bcm43xx

Revision 54 as of 2006-06-05 02:37:41

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1. Using Broadcom Wireless in Ubuntu Breezy 5.10

1.1. Broadcom wireless chipset

Broadcom manufactures a chipset family called the Broadcom 43xx which is used in a lot of wireless products, including the Apple Airport Extreme, some Linksys products, and many HP, Compaq, Dell and Acer notebooks. They do not work out of the box on Ubuntu 5.10, (but does most of the time in Ubuntu Dapper 6.10) because the manufacturers have not released (open or closed) drivers for Linux; apparently they have not opened source because of security concerns (see [http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=2839&postcount=5 this forum posting]).

All is not lost: the very useful Ndiswrapper, which allows you to use vendor-supplied Windows wireless drivers in Linux, does work with these chips. There are occasional bugs (such as ESSID not being set or signal strength displaying incorrectly), but wireless networking can be done.

1.2. How To find out if you're using Broadcom 43xx

In a terminal, type lspci, which lists the PCI devices in your system. The output might include something like 

0000:02:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 03)

in which case you've got a Broadcom 4306. You can find out a bit more information about the driver by typing lspci -n, which in my case includes the line 

0000:02:02.0 0280: 14e4:4320 (rev 03)

1.3. Setup

This section's contents are copied from [http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=25683 a posting on Ubuntu forums].

PPC: Breezy does not support the Apple Airport Extreme without building a custom kernel (see ["WifiDocs/Device/AirportExtreme"]), but Dapper includes a [#head-e70dd6b5c57894d32e3eddc4f3e21d7d6d02230f native bcm43xx driver] as of kernel version 2.6.15.

Broadcom wireless cards are tricky to set up in ubuntu, and the forums are full of frustrated users seeking advice. Broadcom provide no Linux support (feel free to complain to your hardware vendor or choose a different card if you haven't yet shelled out your cash), but they can be made to work - and you're in the right place if you want to know how.

First, you need to find out if this How To is for you. Broadcom wireless cards come under many brand names and, in particular, are used in many Dell and Acer laptops. Look for the drivers supplied with your card (Dell usually store a copy in C:/DRIVERS/NETWORK/ADDON); if you have a file called bcmwl5.inf or bcmwl5a.inf then keep on reading. You won't succeed without following these instructions!

1.4. Removing previous ndiswrapper

  1. Before you start, clear out any mess from existing failed attempts to use ndiswrapper. Note that you shouldn't use a root terminal to execute the code in this how-to; use a normal terminal session instead. 

sudo modprobe -r bcmwl5
sudo modprobe -r ndiswrapper
sudo apt-get remove ndiswrapper-utils
sudo rm -r /etc/ndiswrapper/
sudo rm -r /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper

Some of these steps may report errors; just ignore them.

1.5. Installing ndiswapper

  1. Copy the bcmwl5.inf and bcmwl5.sys files to your desktop.

  2. Follow the advice given at [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AddingRepositoriesHowto How to add extra repositories].

  3. Open a terminal session and enter this code. Note that you need an active network connection for this to work; I've assumed that if you have access to a wireless LAN, you also have access to a wired network as a fallback. 

sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils
sudo ndiswrapper -i ~/Desktop/bcmwl5.inf
sudo ndiswrapper -m
for conffile in /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5/*.conf; do
sudo sed --in-place 's/RadioState|1/RadioState|0/g' $conffile
done
  1. Reboot your PC. On restarting, the light on your wireless card should come on. If not, try entering 

sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

  1. Your card is now working. Open the networking configuration tool System --> Administration --> Networking.

  2. Select your wireless network card (probably wlan0) and hit the properties button.

  3. Tick the This device is configured box, and enter your network name and connection settings. Ask your office network administrator for support if you don't know what this question means, or copy your settings from Windows.

  4. BE CAREFUL entering your WEP key, if you're using one. You're expected to enter this in hexadecimal form; if you don't speak hex, prefix your key with s:
  5. Click OK. The screen should close fairly quickly; if it hangs, you probably aren't connected properly.
  6. Back in the Network Settings screen, select your wireless device as the default gateway device.
  7. Click OK. Again, the screen should close fairly quickly.

