This page aims at getting your Broadcom BCM43xx based wireless network card working. Some cards should work out-of-the-box, whilst others may need packages downloading from an install CD or using an existing Internet connection (e.g. Ethernet). Depending on the release, these packages can often be simply activated under the desktop menu System > Administration > Hardware/Additional Drivers.
Identifying Your Broadcom BCM43xx Chipset (PCI)
Cards produced by Broadcom are supported by several different drivers. It is important to find out what specific card you have.
In a Terminal the command lspci will display information about all PCI devices attached to your computer. To display only devices manufactured by Broadcom (including wifi cards), apply a filter for "14e4" as follows.
Open a Terminal and enter the following command:
lspci -vvnn | grep 14e4
You will then see something like the following:
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:432b] (rev 01)
You now know that:
- The Chip ID is BCM4322
- The PCI-ID is [14e4:432b]
With this information you can select the driver to use.
Drivers available in Ubuntu
As you may appreciate, drivers are under constant development and their are differences in availability and support across the different Ubuntu releases. For example, the latest Ubuntu release typically have higher versions of the drivers than the last Ubuntu LTS release.
Where a Chip ID is supported by more than one driver/module please see the Switching between drivers section below.
The following is an overview of the different kernel modules (drivers) that are available for Broadcom wireless devices. Please help to keep this list updated!
wl - Proprietary Broadcom STA Wireless driver
For Chip ID BCM4311, BCM4312, BCM4313, BCM43142, BCM4321, BCM4322, BCM43224, BCM43225, BCM43227 and BCM43228.
Install either bcmwl-kernel-source (instructions below) OR the broadcom-sta (instructions at http://wiki.debian.org/wl) packages.
b43 - Open source driver
For Chip ID BCM4306 (rev 03), BCM4309, BCM4311, BCM4312, BCM4318, BCM4322, BCM4331, BCM43224 and BCM43225.
Note: Not all PCI-ID's and/or modes are supported. A more complete and up-to-date list of supported b43/b43legacy devices may be found on the Linux Wireless wiki. Use your card's PCI ID (the number in the square brackets) to find its status in the table.
Instructions to install/extract the required firmware using one of the b43-fwcutter packages are below.
b43legacy - Open source driver
For Chip ID BCM4301, BCM4306 (rev 02), and BCM4309.
- Follow the b43 firmware instructions below.
brcmsmac (a.k.a brcm80211) - Open source driver from Broadcom (merged into kernel 2.6.37)
For Chip ID BCM4313, BCM43224 and BCM43225.
brcmfmac - Open source driver from Broadcom
For Chip ID BCM4329, BCM4330, BCM4334, BCM43235, BCM43236 and BCM43238.
rndis_wlan - Open source driver supporting wireless RNDIS chipsets
- For Chip ID BCM4320
ndiswrapper - Use the Windows closed source drivers to activate your wifi card
bcm43xx - Deprecated driver (automatically blacklisted). DO NOT USE. Only included here for completeness.
Installing STA drivers
STA - Internet access
If you have some other kind of Internet access on your computer (e.g. via an ethernet cable) then use the instructions below:
10.04 (Lucid Lynx)
Install the STA hybrid drivers/firmware from the restricted repository using the Software Centre or the Synaptic Package Manager (Under the desktop menu System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager) and search for the bcmwl-kernel-source package and install or in a terminal (under the desktop menu Applications > Accessories > Terminal) issue the following commands:
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install bcmwl-kernel-source
Under the desktop menu System > Administration > Hardware/Additional Drivers, the STA drivers can be activated for use.
Note: A computer restart may be required before using the wifi card.- For temporary use with the LiveCD and LiveUSB environments, instead of a computer restart, in a terminal issue the following commands:
sudo modprobe -r b43 ssb wl sudo modprobe wl
Allow several seconds for the network manager to scan for available networks before attempting a connection.
12.04 (Precise Pangolin)
Open a Terminal and install the bcmwl-kernel-source package:
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get --reinstall install bcmwl-kernel-source
Note: If you see the message "Module build for the currently running kernel was skipped since the kernel source for this kernel does not seem to be installed" then you are missing the appropriate generic linux-header package(s).
