Wednesday, April 3, 2013

How to install Wireless drivers in Linux Mint with no internet access


Its is easy to install wireless drivers when you have access to internet through the following command:

sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer


If you do not have access to the internet it is a little tricky. For that we require 2 packages:
1. b43-fwcutter
2. broadcom wireless driver

There is too much information present on internet to solve this issue. I have copy-pasted the procedure which worked for me.

Download files required:
1. b43-fwcutter_015-14_i386.deb
2. wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
3. broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar
4. broadcom-wl-5.10.56.27.3_mipsel.tar


Installation Procedure:


1. Install the b43-fwcutter package. This is usually located on the Ubuntu install media under /cdrom/pool/main/b/b43-fwcutter/ or you can download the binary '.deb' package by following the links on launchpad.
Double click on the package to install or in a Terminal issue the following commands:
cd /cdrom/pool/main/b/b43-fwcutter/
sudo dpkg -i b43-fwcutter*



  1. On a computer with Internet access, download the required firmware file:
  2. Copy the downloaded file to your home folder. Open a new Terminal and use b43-fwcutter to extract and install the firmware:
    b43legacy
    sudo b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
    b43 (10.04 Lucid Lynx)
    tar xfvj broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
    sudo b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver/wl_apsta_mimo.o
    b43 (12.04 Precise Pangolin)
    tar xfvj broadcom-wl-5.10.56.27.3_mipsel.tar.bz2
    sudo b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware broadcom-wl-5.10.56.27.3/driver/wl_apsta/wl_prebuilt.o
  3. Restart the computer or reload the b43/b43legacy module as outlined in the Switching between drivers section below (replace b43 with b43legacy where appropriate). 


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