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Broadcom 4313, 43224, 43225 devices (brcm80211)

This page describes how to enable support for WiFi devices based on Broadcom BCM4313, BCM43224, BCM43225 chipsets on Debian systems.

brcm80211 is a free and open source mac80211 driver currently in development, supporting specific Broadcom 802.11n/g PCIe wireless LAN chipsets:

• BCM4313 (PCI-ID: 14E4:4727)
• BCM43224 (PCI-ID: 14E4:4353)
• BCM43225 (PCI-ID: 14E4:4357)

It is included in Debian Linux kernel images since linux-2.6 2.6.32-22. Non-free firmware is required and must be installed prior to device operation.

This staging driver is only available for the x86 and x86-64 architectures (Debian i386 and AMD64 ports respectively) at this time.

For support of other Broadcom PCI wireless LAN chipsets, see bcm43xx.

Installation

Lenny

ToDo: Amend to install the firmware-brcm80211 package, when released and available in lenny-backports.

1. Install the subversion and wireless-tools packages:

   # aptitude install subversion wireless-tools
   # exit

2. Acquire and install device firmware:

   $ svn export svn://svn.debian.org/svn/kernel/dists/trunk/firmware-nonfree/brcm80211/brcm
   $ su
   # mkdir /usr/local/lib/firmware
   # cp -r brcm /usr/local/lib/firmware
   # cd /usr/local/lib/firmware/brcm
   # ln -s bcm43xx-0.fw-610.809.0 bcm43xx-0.fw
   # ln -s bcm43xx_hdr-0.fw-610.809.0 bcm43xx_hdr-0.fw

3. Add the Debian Backports repository to /etc/apt/sources.list, for example:

   # Backported packages for Debian Lenny
   deb http://backports.debian.org/debian-backports lenny-backports main

4. Update the list of available packages and install a Linux 2.6.32 kernel image appropriate for your system. For example:

   # aptitude update
   # aptitude -t lenny-backports install linux-image-2.6-$(uname -r | sed 's,.*-,,')

5. Restart your system and boot with the newly installed kernel.

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

   $ su
   # modprobe brcm80211

7. Verify your device has an available interface:

   # iwconfig

8. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.

Squeeze

ToDo: Amend to install the firmware-brcm80211 package, when released.

1. Install the subversion and wireless-tools packages:

   # aptitude update && aptitude install subversion wireless-tools
   # exit

2. Acquire and install device firmware:

   $ svn export svn://svn.debian.org/svn/kernel/dists/trunk/firmware-nonfree/brcm80211/brcm
   $ su
   # mkdir /usr/local/lib/firmware
   # cp -r brcm /usr/local/lib/firmware
   # cd /usr/local/lib/firmware/brcm
   # ln -s bcm43xx-0.fw-610.809.0 bcm43xx-0.fw
   # ln -s bcm43xx_hdr-0.fw-610.809.0 bcm43xx_hdr-0.fw

3. As the driver may already be loaded, reinsert the module to access installed firmware:

   # modprobe -r brcm80211 ; modprobe brcm80211

4. Verify your device has an available interface:

   # iwconfig

5. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.

Supported Devices

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

The following list is based on the alias fields of modinfo brcm80211 in Debian 2.6.32 (2.6.32-23) kernel images.

• 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 LP-PHY

See Also

• bcm43xx - Broadcom 43xx wireless devices

• How to use a WiFi interface

• wl (vendor driver)

External Links

• http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/brcm80211

CategoryHardware | CategoryWireless