To test the driver (and remove the need for a computer restart) use:
sudo modprobe -r b43 ssb wl brcmfmac brcmsmac bcma sudo modprobe wl
Allow several seconds for the network manager to scan for available networks before attempting a connection.
The bcmwl-kernel-source package should automatically blacklist the open source drivers so that the STA driver is the only one in use.
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STA - No Internet access
If you do not have any other means of Internet access on your computer, you can install the bcmwl-kernel-source package from the restricted folder under ../pool/restricted/b/bcmwl on the Ubuntu install media.
Note: The bcmwl-kernel-source package depends on the linux-headers packages so you may need to first retrieve the appropriate package(s) from the online repositories. A running LiveCD/LiveUSB environment has these packages (allowing the wireless to work), but an installed system may not. Make sure you have the linux-headers package that matches your current kernel version, plus the appropriate generic header packages so that they are automatically updated on a kernel upgrade. To find out your current kernel use the command:
uname -r
To find what linux-headers packages you have installed use the command:
dpkg --get-selections | grep headers
Systems installed from CDROM can add the install CD as a package source and install bcmwl-kernel-source using apt-get as above. However, if you want to do it manually then the instructions are as follows:
Navigate the install media and install the packages listed below by double clicking OR install the packages consecutively from a Terminal (in the commands below the install media is mounted at /cdrom, but yours maybe different):
../pool/main/d/dkms
cd /cdrom/pool/main/d/dkms sudo dpkg -i dkms*
../pool/main/p/patch
cd /cdrom/pool/main/p/patch sudo dpkg -i patch*
../pool/main/f/fakeroot
cd /cdrom/pool/main/f/fakeroot sudo dpkg -i fakeroot*
../pool/restricted/b/bcmwl
cd /cdrom/pool/restricted/b/bcmwl sudo dpkg -i bcmwl-kernel-source*
Upstream 802.11 Linux STA driver
For download and install instructions, please see http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php .
Installing b43/b43legacy firmware
The Ubuntu kernel now provides the b43 driver, however due to copyright restrictions not the proprietary firmware which is required to run your card. The following instructions explain how to extract the required firmware.
b43 - Internet access
10.04 (Lucid Lynx)
If you have some other kind of Internet access on your computer (e.g. via an ethernet cable), you can download the b43/b43legacy firmware by simply installing the b43-fwcutter package which does the download and setup for you automatically.
To install b43-fwcutter issue the following commands in a terminal (under the desktop menu Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and follow the prompts:
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter
Under the desktop menu System > Administration > Hardware/Additional Drivers, the b43 drivers can be activated for use.
- A computer restart may be required before using the wifi card. For temporary use with the LiveCD and LiveUSB environments, instead of a computer restart, in a terminal issue the following commands (replace b43 with b43legacy where appropriate):
sudo modprobe -r b43 ssb sudo modprobe b43
Allow several seconds for the network manager to scan for available networks before attempting a connection.
12.04 (Precise Pangolin) - 14.04 (Trusty Tahr)
Open a Terminal and if you haven't already done so, update your package list:
sudo apt-get update
If you have a b43 card use the command
sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer
or, if you need the b43legacy driver, use:
sudo apt-get install firmware-b43legacy-installer
or, (12.04 - 12.10) if you need a LP-PHY version (e.g BCM4312), use:
sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-lpphy-installer
Restart the computer or reload the b43/b43legacy module as outlined in the Switching between drivers section below (replace b43 with b43legacy where appropriate).
b43 - No Internet access
If you do not have any other means of Internet access from Ubuntu, then you will have to download the firmware from another computer with Internet access, from an existing OS on another partition, or before you install Ubuntu. You will also need the b43-fwcutter package which is usually included on the install media or can be downloaded from the official online repositories.
Install the b43-fwcutter package. This is usually located on the Ubuntu install media under /cdrom/pool/main/b/b43-fwcutter/ or you can download the binary '.deb' package by following the links on launchpad.