  8. Enjoy wireless nirvana. If everything works, you can delete the bcmwl file from your desktop.

  9. You might notice that the signal strength applet doesn't work properly. This is a known bug with these cards.

If you have trouble, try booting into Windows - if you dual boot - and checking that the card is enabled. Some laptops allow the wireless card to be switched off, usually with a special key combination, and I've not found a reliable way to make this work in Linux.

1.6. Resources

1.7. Security

WPA works, but wpasupplicant may hang your machine when the interface is deconfigured via /sbin/ifdown.

1.8. Bugs

My Linksys PCI card occasionally crashes the computer when someone tries to use my wireless connection (I've set up my desktop to share its wired internet connection).

2. Using Broadcom Wireless in Ubuntu Dapper 6.06

2.1. Upgrading to Dapper, keeping ndiswrapper

If you have upgraded from Breezy Badger to Dapper Drake and your ndiswrapper wireless is broken (and you have a broadcom 43xx card) and you would like to still use ndiswrapper, you can easily disable the bcm43xx driver by running: 

echo 'blacklist bcm43xx' | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

This will ensure that the bcm43xx driver doesn't load at startup and will therefore not conflict with ndiswrapper.

To get it working without a reboot, you must unload the native driver and load up ndiswrapper. Simply run these commands: 

sudo rmmod bcm43xx
sudo rmmod ndiswrapper
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

2.2. Using the New Broadcom Driver

Airport Extreme cards found on most Apple laptops use this chipset. The Dapper kernel has support inbuilt for the Broadcom device. You should be able to get the card working in Dapper by following the steps below.

WARNING: There have been reports the firmware package mentioned below can hang the system at bootup in Apple Powerbooks with a 4318 controller! Check whether you have one of these using: 

lspci -v

The 1.1 version of the firmware package checks for one of these cards and refuses to install if one is found.

2.2.1. Prerequisites

You must broadcast your essid from your router. This is not essential, and the wireless card will connect if broadcast is turned off and you specify the essid by hand, but it makes it easier to test.

Don't use ifup and ifdown until you configure your /etc/network/interfaces file. (see below for instructions on howto do that ["http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=899926&postcount=24"] here [url]; .)

You must remove ndiswrapper if you where using it before, instructions on how can be found [#head-f63b172ef162fdab65dae57bbd33e6df20ca4114 here];

You must remove wifi-radar, as it has a driver conflict with the driver.

2.2.2. Obtaining the Firmware

You don't need to compile the driver as a precompiled module is present. However, we need to obtain the firmware for the card from a windows, Mac OS X or Access Point driver. You can install the firmware from a 3rd party package (See [#head-cf3f0ec9146ae9441b39c4bed74e5d044ef78d2f Experimental Firmware Packages]) or extract it yourself.

2.2.2.1. Extract it Yourself

If/when Ubuntu do a kernel upgrade to 2.6.17 or later you MUST use wl_apsta.o (the script does that). The new module does not have the invalid AP bug. To obtain the wl_apsta.o visit http://drinus.net/airport/wl_apsta.o. (From the bcm43xx team). 

sudo apt-get install bcm43xx-fwcutter

Links to various drivers come with the package. View them via 

zless /usr/share/doc/bcm43xx-fwcutter/README.gz

and pick one to download. Extract the firmware parts and install them to the correct location. 

sudo bcm43xx-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware <downloaded file>

The driver files will be copied to /lib/firmware.

Alternatively you can run the provided script. 

sudo /usr/share/bcm43xx-fwcutter/install_bcm43xx_firmware.sh

2.2.2.2. Experimental Firmware Packages

If you do not want to go looking for a windows driver and chop it up, there is an experimental package containing the firmware modules. You can fetch the package using the following command: 

wget http://ubuntu.cafuego.net/pool/bcm43xx/bcm43xx-firmware_1.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb

Then install it using 

sudo dpkg -i bcm43xx-firmware_1.1-0ubuntu1_all.deb

This will install all firmware files to /lib/firmware for all currently installed kernels.

