Broadcom BCM43xx firmware

rugbert · #1 9th December 2008, 01:02 AM

I was wondering if there was better support for Broadcom BCM43xx (usb, not pci) wireless chip set? Ubuntu has a one click install, its in teh restricted drivers section. But when I was last on Fedora (7, and then 9 for a minute) I had to hack the driver headers to get it working and then any time there was a kernel update I had to do it all over again. I think that reason alone was why I went to ubuntu but I wanna come back! I miss yum and fedora's speed!

stoat · #2 9th December 2008, 02:04 AM

Hello rugbert,

Nothing much has changed really. We still have the same things (b43, ndiswrapper) that are installed and setup the same old way. Many people are now reporting success with the new Broadcom 802.11 STA wireless driver (broadcom-wl). But none of these things are a "one-click" install.

rugbert · #3 9th December 2008, 02:23 AM

that totally sucks! I wasnt necessarily looking for a one click install, but something that was easy to install that I wouldnt have to recompile every time there is a small kernel update.

KirkD · #4 9th December 2008, 02:27 AM

No, not really. I was just able to get my BroadCom BCM4328 wireless card (Dell 1505 or 1550 - I forget which) working with a one shot installation and no fuss whatsoever on F10.

Code:

yum install broadcom-wl

Under F8 and F9 I was using ndiswrapper and bcmwl5.inf/.sys but neither are needed now.

-Kirk

BTW - I should mention that I don't think this one will work if you have ndiswrapper trying to control the device. you'll have to remove the ndiswrapper driver or blacklist it.

NoEffex · #5 9th December 2008, 02:31 AM

B43 has worked great, in my experiences. For b43, it's a matter of running a command after downloading something. But, I have heard good things about broadcom-wl.

stoat · #6 9th December 2008, 02:52 AM

Linux Wireless (the home of b43 nowadays) says that b43 will never support USB devices (see "caveats" there). I don't know about broadcom-wl and USB devices. Maybe BlueC (aka Chris) will come by here. I guess that leaves ndiswrapper which is not difficult but is the farthest of all from a "one click" installation. It works though. I used it for a long time. From source, too. I had to recompile after every new kernel, but I had that chore down to a couple of minutes. The rpmfusion (formerly livna) kmod-ndiswrapper group of binary rpm packages works well, too. But they are occasionally late vis-a-vis the kernel for which they are compiled. It can be trouble if you update the kernel and the kmod packages are not in the repo (busted wireless). Anyway, I use b43 now, and I don't even have to think about it any more. But that is no good news to rugbert with the USB wireless device.

BlueC · #7 9th December 2008, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stoat

I don't know about broadcom-wl and USB devices. Maybe BlueC (aka Chris) will come by here.

And here I am!

TBH, I'm not actually sure whether broadcom-wl works with USB devices (the docs don't explicitly mention it), but I can only assume that the driver mentioned in Ubuntu Restricted Drivers by the OP is in fact broadcom-wl (proper name: wl-kmod) because AFAIK there are no other USB compatible broadcom wireless drivers in Ubuntu Restricted Drivers.

So, I would say to give it a try and let us know whether it works. The instructions are here:

http://www.cenolan.com/2008/11/rpm-i...driver-fedora/

C