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 chips on Debian systems.
Contents
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. Non-free firmware is required for device operation.
For support of other Broadcom PCI wireless LAN chipsets, see bcm43xx.
Installation
Debian 7.0 "Wheezy"
Add a "non-free" component to /etc/apt/sources.list, for example:
# Debian 7.0 "Wheezy" deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free
Update the list of available packages and install the firmware-brcm80211 package:
# apt-get update && apt-get install firmware-brcm80211
As the driver may already be loaded, reinsert the module to access installed firmware:
# modprobe -r brcmsmac ; modprobe brcmsmac
Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.
Debian 6.0 "Squeeze"
In this release, the driver is only available for the x86 and x86-64 architectures (Debian i386 and AMD64 ports respectively).
Add a "non-free" component to /etc/apt/sources.list, for example:
# Debian 6.0 "Squeeze" deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ squeeze main contrib non-free
Update the list of available packages and install the firmware-brcm80211 package:
# apt-get update && apt-get install firmware-brcm80211
As the driver may already be loaded, reinsert the module to access installed firmware:
# modprobe -r brcm80211 ; modprobe brcm80211
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
The following list is based on the alias fields of modinfo brcmsmac in Debian 3.2.0 (3.2.41-2+deb7u2) 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