2.2.2.2.1. Problems

If your kernel is updated, but the symbolic links are not updated for this new kernel, you may encounter the following message in dmesg: 

[4363141.967000] bcm43xx: Error: Microcode "bcm43xx_microcode5.fw" not available or load failed.
[4363144.826000] bcm43xx: Error: Microcode "bcm43xx_microcode5.fw" not available or load failed.

This can be resolved by upgrading to the latest firmware package version, which no longer uses symbolic links.

2.2.3. Setting up the Wireless Card

sudo modprobe bcm43xx

The device gets loaded as either eth1/eth2 (some weird kernel bug, i am guessing). Find out which one it is by doing a 

iwconfig

This should return the name of the interface as ethX. Check if you can scan for networks using 

sudo iwlist ethX scan

VERY IMPORTANT: MOST PEOPLE NEED TO USE THE FOLLOWING COMMAND TO GET CONNECTED

 sudo iwconfig ethX rate 11M 

You can add this to you /etc/network/interfaces file to get connected at startup. Like so: 

iface eth1 inet dhcp
     pre-up sudo iwconfig eth1 rate 11M

Alternatively just add "rate 11M" to /etc/network/interfaces like this example of an 802.11b WEP network: 

iface eth1 inet dhcp
rate 11M
wireless-essid My network
wireless-key 1234-5678-9abc-def0-1234-5678-9a

If when you type iwconfig eth1 you get 

eth1      IEEE 802.11b/g  ESSID:"troublemaker"  Nickname:"Broadcom 4318"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency=2.437 GHz  Access Point: '''Invalid'''
          Bit Rate=11 Mb/s   Tx-Power=18 dBm
          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off

you need to run 

sudo iwconfig eth1 ap any

this will fix it, it might also do to add this to you /etc/network/interfaces file, (sounds like a good time to make a script? and runn that with preup?) This has been fixed as of kernel 2.6.17. You must use wl_apsta.o ( http://drinus.net/airport/wl_apsta.o) with that kernel to fix the problem (from the bcm43xx team) here's an example of my startup script 

sudo ifconfig $myInterface up &>/dev/null
sudo iwconfig $myInterface essid $myEssid &>/dev/null
sudo iwconfig $myInterface rate 11M # &>/dev/null

note I don't know if 'sudo' is needed or 'if ifconfig ethX up' is needed but I use it and it works

Note 'sudo iwconfid eth1' will report any WEP key, but 'iwconfig eth1' (as unprivileged user) does not.

2.3. NetworkManager

As of kernel 2.6.15-20, the driver appears to play nice with NetworkManager and nm-applet. When trying this, make sure wpasupplicant is disabled in /etc/default/wpasupplicant and all lines referring to the wireless card in /etc/network/interfaces are commented out.

2.4. Security

WPA works, but wpasupplicant may hang your machine when the interface is deconfigured via /sbin/ifdown.

Sample options from /etc/default/wpasupplicant 

OPTIONS="-i eth0 -D wext -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf"

2.5. Trouble Shooting in Dapper

2.5.1. Were you using NDISwrapper ? OR Crashing when trying to use Networking

try 

sudo rmmod bcm43xx
sudo rmmod ndiswrapper
sudo modprobe bcm43xx

Then run one of the below scipts

If your card starts to work then you need to remove ndiswrapper from your system follow the steps in Removing Ndiswrapper from the Breezy section above.

