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Saved from post: Getting Broadcom STA working for non-firmware wireless adapters

Posted 09-28-2011 at 10:12 PM by ReaperX7

I recommend using the SlackBuild script to install this driver to a manageable directory.

There are several open source drivers that are used to drive Broadcom 802.11 chips such as b43 and ssb. They will conflict with this driver and need to be uninstalled before this driver can be installed. Any previous revisions of the wl driver also need to be removed.

The ssb driver must be removed (by hand or script) before wl is loaded. The wl driver will not function
properly if ssb the module is loaded.

lsmod | grep "b43\|ssb\|wl"

To blacklist these drivers and prevent them from loading in the future:

Open up /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf with a text editor and add:

blacklist ssb
blacklist b43

to the list of modules to avoid loading. This is the same as blacklisting the radeon and nouveau driver. You will want to reboot at this point.

If you have not previously installed a wl driver, you'll need to add a security module before using the wl module. Most newer systems use lib80211 while others use ieee80211_crypt_tkip. See which one works for
your system.

modprobe lib80211

(if you have an older WPA TKIP only router use module ieee80211_crypt_tkip instead.)

The first one is the recommended module to use for modern WPA2 AES capable wireless adapters and routers. If you do not do this BEFORE you load the wl.ko driver the system may say the wlan security module is not loaded.

You may also want to check your initrd.gz ramfs and make sure it does not contain any wireless modules for b43 and ssb, if you use one and regenerate it without the module for the wireless.

Follow these steps to have the driver load as part of the boot process:

Copy wl.ko to the /lib/modules/(kernel-revision)/kernel/driver/net/wireless

You may want to add these lines to your /etc/rc.d/rc.local file:

modprobe lib80211
modprobe wl

Reboot and the wireless adapter should now work.
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Comments

  1. Old Comment
    Saved this from a post I made a few days ago that worked on clearing up a person's wireless issues. If anyone wants to create a Slackware based Broadcom wireless FAQ, this clip is free to add in.
    Posted 09-28-2011 at 10:14 PM by ReaperX7 ReaperX7 is offline
  2. Old Comment
    Thanks a lot for the post. Little details that make a big difference.
    Posted 06-14-2012 at 08:25 AM by Munra Munra is offline
 

  



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