Broadcom 4311, 4312, 4321, 4322 devices (wl)
This page describes how to enable support for WiFi devices based on Broadcom 4311/4312/4321/4322 chipsets - using Broadcom's hybrid device driver - on Debian systems.
Contents
Some Broadcom wireless LAN chipsets are unsupported by the reverse-engineered b43 and b43legacy drivers at this time, including:
BCM4312 low-power variant (PCI-ID: 14E4:4315)
- BCM4321 (PCI-IDs: 14E4:4328, 14E4:4329)
- BCM4322 (PCI-ID: 14E4:432B)
Support of these chipsets is possible using a driver (wl) made available by the vendor, which includes a binary-only component targeted for the x86 or x86-64 architecture.
An alternate method of support for your device may be possible using NDISwrapper.
The vendor driver depends on the x86 or x86-64 architecture (Debian i386 and AMD64 ports respectively) at this time.
Installation
Lenny
Install the build-essential, debhelper, module-assistant, quilt and wireless-tools packages:
$ su # aptitude update # aptitude install build-essential debhelper module-assistant quilt wireless-tools # exit
Manually acquire the squeeze/broadcom-sta-source package from http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/all/broadcom-sta-source/download. For example:
$ wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/non-free/b/broadcom-sta/broadcom-sta-source_5.10.91.9-1_all.deb
Manually acquire the squeeze/broadcom-sta-common package from http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/all/broadcom-sta-common/download. For example:
$ wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/non-free/b/broadcom-sta/broadcom-sta-common_5.10.91.9-1_all.deb
Install the squeeze/broadcom-sta-common and squeeze/broadcom-sta-source packages via dpkg:
$ su # dpkg -i broadcom-sta-common*deb broadcom-sta-source*deb
Build and install a broadcom-sta-modules-* package for your system, using Module-Assistant:
# m-a a-i broadcom-sta
Add wl to the list of kernel modules to be loaded at boot:
# echo wl >> /etc/modules
Load the wl module:
# modprobe wl
Verify your device has an available interface:
# iwconfig
Raise the interface to activate the radio, for example:
# ifconfig wlan0 up
Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.
Squeeze
Add a "non-free" component to /etc/apt/sources.list, for example:
# Debian Squeeze deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian squeeze main contrib non-free
Update the list of available packages. Install the module-assistant and wireless-tools packages:
# aptitude update # aptitude install module-assistant wireless-tools
Build and install a broadcom-sta-modules-* package for your system, using Module-Assistant:
# m-a a-i broadcom-sta
Add wl to the list of kernel modules to be loaded at boot:
# echo wl >> /etc/modules
Load the wl module:
# modprobe wl
Verify your device has an available interface:
# iwconfig
Raise the interface to activate the radio, for example:
# ifconfig wlan0 up
Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.
Known Issues
See bugs reported on broadcom-sta-source.
Supported Devices
The page HowToIdentifyADevice/PCI explains how to identify a PCI device.
The following list is based on the alias fields of modinfo wl as of driver version 5.10.91.9:
PCI: 14E4:4311 Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN PCI: 14E4:4312 Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11a/b/g PCI: 14E4:4313 Broadcom Corporation BCM4310 Ethernet Controller PCI: 14E4:4315 Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g PCI: 14E4:4328 Broadcom Corporation BCM4328 802.11a/b/g/n PCI: 14E4:4329 Broadcom Corporation BCM43XG PCI: 14E4:432A Broadcom Corporation (Device name unknown) PCI: 14E4:432B Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller PCI: 14E4:432C Broadcom Corporation (Device name unknown) PCI: 14E4:432D Broadcom Corporation (Device name unknown) PCI: 14E4:4353 Broadcom Corporation (Device name unknown) PCI: 14E4:4357 Broadcom Corporation (Device name unknown)
See Also
bcm43xx - Broadcom 43xx wireless devices
External Links
http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php - 802.11 Linux STA driver