keith Bainbridge

keithrb...@gmail.com

[piorunz]

On 18/01/2022 07:29, R. Toby Richards wrote:
> I'm installing Debian 11. The installer says that it is missing firmware
> files: b43/ucode11.fw, b43/ucode11.fw, b43-open/ucode11.fw and
> b43-open/ucode.fw. If you have such media available now, insert it, and
> continue.
>
> I downloaded the dang unofficial DVD ISO that supposedly has non-free
> binaries, but the installer won't accept that media as having the
> Broadcom drivers that I need.

You not supposed to give official installer ISO with unofficial
installer as source of files it needs.

You either:
1) *install* from unofficial installer directly,

2) install from official installer, but you need to download appropriate
.deb files, unpack them, put them on USB stick and give it to official
installer. It works, I tried it. I never needed unofficial thanks to that.

That being said, I don't have this WiFi module and I don't want to give
incorrect advice, I suggest go to this link below and read about
Broadcom install procedures:
https://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx

--
With kindest regards, Piotr.

⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀
⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁ Debian - The universal operating system
⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀ https://www.debian.org/
⠈⠳⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀

[didier gaumet]

Le mardi 18 janvier 2022 à 09:22 +0000, piorunz a écrit :
[...]

> I suggest go to this link below and read about
> Broadcom install procedures:
> https://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx

Hello,

I have had bcm43xx chipsets in the past. Broadcom has/had a particularly limitative policy about distributing binaries, and albeit Debian not distributing firmwares by default (offical releases), at the time installing other distros (Fedora,...) with bcm43xx chipsets was even more tedious than Debian, even if these distros distribute firmwares...

I would concur with Piorunz: follow the steps detailed by the wiki:
https://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx

If you do not have internet (ethernet) during install, then follow these steps:
http://linuxwireless.sipsolutions.net/en/users/Drivers/b43/#Device_firmware_installation

[Nicolas George]

didier gaumet (12022-01-18):

> If you do not have internet (ethernet) during install, then follow these steps:
> http://linuxwireless.sipsolutions.net/en/users/Drivers/b43/#Device_firmware_installation

Looks complicated.

Just run "apt-get install", make not of the URLs that fail to download,
download them from somewhere else and use a USB stick or something to
transfer.

Regards,

--
Nicolas George

[Greg Wooledge]

On Mon, Jan 17, 2022 at 11:29:12PM -0800, R. Toby Richards wrote:
> I'm installing Debian 11. The installer says that it is missing firmware
> files: b43/ucode11.fw, b43/ucode11.fw, b43-open/ucode11.fw and
> b43-open/ucode.fw. If you have such media available now, insert it, and
> continue.

You've shown b43/ucode11.fw twice, but let's skip that for now.

None of the files you show here are present in any packages in Debian,
according to https://packages.debian.org/.

This particular device looks like it's a special case, where Debian
isn't allowed to distribute the firmware directly, not even in non-free.
Have a look at the firmware-b43-installer package:

https://packages.debian.org/stretch/firmware-b43-installer

Rather than providing the firmware themselves, Debian have created this
package that will download the firmware from ... somewhere ... and package
it up for you.

Obviously, in order for this to work on a single machine, you'll need
a different means of accessing the Internet from that machine (e.g.
a wired ethernet connection).

If you dislike this situation, take it up with Broadcom. Presumably it's
their license on the firmware that's causing your distress.

[Cindy Sue Causey]

That's what I was thinking I'd seen suggested here before, too. I did
a quick "apt-cache search" for the bcm43 that Didier mentioned because
I remember encountering that in the past. This limited list came back
so it's here in whole:

b43-fwcutter - utility for extracting Broadcom 43xx firmware
firmware-b43-installer - firmware installer for the b43 driver
firmware-b43legacy-installer - firmware installer for the b43legacy driver
broadcom-sta-common - Common files for the Broadcom STA Wireless driver
broadcom-sta-dkms - dkms source for the Broadcom STA Wireless driver
broadcom-sta-source - Source for the Broadcom STA Wireless driver
firmware-brcm80211 - Binary firmware for Broadcom/Cypress 802.11 wireless cards

Cindy :)
--
Cindy-Sue Causey
Talking Rock, Pickens County, Georgia, USA
* runs with birdseed *

[Polyna-Maude Racicot-Summerside]

Hi,

Making fast connection between different unrelated concept doesn't help
both yourself in understanding of the situation AND yourself getting
helped out (as no one seem to willing to help a mad men, risking of
getting bitten).

I have a laptop who's totally off Internet and have a local repository
on hard drive to do my install, so the question about dpkg "not-working"
is odd at least, ridiculous at most.

Have you tried something like using the 1st DVD of the distribution,
install your system (will give you a bare system), you can also use the
live DVD (Gnome/KDE/LXDE/XFCE) and install this as your base system.

Then use a local repository on a HD.

I can install my whole system without Internet connection.
This is the first part of my answer (before you write back that I don't
touch your networking problem).

Yes it's possible you try to install a package and it says "you need Z
package as dependencies". So you simply use your two feet and get the
package, do the install. Once dependencies are solved, you package that
was in a "uninstalled" state will get installed and it's script run.

Seems like you got confused between dpkg and apt-get (and even apt
itself). The dpkg software has no reliance whatsoever on networking and
if my memory's good, it doesn't even use any networking code.

Regarding the bone you are looking for... Life's not binary as in :
It's free so you can share it as you like
It's not free, can't share and that's so bad

There's what's called distribution clause.

If you look at debian packages for the google android sdk, their size is
11mb for the android-sdk-platform-23 package.

Did the brave Debian developer were able to do magic and squeeze it all
inside a 11mb package size ? Even if those guys are some of the best
programmer in the world, the answer is : NO !

And even if they would have been able, they couldn't ! Why ?
Because Google prohibit third parties from distributing Android SDK.

So they build a set of script that will get what's needed from the
server and install it for you.

Something similar also goes on with some game packager where the game
engine is GPL'd but not the game media / data file.

And now for your answer...

This seem to be the case with you device (and some other devices too).

It probably need a firmware binary blob that will be extracted from a
Windows driver package or something similar.

If you find another Linux distro who support your device out of the box,
I'd be really surprised and would love to get the link so I can see how
they work around this problem.

On a last note, you ain't the only one who is using a machine off of
Internet access, so your insolvable "pseudo catch 22" is something that
was already calculated for and taken into account from the start. I'd
remind you that Debian started at a time where not every computer had
Internet access and all the tools for installing from local media are
still available.

A great tool you can discover is called debmirror.

Another thing you can do is a hunger strike against Broadcom, this will
be much more useful over blaming the choice of licensing made by Debian
team.

Hope this get you out of the woods...
Sincerely,

> --
>
> _R. Toby Richards_
>
>
>

--
Polyna-Maude R.-Summerside
-Be smart, Be wise, Support opensource development

[Stefan Monnier]

> Seems like you got confused between dpkg and apt-get (and even apt
> itself). The dpkg software has no reliance whatsoever on networking and
> if my memory's good, it doesn't even use any networking code.

`dpkg install ...firmware-b43-installer` will definitely need a network
connection, tho :-(


Stefan