By default older Mac computer models have driver issues with the Broadcom Wi-Fi chip. Most instructions online (such as this one from the official Ubuntu docs @ https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Macmini5-1/Precise) suggest to use sudo apt-get
and install these packages from the PPA.
BUT you don't have Internet so you can't use apt-get
! Instead you can use a different computer to download the packages, then transfer them over.
In the instructions below, you will need to replace sid
in the download URL's with the proper version of Debian your version of Ubuntu/Linux is using. To find which version you should use, you can view the chart at https://askubuntu.com/questions/445487/what-debian-version-are-the-different-ubuntu-versions-based-on#445496. If you're using jessie
for example, then replace all sid
with jessie
in the links below.
- Download
b43-fwcutter
@ https://packages.debian.org/sid/b43-fwcutter (replace "sid" in the URL as needed -- scroll down to "Download" section and choose based off your architecture, and then select a mirror/FTP link to download from on the next page that appears). - Download
firmware-b43-installer
@ https://packages.debian.org/sid/firmware-b43-installer (repeat same note as above) - Download
webfs
@ https://packages.debian.org/sid/webfs (repeat same note as above) - Download http://www.lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2 (e.g. using
wget http://www.lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
) - Save these downloaded files to flash storage and then insert flash storage into your Ubuntu/Linux machine.
- Copy the files from the flash storage to your Ubuntu/Linux machine's desktop.
- Open a terminal and run the command
echo '127.0.0.1 www.lwfinger.com' | sudo tee --append /etc/hosts
- Run the command
sudo dpkg -i ~/Desktop/webfs.deb
(replace webfs.deb with the webfs deb file name) - Run the command
sudo mkdir -p /var/www/b43-firmware
- Run the command
sudo mv ~/Desktop/broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2 /var/www/b43-firmware/
- Run the command
sudo sed -i -e 's/web_root="\/var\/www\/html"/web_root="\/var\/www"/' /etc/webfsd.conf
- Run the command
sudo sed -i -e 's/web_port=""/web_port="80"/' /etc/webfsd.conf
- Restart the web server
sudo /etc/init.d/webfs restart
(you may need to usesudo systemctl restart webfs
if your system usessystemd
) - Run the command
sudo dpkg -i ~/Desktop/b43-fwcutter.deb
(replace b43-fwcutter.deb with the b43-fwcutter deb file name) - Run the command
sudo dpkg -i ~/Desktop/firmware-b43-installer.deb
(replace firmware-b43-installer.deb with the firmware-b43-installer deb file name) - Run the command
echo 'blacklist ndiswrapper' | sudo tee --append /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
- Run the command
echo 'SUSPEND_MODULES="b43 bcma"' | sudo tee ---append /etc/pm/config.d/modules
- Run
sudo reboot
and then check if you can connect to Wi-Fi. - See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro8-2#Wireless for other instructions, such as enabling Sensors. Also see https://askubuntu.com/questions/334561/problems-with-broadcom-bcm4311-wireless-card-on-hp-pavillion-dv6000#667832 for reference.
- Remove
webfs
and the temp dir by typingsudo apt-get remove -y webfs
andsudo rm -rf /var/www/b43-firmware/
on your Ubuntu/Linux machine afterwards.
Hi all,
i got to step 13 , I used ¨sudo systemctl restart webfs¨and got the following message ¨Job for webfs.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See ´systemctl status webfs.service´and ´journalctl -xe´¨
when running those commands I got this
buntu@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ systemctl status webfs.service
● webfs.service - LSB: Webfs simple HTTP server
Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/webfs; generated)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2020-10-05 22:18:05 UTC; 2min 41s ago
Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
Process: 6986 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/webfs start (code=exited, status=2)
Tasks: 1 (limit: 4538)
Memory: 2.4M
CGroup: /system.slice/webfs.service
└─6648 /usr/bin/webfsd -k /var/run/webfs/webfsd.pid -r /var/www/html -u www-data -g www-data
Oct 05 22:18:05 ubuntu systemd[1]: Starting LSB: Webfs simple HTTP server...
Oct 05 22:18:05 ubuntu webfs[6986]: /etc/init.d/webfs: 48: /etc/webfsd.conf: Syntax error: Unterminated quoted string
Oct 05 22:18:05 ubuntu systemd[1]: webfs.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=2/INVALIDARGUMENT
Oct 05 22:18:05 ubuntu systemd[1]: webfs.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 05 22:18:05 ubuntu systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: Webfs simple HTTP server.
ubuntu@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ journalctl -xe
Oct 05 22:18:05 ubuntu systemd[1]: webfs.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=2/INVALIDARGUMENT
-- Subject: Unit process exited
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
-- An ExecStart= process belonging to unit webfs.service has exited.
-- The process' exit code is 'exited' and its exit status is 2.
Oct 05 22:18:05 ubuntu systemd[1]: webfs.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
-- Subject: Unit failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
-- The unit webfs.service has entered the 'failed' state with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 05 22:18:05 ubuntu systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: Webfs simple HTTP server.
-- Subject: A start job for unit webfs.service has failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
-- A start job for unit webfs.service has finished with a failure.
-- The job identifier is 2724 and the job result is failed.
Oct 05 22:18:05 ubuntu sudo[6983]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
I am very new to this and have no idea what to do. if anyone can help i would be very grateful :)