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 1. To use as an in kernel driver the following settings need to be used in the kernel .config: {{{
# CONFIG_B43 is not set
# CONFIG_B43LEGACY is not set
CONFIG_BRCMUTIL=y
CONFIG_BRCMSMAC=y
# CONFIG_BRCMFMAC is not set
# CONFIG_BRCM_TRACING is not set
# CONFIG_BRCMDBG is not set
CONFIG_BCMA_POSSIBLE=y
CONFIG_BCMA=y
CONFIG_BCMA_HOST_PCI_POSSIBLE=y
CONFIG_BCMA_HOST_PCI=y
# CONFIG_BCMA_DRIVER_GMAC_CMN is not set
# CONFIG_BCMA_DEBUG is not set
# CONFIG_USB_HCD_BCMA is not set
}}}<<BR>>If an initial ramdisk is used for booting then the driver will be loaded before the root directory is mounted and firmware loading will fail. The firmware can be loaded later with the command: {{{
sudo sh -c ‘echo bcma0:0 > /sys/bus/bcma/drivers/bcrmsmac/bind’
}}}

Translation(s): English - Français - Italiano

Broadcom BCM4313, BCM43224, BCM43225 devices (brcmsmac, brcm80211)

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

Contents

  1. Broadcom BCM4313, BCM43224, BCM43225 devices (brcmsmac, brcm80211)
    1. Installation
      1. Squeeze
      2. Wheezy
    2. Known Issues
    3. Supported Devices
      1. Squeeze
      2. Wheezy
    4. See Also
    5. External Links

brcmsmac (brcm80211 prior to Linux 2.6.39) is a free and open source mac80211 driver, introduced in Linux 2.6.37.1

It supports wireless LAN devices based on specific Broadcom 802.11n PCIe wireless LAN chips:

  • BCM4313
  • BCM43224
  • BCM43225

Supported devices are listed at the end of this page.

The driver is included in Debian Linux kernel images since linux-2.6 2.6.32-22, but is not available during installation of Debian Squeeze/6.0 (628975). Non-free firmware is required for device operation.

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

Installation

Squeeze

<!> In this release, the driver is only available for the x86 and x86-64 architectures (Debian i386 and AMD64 ports respectively).

  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 and install the firmware-brcm80211 and wireless-tools packages: 

    # aptitude update
# aptitude install firmware-brcm80211 wireless-tools

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

    # modprobe -r brcm80211 ; modprobe brcm80211

  4. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.

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 and install the firmware-brcm80211 and wireless-tools packages: 

    # aptitude update
# aptitude install firmware-brcm80211 wireless-tools

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

    # modprobe -r brcmsmac ; modprobe brcmsmac

  4. To use as an in kernel driver the following settings need to be used in the kernel .config: 

    # CONFIG_B43 is not set
# CONFIG_B43LEGACY is not set
CONFIG_BRCMUTIL=y
CONFIG_BRCMSMAC=y
# CONFIG_BRCMFMAC is not set
# CONFIG_BRCM_TRACING is not set
# CONFIG_BRCMDBG is not set
CONFIG_BCMA_POSSIBLE=y
CONFIG_BCMA=y
CONFIG_BCMA_HOST_PCI_POSSIBLE=y
CONFIG_BCMA_HOST_PCI=y
# CONFIG_BCMA_DRIVER_GMAC_CMN is not set
# CONFIG_BCMA_DEBUG is not set
# CONFIG_USB_HCD_BCMA is not set


    If an initial ramdisk is used for booting then the driver will be loaded before the root directory is mounted and firmware loading will fail. The firmware can be loaded later with the command: 

    sudo sh -c ‘echo bcma0:0 > /sys/bus/bcma/drivers/bcrmsmac/bind’

  5. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.

Known Issues

  • With BCM4313-based devices, brcmsmac driver information may be displayed even after system boot.

    • You can ignore/hide this by adding a "dmesg -n 3" line to your /etc/rc.local file.

  • You may have problems when using other channels than 1-12. It is important you configure your regulatory domain with: 

    # iw reg set <EU|US|JP>

Supported Devices

Squeeze

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 (2.6.32-46) 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/n Wireless LAN Controller

Wheezy

The following list is based on the alias fields of modinfo brcmsmac in Debian 3.2.0 (3.2.35-2) kernel images. 

  • PCI: 14E4:0576 Broadcom Corporation BCM43224 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

See Also

CategoryHardware | CategoryWireless

  1. "Staging: Add initial release of brcm80211 - Broadcom 802.11n wireless LAN driver." - git.kernel.org - linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git/commitdiff (1)