Ubuntu 9.04 on HP Compaq nx6125

Since Hardy Heron, Ubuntu has progressively got better and better, and has largely worked well on my HP Compaq nx6125 laptop. However, it’s never worked “out of the box” and has required a number of tweaks to get wireless networking and power management working correctly. That is, until now. All that’s needed (after checking my .bash_history) is to configure the wireless LAN:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter
$ sudo ifconfig wlan up
$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Ubuntu 9.04 – the Jaunty Jackalope – x86-64 just works! Absolutely no tweaking required. I’m so impressed I think I’ll completely remove Windows XP since I don’t imagine I’ll replace it with Windows 7 later this year. Incidentally, Windows 7 is due for release around the same time as Ubuntu 9.10 – the Karmic Koala.


2009
06/13
CATEGORY
HP Compaq nx6125
Jaunty Jackalope
Ubuntu
x86-64
TAGS

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    • Della
    • July 7th, 2009

    hi, thanks for this post, it has been really helpful.but i’ve got a problem: after the typing of second code begins the installation of b43-fwcutter and the download of the driver etc etc.. at a certain point b43-fwcutter begins to extract the driver from broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5 but suddenly it stops and returns error, this is the log:

    [here there are a lot of lines like the following]
    broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/shared/sromstubs.c
    broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/shared/xip.lds.in
    Cannot open input file --unsupported
    dpkg: error processing b43-fwcutter (--configure):
    the subprocess post-installation script has returned an error code 2
    the errors occurred while processing:
    b43-fwcutter
    E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

    any idea?
    thank you

    • Did you install a clean version of Ubuntu or upgrade to 9.04? What did you do to connect using wireless networking before? Let’s find out what version of b43-fwcutter you are using:

      $ b43-fwcutter -v
      b43-fwcutter version 011

      What version do you have installed?

        • Della
        • July 8th, 2009

        answering your first question: i’ve got a brand new 9.04 (before there was an old windows xp wich i totally erased)

        here says the version is a 008… now, i think this is the problem, i’m wondering why apt-get installs this older version of the software…

      • Okay, you need to remove b43-fwcutter and start over. Try the following:

        $ sudo apt-get purge b43-fwcutter
        Reading package lists... Done
        Building dependency tree
        Reading state information... Done
        The following packages will be REMOVED
        b43-fwcutter*
        0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
        After this operation, 115kB disk space will be freed.
        Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
        (Reading database ... 178586 files and directories currently installed.)
        Removing b43-fwcutter ...
        Purging configuration files for b43-fwcutter ...
        Processing triggers for man-db ...
        Now, update your sources:

        $ sudo apt-get update

        Finally, reinstall b43-fwcutter:

        $ sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter
        Reading package lists... Done
        Building dependency tree
        Reading state information... Done
        The following NEW packages will be installed
        b43-fwcutter
        0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
        Need to get 17.3kB of archives.
        After this operation, 115kB of additional disk space will be used.
        Get: 1 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main b43-fwcutter 1:011-5 [17.3kB]
        Fetched 17.3kB in 0s (75.9kB/s)
        Preconfiguring packages ...
        Selecting previously deselected package b43-fwcutter.
        (Reading database ... 178577 files and directories currently installed.)
        Unpacking b43-fwcutter (from .../b43-fwcutter_1%3a011-5_amd64.deb) ...
        Processing triggers for man-db ...
        Setting up b43-fwcutter (1:011-5) ...

        Press enter to confirm that you want to fetch and extract the firmware. Let me know how it goes.

        • Della
        • July 9th, 2009

        ok, seems to work properly now. many thanks!
        i’ve also found this alternative method (i haven’t tried it yet but seems to be quite serious):
        http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#fw-b43-new
        just in case anyone needs it :)

    • Bob Cloninger
    • September 24th, 2009

    Thanks! Your instructions worked well until:

    $ sudo ifconfig wlan up

    When I got an error message. While trying to diagnose the problem, the wireless net popped up asking for my login! Nothing like accidentally getting it right!

    Thanks again!

    - Bob

    • Luke
    • November 2nd, 2009

    hi i’ve got a hp compaq presario and i am trying to get the HP WLAN working on it. there is a button on the laptop that (on windows xp and vista) would enable or disable the wlan. following your steps, everything went okay until “sudo ifconfig wlan up” which i then get:

    wlan: ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device.

    I am new to ubuntu and i dont know how to get things to work.

    • Your laptop isn’t an HP nx6125 and most probably doesn’t use the Broadcom (B43) wlan card. Search Google, specifying the exact model, e.g. Compaq Presario c700, or visit the Ubuntu forum.

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