Double click on the package to install or in a Terminal issue the following commands:
cd /cdrom/pool/main/b/b43-fwcutter/ sudo dpkg -i b43-fwcutter*
On a computer with Internet access, download the required firmware file:
b43legacy - http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
b43 (10.04 Lucid Lynx) - http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
b43 (12.04 Precise Pangolin) - http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-5.10.56.27.3_mipsel.tar.bz2
b43 (14.04 Trusty Tahr) - http://www.lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
For the latest information on what files to download see http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#Other_distributions_not_mentioned_above and http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43/developers .
Copy the downloaded file to your home folder. Open a new Terminal and use b43-fwcutter to extract and install the firmware:
b43legacy
sudo b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
b43 (10.04 Lucid Lynx)
tar xfvj broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2 sudo b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver/wl_apsta_mimo.o
b43 (12.04 Precise Pangolin)
tar xfvj broadcom-wl-5.10.56.27.3_mipsel.tar.bz2 sudo b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware broadcom-wl-5.10.56.27.3/driver/wl_apsta/wl_prebuilt.o
b43 (14.04 Trusty Tahr)
tar xfvj broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2 sudo b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware broadcom-wl-5.100.138/linux/wl_apsta.o
Restart the computer or reload the b43/b43legacy module as outlined in the Switching between drivers section below (replace b43 with b43legacy where appropriate).
Switching between drivers
If you card is supported by more than one driver then use the modprobe command to test the drivers. First unload all conflicting drivers (this includes removing the driver you're trying to install):
sudo modprobe -r b43 bcma sudo modprobe -r brcmsmac bcma sudo modprobe -r wl
To load a specific driver use one of the following commands:
sudo modprobe b43 sudo modprobe brcmsmac sudo modprobe wl
Allow several seconds for the network manager to scan for available networks before attempting a connection.
After a reboot the system may auto-load a different driver to the one you wanted to use. Consequently, for permanent use, you may find it necessary to blacklist the driver/module you are not using. In the command below replace drivername with the driver you want to blacklist:
echo "blacklist drivername" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-broadcom-wireless.conf
Update the initramfs after any changes to the blacklist files:
sudo update-initramfs -u
Note: The bcmwl-kernel-source package will automatically blacklist the open source drivers/modules in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-bcm43.conf.
If you wish to permanently use the open source drivers then remove the bcmwl-kernel-source package:
sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source
Ensure that the driver/modules you wish to use are not blacklisted in any of the other files in /etc/modprobe.d .
Unsupported devices
If your wifi card/chipset and/or various modes are not supported by the STA driver or the open source kernel drivers, then you will need to go for ndiswrapper - this will allow you to use the Windows closed source drivers to activate your wifi card.
Known Issues
* LP#1010931 14e4:4727 [Dell Vostro 3555] Broadcom BCM4313 5GHz doesn't work but 2.4GHz does
- The root cause is the card only transmits/receives on the single-band 2.4GHz only, so it would never broadcast at 5GHz.
Filing bug reports
bcmwl-kernel-source
When filing bugs using the bcmwl-kerel-source package, please ensure the one from the Ubuntu repositories is installed (not a recompiled/custom version) and then execute via a terminal: ubuntu-bug bcmwl-kernel-source
If this doesn't work, or doesn't include all of the following information, please execute the following via a terminal and post the results in your report: lspci -vvnn | grep -A 11 Network lsb_release -rd uname -a apt-cache policy bcmwl-kernel-source sudo dmidecode -s bios-version sudo dmidecode -s bios-release-date sudo dmidecode -s baseboard-product-name sudo dmidecode -s baseboard-manufacturer
If the version of the driver you are using in the repository is the latest version available as per Broadcom, it is also advised to send them an e-mail via their contact page, and post their response to your report.
If the version of the driver you are using in the repository is an older version than that available from Broadcom, then contacting them would not apply. Instead, an investigation would need to occur to see if the version available for your release should be changed.
External Links
Upstream b43 and b43legacy kernel driver http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43.
Installing Windows drivers with NdisWrapper.
Linux Wireless.org home page http://www.linuxwireless.org.
Open source firmware http://www.ing.unibs.it/~openfwwf/.
Broadcom STA driver page http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php.
Debian Broadcom 43xx wireless devices wiki http://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx.
Wireless Troubleshooting Guide https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WirelessTroubleShootingGuide.