After building and installing 3.9.6 kernel & modules on
my 2.2ghz HP6715b x86-64 Turion dual core laptop ,
which has always run Linux with no b43 wireless problems
since 2007, now has no access to its onboard broadcom 4311
wireless radio . I had always used the b43
driver with the correct firmware installed
under /lib/firmware/b43 with b43-fwcutter
as per instructions at http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43
, which I've just now redone again, but since booting
3.9.6, which I believe resulted in a firmware download
via udev at first boot, the wireless radio "on" blue LED
indicator goes off after BIOS POST . It has always been
the case that if the blue LED indicator is off after BIOS
POST , then the kernel does not see the device, and I
have no wireless until a hard poweroff and pressing
the touch sensitive wireless on button during BIOS POST.
But now the wireless LED goes on for @ 1 second during
BIOS POST , and never comes on again , and there are
no responses to touching wireless-on button after reboot,
though there are to other buttons next to it. In short,
I've lost wireless access (and home internet access for
my pc - I'm sending this from my mobile) . Can anyone help?
How can I force the card to download the re-installed
b43-fwcutter firmware, if the device no longer appears
in lspci output? Anyway to force the kernel to ignore
the wireless button ( it could be that the kernel & bios
think this button is in the off state - any way to force
its state to "on") ? Any ideas / suggestions would be much
appreciated.
Thanks & Regards, Jason