2.5.2. Scripts to get Connectivity

Here are Two Scripts to get Connectivity:

Both will prompt for root password (use: ./[script-name])

2.5.2.1. Managed Connectivity Script

interface=eth1 # fill in whatever your interface is here it should typically be eth1
# Turning off other network devices"
sudo ifconfig eth0 down # assumes you have a wired NIC remove if you don't have one
sudo modprobe bcm43xx
# setting wireless device parameters
sudo ifconfig $interface up # This step is very very important!
sudo iwconfig $interface essid your_essid_here
sudo iwconfig $interface mode managed
# sudo iwconfig $interface mode auto # another suggested mode
sudo iwconfig $interface key off # see man iwconfig for wireless encrpytion
echo "Setting up dhcp"
sudo dhclient $interface

2.5.2.2. Connectivity Script For Beginners

It must be run as root to work. i.e (sudo ./[script-name])

Good script for beginners, if you don't know how to run a script: google it and then use this one, don't read this script unless you understand scripting already as it's ugly to read.

Run the script without arguments and this script will try and auto connect to your most likely interface and essid to use: 

if [ "$1" == --help ]
then
  echo "Listing of ESSID's"
  # Lists the availble ESSIDs
       iwlist  scan | grep ESSID
  echo "Likely interface: "
  # Grabs the name of the interface that succefully scanned
  iwlist scan | grep completed | sed "s/Scan\scompleted\s://g"
  echo "+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  "
  echo "Usage: getit [interface] [essid]  "
  echo "Pick one of the above interface and essid's"
  echo "use the interface that had the essids"
  echo "+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  "
  exit
fi
if [ -z $2 ] ; then
        myEssid=any
else
        myEssid=$2
fi

if [ -z $1 ] ; then
        myInterface="eth1"   # typically eth1 but may be something else
else
        myInterface=$1
fi

echo "Bringing network down"
sudo ifconfig $myInterface down &>/dev/null
echo "Bringing network back up"
sudo ifconfig $myInterface up &>/dev/null
echo "Changing to $myEssid"
sudo iwconfig $myInterface essid $myEssid &>/dev/null
echo "Changing to rate to 11M"       # this isn't always necessary but helps for Broadcom 4318 cards

sudo iwconfig $myInterface rate 11M &>/dev/null     # if your having issue getting connected to a network
echo "acquiring IP"
sudo dhclient $myInterface

The forum link (applies to Dapper, to be released around 6/2006) where this is discussed is http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=114922

2.5.3. Changing Back to ndiswrapper

If the driver isn't for you then you can change back to ndiswrapper by following the above breezy steps for installing bcml4344. You also need to make the additional step of adding bcml43xx to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist so that the driver isn't automatically added into the kernel at boot. The quick command to do this is:

echo "blacklist bcm43xx" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

3. Reader Comments

  • Dapper section needs cleanup, testing, and expansion... towsonu2003 02.08.2006

  • Both scripts should be merged . VenkatRaghavan 02.12.2006

  • On my Acer Ferrari 4005 this driver needs to be set to freq 11M so I can use WEP/WPA: sudo iwconfig eth1 rate 11M
  • the /etc/network/interfaces system probably understands lines like "wireless-foo arg" to mean "iwconfig [correctInterface] foo arg". Using that shortcut would simplify some of the lines shown above. -drewp

  • On my Acer Aspire 5024 Amd64 based the ndiswrapper module provided with amd64-k8 ubuntu kernel didn't work, and I had to build it from sources available at http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ndiswrapper/ndiswrapper-1.13.tar.gz?download

  • This document is a must and should be included in the OFFLINE Dapper documentation. I already have a bug filed about this here https://launchpad.net/bugs/42453 please comment -thanks

  • I have had success with a Belkin BCM4306 F5D7000 Rev 2.0. However I can no longer access System -> Administration -> Networking without it breaking the install. Also I think more info should be provided re the scripts and how to get them to run at startup. the_tiger 05.05.2006

  • I finally got the BCM4306 in my iBook working with the Dapper kernel. Critical things for me (in addition to these docs) were: 1) Had to change my network to use Open System authentication, it didn't work with Shared Key. 2) Added "post-up iwlist eth1 scan" to my interfaces file. I also added "post-up iwconfig eth1 rate 54M", since 11M is now the default, and 54M seemed much stable for me (less packet loss). 3) Added a script to /etc/apm/resume.d which runs "ifdown eth1; ifup eth1" to re-associate when the computer resumes from sleep. - JohnSteeleScott 31.05.2006

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