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This page describes how to enable support for !WiFi devices based on Broadcom 4301, 4303, 4306, 4309, 4311, 4312, 4318 and 4320 chipsets on Debian systems. This page describes how to enable support for !WiFi devices based on Broadcom 4301, 4303, 4306, 4311, 4312, 4318 and 4320 chipsets on Debian systems.
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 For 802.11b/g devices with a BCM4306 revision 3, BCM4309, BCM4311 or BCM4318 chipset, install DebianPkg:firmware-b43-installer: {{{  For 802.11b/g devices with a BCM4306 revision 3, BCM4311 or BCM4318 chipset, install DebianPkg:firmware-b43-installer: {{{

Translation(s): none


Broadcom 43xx wireless devices

This page describes how to enable support for WiFi devices based on Broadcom 4301, 4303, 4306, 4311, 4312, 4318 and 4320 chipsets on Debian systems.

Identification

<!> The PCI-Id is not sufficient to determine the Broadcom chipset within.

The relevant driver has built-in logic to probe the actual chipset, for example:

  • b43-phy0: Broadcom 4306 WLAN found

Refer to http://www.linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#Known_PCI_devices for more information.

Drivers

There are multiple drivers supporting Broadcom wireless LAN chipsets.

Linux native drivers:

  • b43 (supported devices, unsupported devices)

    • For modern 802.11b/g chipsets.
    • Introduced in Linux 2.6.24.
    • Supports the BCM4312 low-power chipset as of Linux 2.6.32.
  • b43legacy (supported devices)

    • For 802.11b-only chipsets and the BCM4306 revision 2 chipset.
    • Introduced in Linux 2.6.24.
  • brcm80211 (supported devices)

    • Included in Debian Linux 2.6.32 kernel images.
    • Supports the BCM4313, BCM43224 and BCM43225 (802.11n) chipsets.
  • rndis_wlan (supported devices, unsupported devices)

    • For devices with the BCM4320 USB chipset only.

    • Introduced in Linux 2.6.25.
  • wl (supported devices)

    • Non-free vendor driver, not in mainline Linux kernels.
    • Supports the BCM4321 and BCM4322 (draft-n) chipsets.
  • bcm43xx
    • Introduced in Linux 2.6.17.
    • Disabled in Debian 2.6.24 and later kernels.
    • Removed from Linux at 2.6.26.

More information on b43/b43legacy can be found on the Linux Wireless b43 driver page. bcm43xx is no longer developed. Note that bcm43xx, b43, b43legacy, brcm80211 and wl do not support any USB devices based on Broadcom wireless chipsets.

Using Windows' binary drivers:

  • NDISwrapper plus the relevant Windows NDIS driver. This is a workaround for devices not supported natively by Linux, such as USB devices based on Broadcom wireless chipsets (other than the BCM4320 USB).

b43 and b43legacy

For Linux 2.6.24 and later kernels. Both drivers are included as modules in Debian kernel images.

Squeeze

The b43 driver supports modern Broadcom 802.11b/g wireless chipsets. The b43legacy driver supports Broadcom 802.11b-only devices and BCM4306 revision 2 chipsets.

The b43 driver requires version 4 firmware, whereas the b43legacy driver requires version 3 firmware. Firmware must be downloaded, which can be performed by the firmware-b43-installer, firmware-b43legacy-installer or firmware-b43-lpphy-installer packages during installation. An Internet connection is required.

{i} The b43-fwcutter package (as of 1:013~git20100413-1) no longer acquires firmware, separate installer packages are now used.

  1. Add a "contrib" 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 and install the wireless-tools package:

    aptitude update
    aptitude install wireless-tools
  3. Install the appropriate firmware installer package:

    For 802.11b/g devices with a BCM4306 revision 3, BCM4311 or BCM4318 chipset, install firmware-b43-installer:

    aptitude install firmware-b43-installer

    For 802.11b/g devices with a BCM4312 LP-PHY chipset (PCI-ID 14E4:4315), install firmware-b43-lpphy-installer:

    aptitude install firmware-b43-lpphy-installer

    For 802.11b-only devices (BCM4301, BCM4303 chipsets) or 802.11b/g devices with the BCM4306 revision 2 chipset, install firmware-b43legacy-installer:

    aptitude install firmware-b43legacy-installer
    A PCI ID check will be performed to prevent incorrect firmware installation. When satisfied, the relevant Broadcom proprietary driver will be acquired, the firmware within will be extracted and installed.
  4. The necessary kernel module should be automatically loaded. If necessary, it can be manually loaded via either:

    modprobe b43

    or

    modprobe b43legacy
  5. Verify your device has an available interface:

    iwconfig
  6. Raise the interface to activate the radio, for example:

    ifconfig wlan0 up
  7. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.

Troubleshooting
  • Examine the kernel ring buffer (dmesg(1)) to verify the required firmware files are being loaded by the driver. Lack of firmware is the usual reason for the "SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory" error message.

Lenny

The b43 driver supports modern Broadcom 802.11b/g wireless chipsets. The b43legacy driver supports Broadcom 802.11b-only devices and BCM4306 revision 2 chipsets.

The b43 driver requires version 4 firmware, whereas the b43legacy driver requires version 3 firmware. Firmware must be downloaded, which can be performed by the b43-fwcutter package during installation. An Internet connection is required.

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

    # Debian Lenny/5.0
    deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian lenny main contrib non-free
  2. Update the list of available packages and install the b43-fwcutter and wireless-tools packages:

    aptitude update
    aptitude install b43-fwcutter wireless-tools

    If you have an Internet connection available, allow the b43-fwcutter package to fetch and extract firmware.

