RPM installation of Broadcom 802.11 STA wireless driver in Fedora 8/9/10
RPMs for the Broadcom 802.11 STA Wireless Driver are now available from the rpmfusion.org repos for Fedora 8, 9 and 10.
This is an official-release of Broadcom's IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n hybrid Linux device driver for use with Broadcom's BCM4311-, BCM4312-, BCM4321-, and BCM4322-based hardware. This driver also supports the incorrectly identified BCM4328 chipset which is actually a BCM4321 or BCM4322 chipset.
Previously I explained how to build the Broadcom STA driver from source but now the installation and updates can all be taken care of using yum and the rpmfusion non-free repository. Just follow these two simple steps:
1) Enable the rpmfusion non-free repository.
The broadcom-wl and wl-kmod RPMs that we need are in the rpmfusion non-free repository which also requires the rpmfusion free repository. To enable these repos in Fedora simply do this:
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'2) Update and install the driver package
Now that you have the appropriate repository enabled, to install the driver package we first ensure that we have the latest updates and then install the "broadcom-wl" package which will bring with it the required "kmod-wl" package:
su -
yum update
yum install broadcom-wl3) Make a couple of adjustments
At this stage you should reboot and provided you have Network Manager running (default setting for F10) it should detect your Broadcom wireless device and you should be able to connect to your wireless network.
If you're having problems then it is likely some conflict between Network Manager and the network service. To ensure that Network Manager can use the wireless go to System > Administration > Network and select the wireless device (if it's not there then this doesn't apply to you). Edit the device and check "Controlled by Network Manager" and "Activate device when computer starts". Close Network Configuration, save changes and then reboot.
You should also read the license and readme which are located in /usr/share/doc/broadcom-wl-5.10.27.6/
4) Enjoy your wireless!
That's all there is to it. At this stage you may need to reboot (if you didn't already) in order to enable the new driver and any new kernel that was installed during the update.
When future kernels are released a simple "yum update" command should install the new kernel and also pull in the updated Broadcom driver for that new kernel.
November 19th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Thanks very much for the info. Here I was dreading getting my wireless working on Fedora 9, and with the instructions above it took about a minute!
One more nail in my Windows Vista partition's coffin!!
Dave
November 19th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Glad it worked for you Dave, thanks for the feedback!
November 21st, 2008 at 6:51 pm
[...] If you use Ubuntu this is available through a simple software update. Fedora 9 and 10 follow This Procedure. __________________ "I Think, Therefore, I Am"|British Overclockers Club|ATI [...]
November 26th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Hey.
Great, but how do you install the rpm files if you don't have an internetconnection to start out with?!?
Didnt find the rpm-package-download anywhere on the site!!
November 26th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
Hi Steve, that's the problem with OTA delivery of network drivers!
As a solution, you can either use a wired net connection (!), or download the appropriate RPMs on a net-connected machine and transfer them to the target machine for local installation.
The RPMs you'll need for offline installation are broadcom-wl, kmod-wl and kmod-wl-uname-r. For example, for F10 x86_64 (kernel = 2.6.27.5-117) you would need the following RPMs:
broadcom-wl-5.10.27.6-3.fc10.noarch.rpm
kmod-wl-5.10.27.6-5.fc10.5.x86_64.rpm
kmod-wl-2.6.27.5-117.fc10.x86_64-5.10.27.6-5.fc10.5.x86_64.rpm
You can find these here: http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/releases/
Hope this helps
Chris
November 30th, 2008 at 3:57 am
I did this, using a wired connection on F10 for the initial setup. I have a Dell Inspiron 2200 and used the patched driver before; it worked okay. But I cannot get these steps to work. In the Network admin gui, the wlan0 is "inactive." When I try to activate it, it says it "doesn't seem to be present."
Any clue?
November 30th, 2008 at 4:07 am
I didn't get any sort of recognition of my wireless from Network Manager until I did two things:
modprobe broadcom
modprobe wl
then it worked fine.
Thanks for this guide, a long awaited one that's for sure ;)
November 30th, 2008 at 11:55 am
@Sean Dalton:
If you created the alias in step 3 (or even if you didn't) then after a reboot it should automatically load the "wl" kernel module. The "broadcom" kernel module is nothing to do with this driver so it doesn't need to be loaded. Glad you got it working though!
