Missing firmware wireless card

[GarryRicketson]

Have you re-booted after installing it ?

[kalwisti]

I believe that Garry is correct. It has been a while since I installed the necessary packages on my netbook (so my memory is fuzzy), but I think you must reboot after Step #3 (the "modprobe" command) for the change to take effect.

Then, proceed to Step # 4 for configuring the interface: https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi/HowToUse

If that doesn't get the WiFi working, please describe in more detail exactly what you've done so far, and also post the output of the command below. (Note: you will need to become the root user before typing the command).

I'm posting the output from my system to give you an approximate idea of what you might see:

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root@tlacuache:~# iwconfig
wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"Deimos97"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: 20:4E:7F:96:1E:68   
          Bit Rate=65 Mb/s   Tx-Power=30 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=68/70  Signal level=-42 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:119   Missed beacon:0

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

Also, please tell us which Desktop Environment you are using: Gnome? KDE? MATE? Xfce? LXDE? (That information will let people know which Network Manager utility you are trying to configure).

I will do my best to continue helping you, but I'm not a WiFi guru, so if more advanced troubleshooting is needed I will step aside. However, there are lots of knowledgeable people here and I'm sure that someone will chime in with good ideas / suggestions on how to get things sorted out.

[orythem27]

As far as I know, the "httpredir" service is still available

Thanks, I mean this https://lists.debian.org/debian-mirrors ... 00000.html
And it seems to indicate that it has switched mechanisms and "this means users should not see any interruptions." Thanks to clarify.

Does this apply to Debian Jessie as well ?
There seems to be the same package available for Jessie:

Oh, thanks. I'm so sorry, I should totally be more verbose there. What I had in mind was certainly the jessie package, but now I've had a good lesson that the other people won't magically penetrate my thought, especially for those who just had their first taste of Linux.

[v&n]

then i found the firmware in my synaptic managers
its said i have it installed now
but still doesn't work?

I think stevepusser or any potential helper may need to see the output of the following to determine whether correct drivers are loading :

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lsmod | egrep 'wl|b43|brcm|ssb'
dmesg | egrep 'wl|b43|brcm|ssb|firmware'

Additionally, probably these too -

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rfkill list all
iwconfig

The first command will be available only if you have 'rfkill' package installed, and both may need to be run as root.

[stevepusser]

According to the wiki, that device should be using the kernel's brcmsmac driver. if you run as sysadmin

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modinfo brcmsmac

it will tell you some information about your kernel's version, including what files it expects for firmware and where it would like to find them in /lib/firmware. Then you can check to see if the firmware files are actually there.

[kalwisti]

@davidbnd,

I've run the commands which were suggested by stevepusser and v&n, and am pasting the output below, so you can use them as a reference point / comparison. (This is from my HP Mini 210 netbook, which has the [correct] brcm80211 driver installed). I hope this information will be helpful to you.

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root@tlacuache:~# modinfo brcmsmac
filename:       /lib/modules/3.16.0-4-686-pae/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/brcm80211/brcmsmac/brcmsmac.ko
firmware:       brcm/bcm43xx_hdr-0.fw
firmware:       brcm/bcm43xx-0.fw
license:        Dual BSD/GPL
description:    Broadcom 802.11n wireless LAN driver.
author:         Broadcom Corporation
alias:          bcma:m04BFid0812rev18cl*
alias:          bcma:m04BFid0812rev17cl*
alias:          bcma:m04BFid0812rev11cl*
depends:        bcma,mac80211,brcmutil,cfg80211,cordic
intree:         Y
vermagic:       3.16.0-4-686-pae SMP mod_unload modversions 686 

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david@tlacuache:~$ lsmod | egrep 'wl|b43|brcm|ssb'
brcmsmac              490722  0 
cordic                 12336  1 brcmsmac
brcmutil               12941  1 brcmsmac
mac80211              425546  1 brcmsmac
cfg80211              354219  2 brcmsmac,mac80211
bcma                   36446  1 brcmsmac

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david@tlacuache:~$ dmesg | egrep 'wl|b43|brcm|ssb|firmware'
[    0.000000] DMI: Hewlett-Packard HP Mini 210-2100                /1584, BIOS F.14 11/30/2010
[   11.640331] brcmsmac bcma0:0: mfg 4bf core 812 rev 24 class 0 irq 16
[   21.852936] r8169 0000:03:00.0: firmware: failed to load rtl_nic/rtl8105e-1.fw (-2)
[   21.853113] r8169 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load failed with error -2
[   21.854754] r8169 0000:03:00.0 eth0: unable to load firmware patch rtl_nic/rtl8105e-1.fw (-12)
[   22.036451] brcmsmac bcma0:0: firmware: direct-loading firmware brcm/bcm43xx-0.fw
[   22.136484] brcmsmac bcma0:0: firmware: direct-loading firmware brcm/bcm43xx_hdr-0.fw
[   22.208362] brcmsmac bcma0:0: brcms_ops_bss_info_changed: qos enabled: false (implement)
[   22.208612] brcmsmac bcma0:0: brcms_ops_config: change power-save mode: false (implement)
[   22.209099] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[   23.656192] wlan0: authenticate with 20:4e:7f:96:1e:68
[   23.656310] wlan0: send auth to 20:4e:7f:96:1e:68 (try 1/3)
[   23.657779] wlan0: authenticated
[   23.660165] wlan0: associate with 20:4e:7f:96:1e:68 (try 1/3)
[   23.664286] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 20:4e:7f:96:1e:68 (capab=0x431 status=0 aid=2)
[   23.664948] brcmsmac bcma0:0: brcmsmac: brcms_ops_bss_info_changed: associated
[   23.664962] brcmsmac bcma0:0: brcms_ops_bss_info_changed: qos enabled: true (implement)
[   23.664988] wlan0: associated
[   23.665094] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
[   23.699267] brcmsmac bcma0:0: wl0: brcms_c_d11hdrs_mac80211:  txop exceeded phylen 159/256 dur 1778/1504
[   23.703181] brcmsmac bcma0:0: wl0: brcms_c_d11hdrs_mac80211:  txop exceeded phylen 137/256 dur 1602/1504
[   25.372308] brcmsmac bcma0:0: brcms_ops_bss_info_changed: arp filtering: 1 addresses (implement)

(Note: You can eliminate the error message on lines 4-5 by installing the "firmware-realtek" package via Synaptic).

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root@tlacuache:~# iwconfig
wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"Deimos97"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: 20:4E:7F:96:1E:68   
          Bit Rate=1 Mb/s   Tx-Power=30 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=70/70  Signal level=-39 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:59   Missed beacon:0

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

[davidbnd]

it works, after installing the firmware from the repositories as you listed, i accidentally disabled WiFi by external slider.

[stevepusser]

Excellent! Could you edit the title of your first post in this thread and add [SOLVED] to it?

[kalwisti]

it works, after installing the firmware from the repositories as you listed, i accidentally disabled WiFi by external slider.

I'm glad to hear that you got your WiFi working. I would like to offer one last suggestion: now that you have successfully installed the brcmsmac driver, follow the command given here to blacklist the "b43" driver:

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... 26#p588002

(This step is recommended by user v&n, who has a lot of experience helping people solve WiFi problems).