  3. The necessary kernel module should be automatically loaded. If necessary, it can be manually loaded via either:

    modprobe b43

    or

    modprobe b43legacy
  4. Verify your device has an available interface:

    iwconfig
  5. Raise the interface to activate the radio, for example:

    ifconfig wlan0 up
  6. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.

Troubleshooting
  • Examine the kernel ring buffer (dmesg(1)) to verify the required firmware files are being loaded by the driver. Lack of firmware is the usual reason for the "SIOCSIFFLAGS: No such file or directory" error message.

rndis_wlan

For Linux 2.6.25 and later kernels. This is included as a module in Debian kernel images.

The rndis_wlan driver supports wireless RNDIS1 chipsets, of which the Broadcom 4320 USB chipset is the only one known at this time. This driver does not require firmware to be installed.

  • {i} Belkin F5D7051 v1000 users: Due to the inclusion of its vendor and device ID, a Ralink RT2500USB driver will be incorrectly loaded for this device. Please blacklist the rt2500usb module before continuing. The F5D7051 v3000 is not supported.

  1. Install the wireless-tools package:

    aptitude update
    aptitude install wireless-tools
  2. Physically connect the device to your system.
  3. The necessary kernel module should be automatically loaded. If necessary, it can be manually loaded via:

    modprobe rndis_wlan
  4. Verify your device has an available interface:

    iwconfig
  5. Raise the interface to activate the radio, for example:

    ifconfig wlan0 up
  6. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.

Troubleshooting

  • This driver does not support connections to hidden WPA networks at this time.

  • If you are attempting to use a Belkin F5D7051 v1000 device, blacklist the rt2500usb module and execute modprobe -r rt2500usb to unload it.

  • Some devices might display very poor scan results, making NetworkManager and similar programs take a long, long time to detect a given network. A possible workaround to improve the time to configure the device at boot-time is to pre-configure the connection manually on the /etc/init.d/networking file. For example:

    case "$1" in
    start)
            process_options
    
            log_action_begin_msg "Configuring network interfaces"
            #workaround WUSB54GS's low performance on scan
            iwconfig wlan0 essid MYESSID
            iwconfig wlan0 key MYKEY
            iwconfig wlan0 channel NN
            dhclient wlan0 &
            if ifup -a; then
                log_action_end_msg $?
    (...)

    NetworkManager will then see the network's beacon much quicker and will be able to configure the device appropriately afterwards.

  • Known problems with this driver are documented on its homepage.

NDISwrapper

This should only be used as a last resort, if the device is not supported by the native drivers (e.g. Broadcom USB devices, other than the BCM4320 USB).

Blacklist native drivers

If loaded, the b43/b43legacy drivers will conflict with NDISwrapper. To unload and blacklist:

modprobe -r b43 b43legacy
echo -e blacklist b43\\nblacklist b43legacy >> /etc/modprobe.d/local.conf

Installation

Kernel module and NDIS driver installation is described on the NDISwrapper page.

Supported Devices

b43

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

Unsupported

  • BCM4321 (PCI-IDs 14E4:4328, 14E4:4329, 14E4:432A)
  • BCM4322 (PCI-IDs 14E4:432B, 14E4:432C, 14E4:432D)

Support for the above chipsets is available via the non-free vendor driver, see wl.

b43legacy

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

rndis_wlan

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

The following list is based on the alias fields of modinfo rndis_wlan in Debian 2.6.32 (2.6.32-30) kernel images.

  • USB: *:* (Vendor name unknown) (Device name unknown)
    USB: 0411:004B MelCo., Inc. WLI-USB-G54 802.11g Adapter [Broadcom 4320 USB]
    USB: 0411:00BC MelCo., Inc. WLI-U2-KG125S 802.11g Adapter [Broadcom 4320 USB]
    USB: 050D:011B Belkin Components (Device name unknown)
    USB: 0A5C:D11B Broadcom Corp. Eminent EM4045 [Broadcom 4320 USB]
    USB: 0B05:1717 ASUSTek Computer, Inc. WL169gE 802.11g Adapter [Broadcom 4320 USB]
    USB: 0BAF:0111 U.S. Robotics USR5420 802.11g Adapter [Broadcom 4320 USB]
    USB: 0BAF:011B U.S. Robotics Wireless MAXg Adapter [Broadcom 4320]
    USB: 13B1:000E Linksys WUSB54GS v1 802.11g Adapter [Broadcom 4320 USB]
    USB: 13B1:0014 Linksys WUSB54GS v2 802.11g Adapter [Broadcom 4320 USB]
    USB: 13B1:0026 Linksys WUSB54GSC v1 802.11g Adapter [Broadcom 4320 USB]
    USB: 1690:0715 Askey Computer Corp. [hex] Name: Voyager 1055 Laptop 802.11g Adapter [Broadcom 4320]
    USB: 1799:011B Belkin Components (Device name unknown)

    http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/rndis_wlan#supported_chips - supported chipsets

Unsupported

  • Belkin F5D7051 v3000 (USB-ID 4317:0711)

  • Linksys WUSB54GSC v2 (USB-ID 1737:0075)
  • Tivo Wireless G USB Adapter (USB-ID 0A5C:BD11)

Support for these devices may be possible using NDISwrapper.

See Also


CategoryHardware | CategoryWireless

  1. Microsoft's unofficial CDC ACM variant, see USB CDC on Wikipedia. (1)