Ubuntu 14.04.2 wireless not working on Macbook Pro9.2 from bootable USB

Question

I need help on creating Bootable Ubuntu on Mac! I just created a bootable USB on Mac using ubuntu-14.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso. It works. But I have two issues with it:

1. There are two partitions titled "efi" appeared when booting from the USB flash drive, instead of one. I can boot into Ubuntu from both partitions. Upon inspection, one is called “bootx64.efi”, another “grubx64.efi”.

2. My wireless network doesn't work on Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS amd64. I am running it live from USB drive. It will only use plug-in Ethernet.

My laptop: MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012), MacBookPro9,2, MD101LL/A, 13.3"/2.5 i5/2x4GB/500-5400, Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite

USB drive: UFD 3.0 Silicon-Power 16G USB device (it has U3 software on it before format) formatted with “Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and GUID, one partition only”.

On Macbook Pro 13 Mid-2012 i5 2.5Hz, since wireless not working, I issued a lspci command on Mac and got response as follows:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ lspci –nm | grep 0280

02:00.0 “0280” “14e4” “4331” –r02 “1066” “00f5”

I then booted this Ubuntu USB on my Windows 7 PC Lenovo ThinkPad T410 i5 2.4GHz (2010) with legacy BIOS/MBR. It is bootable as well, wow! And the wireless works flawlessly. I also issued lspci as follows:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ lspci –nm | grep 0280

03:00.0 “0280” “8086” “4239” –r35 “8086” “1311”

In response to Jeremy31's answer, I booted Ubuntu 14.04.2 again off the live USB on my MacBook Pro9.2 without installation. The wireless had no reaction as it was. I then used an Ethernet cable direct connecting my Mac to my modem. It connected the Ubuntu to the internet fine through wired connection.

I typed the command you suggested: sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer. But it gave out an error message: E: Unable to locate package firmware-b43-installer.

I never get to your modprobe command of course.

Jeremy31,

I did sudo apt-get update using wired connection without any issue. I then issued sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer. I still gave out the same error: E: Unable to locate package firmware-b43-installer.

Any other trick?

Thanks, Josh

Answer 1

The Mac will likely only be able to use wifi after installing to a drive and using sudo apt-get update then sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer and rebooting. You could try the same command using the Live version along with sudo modprobe -r b43 followed by sudo modprobe b43 but it usually hangs

Burning the ISO to a USB drive is different than installing it. If I misunderstood your post, I apologize

The Live version works with the Lenovo because it has an Intel wifi card and Ubuntu is able to distribute the firmware with the install disk and not need a seperate download like the Mac needs with the Broadcom wifi

EDIT: Since the normal install method isn't working correctly, download https://www.dropbox.com/s/7exlzch25ap6uha/b43.zip?dl=0 and extract it to your home folder, then

sudo mkdir /lib/firmware/b43
sudo mv b43 /lib/firmware

reboot