November 30th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
@Ken:
I'm still trying to figure out how the network service and Network Manager interact in F10 - it seems a bit odd. You shouldn't need to activate the device through the network admin gui - just ensure that it is selected as being controlled by Network Manager and then Network Manager should look after activating/deactivating it.
Moreover, I have found that it isn't even necessary for the device to exist as a configured network service device: Network Manager still detects it and controls it.
November 30th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
cheers for the instructions! works great.
November 30th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
@Chris
Yeah, I was hoping it would work after a reboot, but I didn't get anything from network manager or System > Administration > Network when I did. It wasnt' until I specifically executed the modprobe wl that I noticed any system recognition of my wireless card.
I was also coming off a ndiswrapper install of the broadom drivers, which might of been the problem. Even though I removed ndiswrapper completely, it might of had the old alias in there loading on startup, not sure really, either way it works fine.
Thanks again!
November 30th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
@Chris
Still, I have no wireless connection. iwconfig reports no wireless extensions . . .
Are there any other commands/messages I can obtain to help further diagnose the issue. This is strange, since it worked just fine under F9. Was there anything I needed to do before following the above instructions?
November 30th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
@Ken
There should be nothing else you need to do before following the above instructions. Couple of things to look at to diagnose the problem:
1) When you run system-config-network and click the "Hardware" tab does the card show up there?
2) Do you also have an entry for the wireless card in system-config-network under the "Devices" tab?
3) What is the output of "lsmod | grep wl"
November 30th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
1) When you run system-config-network and click the "Hardware" tab does the card show up there?
No, not now. Oddly enough, it was there--Broadcom. Since the installation of the broadcom-wl rpm, it's no longer there!
2) Do you also have an entry for the wireless card in system-config-network under the "Devices" tab?
Yes, it's been there all along, marked inactive. I also have a pan(0) device in hardware and devices. I don't remember this in F9.
What is the output of "lsmod | grep wl"
Nothing. Nothing at all.
This is strange. I thought it might have something to do with the hardware/bios switch that allows a user to turn off the wireless. On a Dell, this is Fn-F2. But I have the bios set to turn it on at boot and leave it on.
December 1st, 2008 at 12:05 am
Ken, no output from that command means that the kernel module isn't loaded for some reason and that is the problem. What is the output of:
modprobe wl
lsmod | grep wl
Does this bring the device up? It is possible that some other module is conflicting with the wl kernel module. If that still doesn't work please post the output of the following 2 commands:
rpm -qa | grep wl
uname -r
December 1st, 2008 at 12:31 am
Well brother what do you know . . . I'm so slow to learn. I have a Broadcom 4318 Airforce One!
I noticed that when I removed the broadcom-wl rpm, the wireless showed up on the hardware tab again. I figured the installation was blocking the actual wireless and looking for one that wasn't there!
A bit of googling about and I was able to refresh my memory on using fwcutter to extract the drivers for the 4318, and now I'm wireless. Sorry to send you on a goose chase, but maybe this will help others with an Inspiron 2200 and a 4318 chipset.
December 1st, 2008 at 2:41 am
[...] Fuentes: http://rpmfusion.org/Configuration http://www.cenolan.com [...]
December 1st, 2008 at 3:43 am
You da man! So far so good.
December 1st, 2008 at 10:59 am
warning: /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.46gkRE: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID b1981b68
error: Failed dependencies:
rpmfusion-free-release >= 8 is needed by rpmfusion-nonfree-release-8-6.noarch
anyone?
December 1st, 2008 at 1:29 pm
@kojang
It means you are missing the rpmfusion free repository. I updated step 1 now to include this repository, so try again from step 1.
December 1st, 2008 at 8:13 pm
[...] More information can be found in this howto. [...]
December 1st, 2008 at 8:19 pm
thanks! works like a charm
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Thats great.. Good cheatsheet! Thanks..
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:59 pm
I'm also having the problem where when I try to activate my wireless, I get the error "wl device wlan0 does not seem to be present, delaying initialization."
