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Readme 6.30.223.271
Readme 6.30.223.271
Readme 6.30.223.271
DISCLAIMER
----------
This is an Official Release of Broadcom's hybrid Linux driver for use with
Broadcom based hardware.
PRECOMPILED DRIVER
-------------------
Some distros (Ubuntu and Fedora at the least) already have a version of
this driver in their repositories precompiled, tested and ready to go.
You just use the package manager to install the proper package. If
its available for your distro, this is usually an easier solution. See
the end of this document for further discussion.
SUPPORTED DEVICES
-----------------
The cards with the following PCI Device IDs are supported with this driver.
Both Broadcom and and Dell product names are described. Cards not listed
here may also work.
NOTABLE CHANGES
---------------
Upgraded to support 3.19 kernel APIs.
REQUIREMENTS
------------
Building this driver requires that your machine have the proper tools,
packages, header files and libraries to build a standard kernel module.
This usually is done by installing the kernel developer or kernel source
package and varies from distro to distro. Consult the documentation for
your specific OS.
If you cannot successfully build a module that comes with your distro's
kernel developer or kernel source package, you will not be able to build
this module either.
If you try to build this module but get an error message that looks like
this:
Then you do not have the proper packages installed, since installing the
proper packages will create /lib/modules/"release"/build on your system.
On Ubuntu, you will need headers and tools. Try these commands:
# apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-generic
# apt-get build-dep linux
# ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build
BUILD INSTRUCTIONS
------------------
1. Setup the directory by untarring the proper tarball:
When the build completes, it will produce a wl.ko file in the top level
directory.
If your driver does not build, check to make sure you have installed the
kernel package described in the requirements above.
This driver uses cfg80211 API. Code for Wext API is present and can be built
but we have dropped support for it.
As before, the Makefile will still build the matching version for your system.
# make API=CFG80211
or
# make API=WEXT (deprecated)
INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS
--------------------
If you were already running a previous version of wl, you'll want to provide
a clean transition from the older driver. (The path to previous driver is
usually /lib/modules/<kernel-version>/kernel/net/wireless)
# rmmod wl
# mv <path-to-prev-driver>/wl.ko <path-to-prev-driver>/wl.ko.orig
# cp wl.ko <path-to-prev-driver>/wl.ko
# depmod
# modprobe wl
The new wl driver should now be operational and your all done.
Fresh installation:
------------------
1: Remove any other drivers for the Broadcom wireless device.
There are several other drivers (besides this one) that can drive
Broadcom 802.11 chips. These include b43, brcmsmac, bcma 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.
Note: On some systems such as Ubuntu 9.10, the ssb module may load during
boot even though it is blacklisted (see note under Common Issues on how to
resolve this. Nevertheless, ssb still 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 "brcmsmac\|b43\|ssb\|bcma\|wl"
To blacklist these drivers and prevent them from loading in the future:
# echo "blacklist ssb" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
# echo "blacklist bcma" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
# echo "blacklist b43" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
# echo "blacklist brcmsmac" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
# modprobe lib80211
or
# modprobe ieee80211_crypt_tkip
If your using the cfg80211 version of the driver, then cfg80211 needs to be
loaded:
# modprobe cfg80211
Then:
# insmod wl.ko
wl.ko is now operational. It may take several seconds for the Network
Manager to notice a new network driver has been installed and show the
surrounding wireless networks.
Common issues:
----------------
* After the insmod you may see this message:
WARNING: modpost: missing MODULE_LICENSE()
It is expected, not harmful and can be ignored.
Usually this means that one of the required modules (as mentioned above) is
not loaded. Try this:
# modprobe lib80211 or ieee80211_crypt_tkip (depending on your os)
# modprobe cfg80211
The procedure to make a module load at boot time varies from distro to
distro. Consult the docs for your specific distro to see how. The
following seems to work for my setup on Fedora and Ubuntu. Check your
docs to see the procedure for your distro.
Follow these steps to have the driver load as part of the boot process:
TX POWER EXPLAINED
------------------
'iwconfig eth1 txpower' & 'iwlist eth1 txpower' set and get the drivers
user-requested transmit power level. This can go up to 32 dbm and allows
the user to lower the tx power to levels below the regulatory limit.
Internally, the actual tx power is always kept within regulatory limits
no matter what the user request is set to.
wpa_supplicant 0.6.3 + nl80211 + WEP - (Note: This would only affect you if
you are using wpa_supplicant directly from the command line and specify
nl80211 interface, e.g. "wpa_supplicant -Dnl80211 -ieth1 ..". If you are using
network manager GUI to connect it should work file.)
wpa_supplicant 0.6.3 might have a bug that affect WEP connections created
through nl80211. Upgrade to wpa_supplicant to 0.7.3 would solve this problem.
Ubuntu 10.10 kernel + nl80211 + WPA/WPA2 - (Note: This would only affect you if
you are using wpa_supplicant directly from the command line and specify
nl80211 interface, e.g. "wpa_supplicant -Dnl80211 -ieth1 ..". If you are using
network manager GUI to connect it should work file.)
Some kernel versions of Ubuntu such as 2.6.35-22 (released with Ubuntu
10.10) may have problems that affect WPA/WPA2 connections created through
nl80211. Upgrade to 2.6.35-25 or later should solve this problem.
For further information see the documentation for your specific distro.
Fedora:
------
su -c 'rpm -Uvh
http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm
http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-
stable.noarch.rpm'
su -
yum update
yum install kmod-wl
Ubuntu:
------
Go to System->Administration->Hardware Drivers
Choose the Broadcom STA wireless driver
Activate
Sometimes the driver does not show up in the Hardware Drivers choices. In
this case, try reintalling the driver from the GUI or shell like this: