Broadcom wireless on Fedora 8
From Crashcourse Wiki
UPDATE: For those running even newer kernels than 2.6.24, there is a "bleeding edge" driver that you can read about [here]. I'll update this page properly in the near future. In the meantime, as far as I can tell, this recipe should be the same except for the driver that you install.
Contents |
What we're up to here
This recipe explains what it took to get Broadcom-based wireless working on a Gateway MX7120 laptop running a fully-updated Fedora 8 x86_64 -- it's effectively a stripped version of what you can read [here]. Since I'm working with an updated version of the OS, I'm going to assume you're running an adequately recent version of the kernel so that you can use the "b43" firmware, and not the older stuff.
NOTE: This recipe appears to work equally well on two Gateway laptops, with the following Broadcom chips, respectively (as displayed by running lspci):
- Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI (rev 01)
- Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
If you have one of these chips and this recipe still fails for you, please let me know.
The router
Just in case it makes a difference, the wireless access point being used here is a 4-port Linksys WRT54GL running the open-source OpenWRT software, but I'm fairly sure that won't be an issue. This recipe should work equally well with the original, proprietary Linksys software.
Getting started
First, make sure the NetworkManager and NetworkManagerDispatcher services aren't running -- they just seem to make a mess of things. Once you have your wireless up and running, feel free to experiment with those services and see if things continue to work properly.
Next, run the following commands just to note your system setup and verify that you have the necessary software:
$ lspci -vv | less [note model of Broadcom chip] $ lsmod | grep b43 [note b43-related modules already loaded] $ iwconfig $ ifconfig wlan0 $ ls /lib/firmware [nothing b43-related there yet] $ rpm -q b43-fwcutter [the firmware extraction package]
NOTE: If you have a fairly up-to-date version of Fedora 8, you should already have the b43 module loaded, even though wireless hasn't been configured yet. But it won't do you any good until you download and install the necessary firmware, as explained in the next section. Keep reading.
Downloading and installing the firmware
Assuming that you'll be working with the newer "b43" firmware, download, un-tar and install the firmware with:
# wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2 # tar xjvf broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0.tar.bz2 # b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware broadcom-wl-4.80.53.0/kmod/wl_apsta.o # ls /lib/firmware [where you can see a new "b43" directory]
The initial scan
Check the current wireless configuration, activate it and do a test scan to identify nearby access points with:
# ifconfig wlan0 [not up yet] # ifconfig wlan0 up # ifconfig wlan0 [now it should be "UP"] # iwlist wlan0 scan [you should see some access points here]
Configuring your wireless
Before you try to join a network, you'll need to add the following line to /etc/modprobe.conf:
alias wlan0 b43
Finally, run
# system-config-network
to add a new wireless interface and activate it. Initially, don't use encryption just to test that you can at least connect. Once you've verified that, then move on to the next section
Adding encryption
As a first attempt, add WEP encryption to your wireless configuration. This appears to work well with a 26-digit WEP key. At some point, I'll finish off describing using WPA.
BONUS: A more detailed explanation [here] as well.
Feedback to rpjday@crashcourse.ca.
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