1) When you run system-config-network and click the "Hardware" tab does the card show up there?
yes
2) Do you also have an entry for the wireless card in system-config-network under the "Devices" tab?
yes
3) What is the output of "lsmod | grep wl"
wl 1067012 0
ieee80211_crypt 8324 1 wl
Output of:
modprobe wl Nothing at all
rpm -qa | grep wl
kmod-wl-2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686-5.10.27.6-5.fc10.5.i686
iwl4965-firmware-228.57.2.21-3.noarch
kmod-wl-5.10.27.6-5.fc10.5.i686
iwl3945-firmware-15.28.2.8-2.noarch
broadcom-wl-5.10.27.6-3.fc10.noarch
iwl5000-firmware-5.4.A.11-3.noarch
uname -r
2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686
I'd been using the instructions from here: http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43 for F9 and had great success, but currently when I try to install fwcutter, make fails. So I'm hoping that you can help me out.
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:02 pm
@MK
As previously mentioned, you shouldn't actually need to activate the device in system-config-network. In fact, the device doesn't need to exist there at all as NetworkManager will automatically configure it so you can safely delete it from there. Leave it alone in the hardware tab though.
The output you posted suggests you have all the correct kernel modules loaded and packages installed so try just deleting the device from system-config-network and then rebooting. Make sure you've removed any packages you installed for the b43 driver too.
Also ensure that NetworkManager is set to run on boot (chkconfig NetworkManager on) and if you're not using any manually configured network devices then just disable the network service entirely (chkconfig network off).
(Oh, I don't know why you've got all that iwlxxxx firmware installed - do you use an intel wireless card also? If not, remove those packages too.)
December 4th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Well, if I'd read the 2nd paragraph of this more closely, I'd have realized this isn't going to work for me. I've got the BCM4318, which would probably explain why this driver just doesn't seem to be talking to the card. (Note to self: do not try to get wireless working while running a fever.)
Thanks for your time, though. Sorry for being a dope.
December 6th, 2008 at 2:17 am
Hello guys,
does this works for Acer 4315 laptop too? I was about to install this OS, to migrate from Ubuntu...
I am looking for an installer for F10 on the ff:
1. wireless
2. audio
3. video
4. apache, mysql (localhost)
5. webcam
hoping F10 wont make it hard for me
December 6th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
@thewebpromoter
From what I can see, the Acer 4315 has either an Atheros or Broadcom wireless chipset. If yours has Atheros chipset then no, this guide will not work for you. If yours has the Broadcom 4311 chipset then yes, this guide will work for you.
December 8th, 2008 at 12:13 am
My wireless card:
Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g (rev 01)
I am receiving the following error when the package installs:
ERROR:dbus.proxies:Introspect error on :1.53:/org/freedesktop/PackageKit: dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied: A security policy in place prevents this sender from sending this message to this recipient, see message bus configuration file (rejected message had interface "org.freedesktop.DBus.Introspectable" member "Introspect" error name "(unset)" destination ":1.53")
Unable to send message to PackageKit
December 8th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
I use the PAE kernel: 2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686.PAE
When I try to install the driver package, it lists the non-PAE kernel as a dependency. See the text below. Will this package work for the PAE kernel?
[root@localhost ~]# yum install broadcom-wl
Loaded plugins: refresh-packagekit
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package broadcom-wl.noarch 0:5.10.27.6-3.fc10 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: wl-kmod >= 5.10.27.6 for package: broadcom-wl
--> Running transaction check
---> Package kmod-wl.i686 0:5.10.27.6-5.fc10.5 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: kmod-wl-2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686 = 5.10.27.6-5.fc10.5 for package: kmod-wl
--> Running transaction check
---> Package kmod-wl-2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686.i686 0:5.10.27.6-5.fc10.5 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: kernel-uname-r = 2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686 for package: kmod-wl-2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686
--> Running transaction check
---> Package kernel.i686 0:2.6.27.5-117.fc10 set to be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Dependencies Resolved
================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================================================
Installing:
broadcom-wl noarch 5.10.27.6-3.fc10 rpmfusion-nonfree 8.6 k
Installing for dependencies:
kernel i686 2.6.27.5-117.fc10 fedora 19 M
kmod-wl i686 5.10.27.6-5.fc10.5 rpmfusion-nonfree 3.2 k
kmod-wl-2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686
i686 5.10.27.6-5.fc10.5 rpmfusion-nonfree 463 k
Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install 4 Package(s)
Update 0 Package(s)
Remove 0 Package(s)
Total download size: 19 M
Is this ok [y/N]: n
December 8th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
@Andy
At the moment we didn't release a build for the PAE kernel. I've raised a bug report to see if we can get this fixed.
