NOTE: this page is for archival only, see the note at the end of the page.

bcm43xx

The bcm43xx drivers ("bcm43xx" in mainline kernels, "bcm43xx-d80211") are drivers for the 802.11 B/G family of wireless chips [http://broadcom.com/products/Wireless-LAN Broadcom] produces.

caveats

Currently, 4311/4312 PCI-E devices as well as devices based on the 4318 chip family have transmission power issues. This is being worked on and good progress is reported.

All Broadcom chips require firmware that is loaded onto the wireless chip before it can operate. See below.

There are also USB devices based on Broadcom chips, these are not supported at all!

support devices

supported

  • bcm4306
    • all newer revisions supported (built after about Jan 2005)
    • old revisions partially supported. Lacks some features like hw-crypto.

partially supported

  • bcm4311 / bcm4312 (Major transmission power issues)
  • bcm4318 (Major transmission power issues)

unsupported

  • 802.11a devices

available devices

A list is currently available at http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/?go=devices

Wireless features

working

  • Station mode
  • Access Point mode (although not tested very well).
  • Monitor and Promisc mode.
  • "Monitor while operating" and multiple monitor interfaces.
  • In-Hardware traffic de/encryption (relieves your CPU).
  • LEDs to signal card state and traffic.
  • Probably something we forgot to add here.

not working yet

  • Ad-Hoc (IBSS) mode.
  • In-Hardware MAC address filter.
  • Interference mitigation.
  • Bluetooth coexistance
  • Probably something else that's not listed under "Works".

device firmware

The Broadcom wireless chip needs software that runs on the wireless chip itself during operation. This software is called "firmware". Currently only Closed Source firmware is available, that must be extracted from Broadcom's proprietary drivers. The driver files containing the officially supported bcm43xx firmware are:

You must extract the firmware out of these proprietary driver files by using [http://developer.berlios.de/project/showfiles.php?group_id=4547 fwcutter]

Please note that the firmware from the binary drivers is Copyrighted by Broadcom Corporation and must not be redistributed.

external links


This is a static dump of the old wiki, taken after locking it in January 2015. The new wiki is at https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/.
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