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Marvell 88W8363, 88W8366, 88W8687 devices (mwl8k)

This page describes how to enable support for WiFi devices based on Marvell TopDog chipsets on Debian systems.

mwl8k is a free and open source mac80211 driver introduced at Linux 2.6.30.

It supports wireless LAN devices based on specific Marvell Technology Group PCI/PCIe chipsets:

Supported devices are listed at the end of this page. Non-free firmware is required for device operation.

{i} For support of Marvell Libertas chipsets (802.11g), see libertas.

Installation

Debian 7 "Wheezy"

This release supports Marvell 88W8363, 88W8366 and 88W8687-based devices. Firmware is required for device operation:

88W8366 and 88W8687-based devices

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

    # Debian 7 "Wheezy"
    deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free
  2. Update the list of available packages and install the firmware-libertas package:

    # apt-get update && apt-get install firmware-libertas
  3. As the mwl8k module is automatically loaded for supported devices, reinsert this module to access installed firmware:

    # modprobe -r mwl8k ; modprobe mwl8k
  4. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.

88W8363-based devices

  1. Install the build-essential, cabextract, unshield and wget packages:

    $ su
    # apt-get install build-essential cabextract unshield wget && exit
  2. Acquire 88W8363 device firmware:

    $ wget ftp://downloads.netgear.com/files/wn311t_4_2_setup.exe
    $ cabextract -F Disk1/data* wn311t_4_2_setup.exe
    $ unshield -g Driver x Disk1/data1.cab
  3. Download and compile a utility for extracting the firmware, then execute it:

    $ wget -O extract.c 'http://marc.info/?l=linux-wireless&m=126540674419330&q=p3'
    $ gcc -o extract extract.c
    $ ./extract Driver/netmw145.sys
  4. Install the firmware:

    $ su
    # mkdir /lib/firmware/mwl8k
    # cp fmimage_8XX1.fw /lib/firmware/mwl8k/fmimage_8363.fw
    # cp helper_8XX1.fw /lib/firmware/mwl8k/helper_8363.fw
  5. As the mwl8k module is automatically loaded for supported devices, reinsert this module to access installed firmware:

    # modprobe -r mwl8k ; modprobe mwl8k
  6. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.

Debian 6.0 "Squeeze"

This release supports Marvell 88W8687-based devices only. Firmware is required for device operation:

  1. Add Debian Backports sources to /etc/apt/sources.list, also including the "non-free" component. For example:

    # Backported packages for Debian 6.0 "Squeeze"
    deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian-backports/ squeeze-backports main contrib non-free
  2. Update the list of available packages and install the squeeze-backports/firmware-libertas package:

    # apt-get update && apt-get -t squeeze-backports install firmware-libertas
  3. As the mwl8k module is automatically loaded for supported devices, reinsert this module to access installed firmware:

    # modprobe -r mwl8k ; modprobe mwl8k
  4. 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 mwl8k in Debian 3.2.0 (3.2.57-3) kernel images.

See Also


CategoryHardware | CategoryWireless