Broadcom 43xx wireless devices

This page describes how to enable support for WiFi devices based on Broadcom 4303, 4306, 4309, 4311, 4312, 4318 and 4320 wireless chipsets on Debian systems.

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Device Identification

PCI (includes PCIe, Mini PCI, Cardbus)

The page ["HowToIdentifyADevice/PCI"] explains how to identify a PCI device. For example: 

update-pciids
lspci -nn

Your Broadcom PCI wireless device should be listed: 

0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN [14E4:4311] (rev 01)

<!> The [:HowToIdentifyADevice/PCI#pci-id:PCI-Id] isn't sufficient to determine the Broadcom chipset within. The relevant driver has built-in logic to probe the actual chipset.

USB

The page ["HowToIdentifyADevice/USB"] explains how to identify a USB device. For example: 

update-usbids
lsusb

Your Broadcom USB wireless device should be listed: 

Bus 003 Device 006: ID 050d:7051 Belkin Components F5D7051 54g USB Network Adapter

Drivers

There are multiple drivers supporting Broadcom wireless LAN chipsets.

Linux native drivers:

The bcm43xx driver is no longer developed. More information on the b43/b43legacy drivers can be found on the Linux Wireless [http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#b43andb43legacy b43 driver page]. Note that bcm43xx, b43 and b43legacy do not support any USB devices based on Broadcom wireless chipsets.

Using Windows' binary drivers:

?Anchor(bcm43xx)

bcm43xx (Etch with 2.6.18 kernel only)

Using [:Lenny:]? Skip to the [#b43 b43/b43legacy] section.

For kernels earlier than 2.6.24. This is included as a module in Debian kernel images. The bcm43xx driver requires firmware which must be downloaded separately (can be performed by the etch-volatile/bcm43xx-fwcutter package during installation).

  1. Add the Debian Volatile repository (including the "contrib" component) to your /etc/apt/sources.list file, for example: 

    # Debian Volatile (Etch/4.0)
deb http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile etch/volatile main contrib non-free

  2. Update the list of available packages and install the etch-volatile/bcm43xx-fwcutter and etch/wireless-tools packages: 

    aptitude update
aptitude install bcm43xx-fwcutter wireless-tools

    If you have an Internet connection available, allow the etch-volatile/bcm43xx-fwcutter package to fetch and extract firmware.

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

    modprobe bcm43xx

  4. Verify your device has an available interface: 

    iwconfig

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

    ifconfig eth1 up

  6. [:WiFi/HowToUse:Configure] your wireless interface as appropriate.

?Anchor(bcm43xx_troubleshoot)

Troubleshooting

?Anchor(b43)

b43 and b43legacy

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

The b43 driver supports modern Broadcom 802.11g 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. All firmware must be downloaded separately, which can be performed by the b43-fwcutter package during installation.

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

    # Debian Lenny
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian lenny main contrib non-free

    or 

    # Debian Etch/4.0
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian etch main contrib non-free

  2. 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 [:Modules: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. [:WiFi/HowToUse:Configure] your wireless interface as appropriate.

Troubleshooting

?Anchor(rndis_wlan)

rndis_wlan

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

The rndis_wlan driver supports wireless RNDIS?FootNote(Microsoft's unofficial CDC ACM variant, see [wiki:WikiPedia:USB_communications_device_class USB CDC on Wikipedia].) 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.

  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 [:Modules: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. [:WiFi/HowToUse:Configure] your wireless interface as appropriate.

Troubleshooting

?Anchor(ndiswrapper)

NDISwrapper

Blacklist native driver

If loaded, the native bcm43xx driver will conflict with NDISwrapper. To unload and disable: 

modprobe -r bcm43xx
echo blacklist bcm43xx >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.local

Installation

Kernel module and NDIS driver installation is described on the [:NdisWrapper:NDISwrapper] page.

?Anchor(use)

Connecting to the network

See [:WiFi/HowToUse:How To use Wifi network adapter].

See Also

CategoryHardware CategoryWireless