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Broadcom BCM4311, BCM4312, BCM4313, BCM4321, BCM4322, BCM43224, BCM43225, BCM43227, BCM43228 devices (wl)

This page describes how to enable support for WiFi devices based on Broadcom wireless LAN chipsets, using the vendor driver on Debian systems.

The proprietary Broadcom wl driver (aka broadcom-sta) provides support for some Broadcom-based PCI hardware. It includes a binary-only component targeted for the x86 or x86-64 architecture. Supported devices are listed at the end of this page.

The driver depends on the x86 or x86-64 architecture (Debian i386 and AMD64 ports respectively) at this time.

The BCM4313, BCM43224 and BCM43225 chipsets are alternatively supported by the brcm80211 driver.

Installation

Squeeze

1. Add a "non-free" component to /etc/apt/sources.list, for example:

   # Debian Squeeze/6.0
   deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian squeeze main contrib non-free

2. Update the list of available packages. Install the module-assistant and wireless-tools packages:

   # aptitude update
   # aptitude install module-assistant wireless-tools

3. Build and install a broadcom-sta-modules-* package for your system, using Module-Assistant:

   # m-a a-i broadcom-sta

4. Blacklist the brcm80211 module, to prevent it conflicting for support of BCM4313, BCM43224 and BCM43225 devices:

   # echo blacklist brcm80211 >> /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-common.conf

5. Rebuild your initial ramdisk, to blacklist modules defined at /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-common.conf within initramfs:

   # update-initramfs -u -k $(uname -r)

6. Unload conflicting modules:

   # modprobe -r b44 b43 b43legacy ssb brcm80211

7. Load the wl module:

   # modprobe wl

8. Verify your device has an available interface:

   # iwconfig

9. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate. See also known issues.

Lenny

1. Install the build-essential, debhelper, module-assistant, quilt and wireless-tools packages:

   $ su
   # aptitude update
   # aptitude install build-essential debhelper module-assistant quilt wireless-tools
   # exit

2. Manually acquire the squeeze/broadcom-sta-source package from http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/all/broadcom-sta-source/download. For example:

   $ wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/non-free/b/broadcom-sta/broadcom-sta-source_5.60.48.36-2_all.deb

3. Manually acquire the squeeze/broadcom-sta-common package from http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/all/broadcom-sta-common/download. For example:

   $ wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/non-free/b/broadcom-sta/broadcom-sta-common_5.60.48.36-2_all.deb

4. Install the squeeze/broadcom-sta-common and squeeze/broadcom-sta-source packages via dpkg:

   $ su
   # dpkg -i broadcom-sta-*deb

5. Build and install a broadcom-sta-modules-* package for your system, using Module-Assistant:

   # m-a a-i broadcom-sta

6. Blacklist the brcm80211 module, to prevent it conflicting for support of BCM4313, BCM43224 and BCM43225 devices:

   # echo blacklist brcm80211 >> /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-common.conf

7. Rebuild your initial ramdisk, to blacklist modules defined at /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-common.conf within initramfs:

   # update-initramfs -u -k $(uname -r)

8. Unload conflicting modules:

   # modprobe -r b44 b43 b43legacy ssb brcm80211

9. Load the wl module:

   # modprobe wl

10. Verify your device has an available interface:

    # iwconfig

11. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate. See also known issues.

Wheezy

1. Add a "non-free" component to /etc/apt/sources.list, for example:

   # Debian Wheezy (testing)
   deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian wheezy main contrib non-free

2. Update the list of available packages. Install the module-assistant and wireless-tools packages:

   # aptitude update
   # aptitude install module-assistant wireless-tools

3. Build and install a broadcom-sta-modules-* package for your system, using Module-Assistant:

   # m-a a-i broadcom-sta

4. Unload conflicting modules:

   # modprobe -r b44 b43 b43legacy ssb brcmsmac

5. Load the wl module:

   # modprobe wl

6. Verify your device has an available interface:

   # iwconfig

7. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate. See also known issues.

Known Issues

• The Sonics Silicon Backplane driver (ssb) conflicts with the wl driver (545388, broadcom-sta-common/README.Debian).

  • b44, b43, b43legacy and ssb are blacklisted by default as of broadcom-sta 5.10.91.9.3-3 (brcm80211 and brcmsmac since 5.100.82.38-1, 5.100.82.38-2 respectively).

  • This prevents use of any Ethernet device supported by b44.

• Frequent disconnections can be experienced. This may be resolved by disabling power management via iwconfig(8) (e.g. iwconfig eth1 power off).

• Monitor mode is not supported prior to driver version 5.100.82.111.

  • Testing users, see /usr/share/doc/broadcom-sta-source/README.txt.gz to enable.

See bugs reported on broadcom-sta.

Supported Devices

The page HowToIdentifyADevice/PCI explains how to identify a PCI device.

The following list is based on the alias fields of modinfo wl built from squeeze/broadcom-sta-source:

• PCI: 14E4:4311 Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
  PCI: 14E4:4312 Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11a/b/g
  PCI: 14E4:4313 Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11a
  PCI: 14E4:4315 Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY
  PCI: 14E4:4328 Broadcom Corporation BCM4321 802.11a/b/g/n
  PCI: 14E4:4329 Broadcom Corporation BCM4321 802.11b/g/n
  PCI: 14E4:432A Broadcom Corporation BCM4321
  PCI: 14E4:432B Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller
  PCI: 14E4:432C Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11b/g/n
  PCI: 14E4:432D Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n
  PCI: 14E4:4353 Broadcom Corporation BCM43224 802.11a/b/g/n
  PCI: 14E4:4357 Broadcom Corporation BCM43225 802.11b/g/n
  PCI: 14E4:4727 Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller

The following list is based on the alias fields of modinfo wl built from wheezy/broadcom-sta-source:

• PCI: 14E4:0576 Broadcom Corporation BCM43224 802.11a/b/g/n
  PCI: 14E4:4311 Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
  PCI: 14E4:4312 Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11a/b/g
  PCI: 14E4:4313 Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11a
  PCI: 14E4:4315 Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY
  PCI: 14E4:4328 Broadcom Corporation BCM4321 802.11a/b/g/n
  PCI: 14E4:4329 Broadcom Corporation BCM4321 802.11b/g/n
  PCI: 14E4:432A Broadcom Corporation BCM4321
  PCI: 14E4:432B Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller
  PCI: 14E4:432C Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11b/g/n
  PCI: 14E4:432D Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n
  PCI: 14E4:4353 Broadcom Corporation BCM43224 802.11a/b/g/n
  PCI: 14E4:4357 Broadcom Corporation BCM43225 802.11b/g/n
  PCI: 14E4:4358 Broadcom Corporation BCM43227 802.11b/g/n
  PCI: 14E4:4359 Broadcom Corporation BCM43228 802.11a/b/g/n
  PCI: 14E4:435A Broadcom Corporation (Device name unknown)
  PCI: 14E4:4727 Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller
  PCI: 14E4:A99D Broadcom Corporation (Device name unknown)

See Also

• bcm43xx - Broadcom 43xx wireless devices

• brcm80211 - Broadcom BCM4313, BCM43224, BCM43225 devices

• How to use a WiFi interface

• NDISwrapper

External Links

• http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php - 802.11 Linux STA driver

CategoryHardware | CategoryWireless