December 10th, 2008 at 5:19 am
I have an AAcer 3400 with a Broadcom wireless, but your fix did not work for me. I followed the instructions and rebooted. an entry in Network MManager listed a wireless on eth1 and the activate button was greyed out, but I am not connected
modprobe nothing
lsmod 1080000 0
ieeee802211_crypt 13316 1 wl
Thanks
Mark
December 10th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
[...] the bright side … there are new drivers for the Broadcom wireless NICs, and work beautifully in Fedora 10, courtesy of rpmfusion.org. And the 64-bit support [...]
December 12th, 2008 at 5:53 am
I have an alternate method to connect to the internet on my Acer Ferarri 3400, The Cisco Systems Linksys Wireless-G USB Network adapter with Rangebooster is automatically installed by Fedora 10. No installation is required. It is PnP
December 14th, 2008 at 5:24 am
Hey Everyone, I'm hoping someone can help out. running FC10., the card is a BCM4311
I had to remove rpm's for some random intel wireless drivers & b43
-card disappeared from network manager hardware tab after I uninstalled b43 drivers
# lsmod | grep wl
# modprobe wl
# lsmod | grep wl
wl 1067012 0
ieee80211_crypt 8324 1 wl
# rpm -qa | grep wl
kmod-wl-5.10.27.6-5.fc10.7.i686
kmod-wl-2.6.27.7-134.fc10.i686-5.10.27.6-5.fc10.7.i686
broadcom-wl-5.10.27.6-3.fc10.noarch
]# uname -r
2.6.27.7-134.fc10.i686
Anything else I can do to troubleshoot the issues?
Thanks!
December 14th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Hello everyone
I'm installing F10 tomorrow on my laptop, already tried live one and worked almost perfectly (except for wireless - bcom4312)
it is detected i iwconfig:
[liveuser@localhost ~]$ iwconfig wlan0a
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
[liveuser@localhost ~]$
but in network manager I can't do anything, so I will try to install these drivers, but I'm aiming for offline install, I've already downloaded the 3 rpms, but I'm not sure of the command sequence i should be running now, will these be enough or shall i do something else?
su -
yum update
yum install broadcom-wl
December 14th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Well, I actually got it to work, but not by using this guide.. I did a clean install of Fedora 10 (since I had messed around so much with settings it seemd hopeless to get all the way back) and followed this guide, which worked right away for me:
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showpost.php?p=1119747&postcount=3
December 14th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
@maranhao
If you're doing an offline install then you just need to install the 3 RPMs using the rpm command. Something like this:
rpm -Uvh kmod-wl-`uname -r`-5.10.27.6-5.fc10.5.`uname -m`.rpm kmod-wl-5.10.27.6-5.fc10.5.`uname -m`.rpm broadcom-wl-5.10.27.6-3.fc10.noarch.rpm
HTH
December 14th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
@Chris
thanks for the answer, will try it tomorrow and I'll let you know how it went
December 16th, 2008 at 5:52 am
Hey anyone get this BCM4312 card to work in Monitor mode (with core 10)? Actually I seem to have it working properly to connect to a wireless router in Managed mode only. All other modes don't work, like auto, ad-hoc, etc. But for the latter, iwconfig takes the command without error, only the setting never changes from Managed in iwconfig (seems like the card accepts the command but just ignores it). With Monitor mode change, it spits out an error saying the command is not supported. BTW: I don't use NetworkManager to control my connections, it is not even installed.
Hmmm maybe the card just doesn't support Monitor mode at all with any driver, although I thought (hazy memory on this one) I had ndiswrapper driver allowing Monitor mode in core 9. Seems like it should support it. I did an iwpriv and got this for other commands avail:
eth1 Available private ioctls :
set_leddc (8BE0) : set 1 int & get 0
set_vlanmode (8BE1) : set 1 int & get 0
set_pm (8BE2) : set 1 int & get 0
Still looking into what these all are.....anywho if anyone gets Monitor mode to work drop a post please.
