Problem with broadcom wireless card setup

jhdalben · 09-05-2012, 03:43 PM

Hi, I'm kinda new to Slackware and I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how to make my broadcom wireless card work.

here it is the lspci | grep Network output

Code:

bash-4.1# lspci | grep Network
02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)

and iwconfig output:

Code:

bash-4.1# iwconfig
lo       no wireless extensions.

eth0     no wireless extensions.

According to this website http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#fw-b43-lp it doesn't support my wireless card (see the table at "Supported Devices").

Can anyone help me? I tried many a lot of things already, had to reinstall Slackware cause screwed some important files trying to make it work. Thanks!

bruinshockey · 09-05-2012, 03:54 PM

You have to install the broadcom-sta proprietary drivers from the broadcom website, it has instructions there as well to show you how to compile and install the drivers.

cynwulf · 09-05-2012, 04:19 PM

Alternatively the FOSS brcmsmac/brcm80211 driver (should be included in the 2.6.37 kernel and is certainly in the 3.2.x kernels if you're running -current) supports that broadcom chipset. As ever it needs firmware...

Instructions: http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/brcm80211

ReaperX7 · 09-05-2012, 09:31 PM

The brcm80211's "brcmsmac" driver works well for that chipset.

Grab a copy of the firmware at...

git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git

...and copy "brcm/bcm43xx-0.fw" and "brcm/bcm43xx_hdr-0.fw" to directory "/lib/firmware/brcm". You may have to create the directory.

I'm not sure a reboot is required, but afterwards it should work flawlessly.