-hb
PS: Nice job with the instructions, very helpful.
December 18th, 2008 at 2:14 am
Literally hours of screwing around trying other methods to get my wireless working...
then I found a link to this website and 5 minutes later I am connected.
Thanks so much!
December 20th, 2008 at 1:38 am
I am having the same issue as Ken did earlier.
modprobe wl
FATAL: Module wl not found.
lsmod | grep wl
nothing
rpm -qa | grep wl
broadcom-wl-5.10.27.6-3.fc10.noarch
kmod-wl-5.10.27.6-5.fc10.7.i686
iwl3945-firmware-15.28.2.8-2.noarch
iwl5000-firmware-5.4.A.11-3.noarch
iwl4965-firmware-228.57.2.21-3.noarch
kmod-wl-2.6.27.7-134.fc10.i686-5.10.27.6-5.fc10.7.i686
uname -r
2.6.27.7-134.fc10.i686.PAE
Can I please get some help? Thanks
December 20th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
My card is
Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
does it mean that it won't work by the method described above?
December 23rd, 2008 at 8:30 am
No package found ...nothing to do. this msg is displayed in the terminal when i type yum install broadcom-wl
so what seems to be the problem.i am using F10.plz help me.
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:13 am
@Jason Y
The problem ken was having was attempting to use it with an unsupported device. Your problem may be more related to what Andy was saying about the PAE kernel. I need to look into this some more... I have a suspicion that the kmodtool isn't working properly here.
@Mark
No, it won't work with 4318 cards AFAIK.
@blueboy
Did you do stage 1? Enabling the rpmfusion repos?
December 23rd, 2008 at 7:32 pm
ya i did stage1. :(
December 23rd, 2008 at 7:34 pm
mine is Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g (rev 01)
December 24th, 2008 at 7:58 am
Hi everyone,
I'm trying to get a bcm4315 (USB) wl adapter up and running in fedora 10. This is what I have done so far (following instructions on the fedora forums .Pls see http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=208507 for the full thread)
In short, I did a :
1) sudo -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'
2)sudo
yum update
yum install broadcom-wl
and rebooted after plugging in the BCM 4315 usb device.
F10 still does not show the wl card in system---administration--network
Here are a few other details:
1) uname -r gives:
2.6.27.7-53.fc9.i686
2) 'sudo sbin/iwconfig' shows:
lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
pan0 no wireless extensions.
virbr0 no wireless extensions.
2)' rpm -qa | grep wl' gives:
broadcom-wl-5.10.27.6-3.fc10.noarch
iwl4965-firmware-228.57.2.21-1.1.noarch
kmod-wl-5.10.27.6-5.fc9.4.i686
iwl3945-firmware-2.14.1.5-2.noarch
kmod-wl-2.6.27.7-53.fc9.i686-5.10.27.6-5.fc9.4.i686
The device shows up when I do a lsusb ( as Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0a5c:bd15 Broadcom Corp. ) but simply refuses to show up in system--admin--network.
Has anyone been able to accomplish a wifi connection using bcm4315 usb? Would appreciate any help/guidance on this!
Let me know if any further details are required.
Thanks in advance.
December 24th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
wifi working! i can connect to my wireless router.but i can not connect to internet...where do i put id and password provided by my internet provider?
December 24th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Thanks for looking into this for me Chris.
December 29th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Thank you!! I installed Fedora 10 on my netbook, and this ROCKED my socks last night, when I needed WLAN for the first time :)
December 30th, 2008 at 6:37 am
Hi Chris,
I'm having a hard time making my wireless to work, FC10 installation is already a PITA with this jurassic laptop my brother gave me :D, no distro worked with the exception of FC10 net install, even the DVD iso I have won't cut it, enough said here's my scenario, I have a broadcom 4306 wireless card which I can't make to work, I followed your instructions mentioned here about rpmfusion to no avail. I can see the device via lspci and system-config-network but it doesn't show up in NetworkManager, I'm not sure if this guide will work for my chipset anyways, any ideas?
TIA.
Jan
December 30th, 2008 at 7:36 am
As I've suspected, your howto is not cut out for me :D, anyways for those of you that has this kind of chipset BCM4306 the howto describe in this URL should work --> http://fedoramobile.org/fc-wireless/bcm43xx-yum-extras