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Broadcom Corporation BCM43XG [14e4:4329] not working

Asked by , Edited by Fernando C. Estrada [ Admin ]

I’m having trouble getting my pci wifi card to work.  The pcicard is linksys wmp300n. 

lspci shows “Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM43XG [14e4:4329] (rev 01)”

I tried to use ndiswrapper and got the drivers but that failed because I could not modprobe ndiswrapper. Later, I tried using module-assistant to install ndiswrapper but it failed to compile.

So I tried to install the wl driver using module assistant. That didn’t compile.  I download the sta driver from broadcom(http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linuxsta.php), manually compiled it and copied wl.ko to /lib/modules/2.6.36/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/.  

/etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-common.conf
# wl module from Broadcom conflicts with ssb
# We must blacklist the following modules:
blacklist b44
blacklist b43legacy
blacklist b43
blacklist ssb
blacklist brcm80211
install wl /sbin/modprobe —ignore-install wl \$CMDLINEOPTS

The module wl is loaded but I can’t get wlan0. When I run ifup wlan0, I get: 
SIOCSIFADDR: No such device
wlan0: ERROR while getting interface flags: No such device

Dmesg does not seem to show the device.  Any advice?
NN comments
phawkhruamyopenidcom
-

Have been having essentially the same problem, here, with a TP-Link TL-WN651G card. Have tried ath5k and madwifi, but nothing like wlan0 or ath0 ever shows up in /dev (nor, for that matter in ifconfig or iwconfig) and any commands that would want them just result in “No such device” even though the card DOES appear in lspci and modprobe DOES insert some modules.

Thus, it appears it may not be just a Broadcom thing, but rather that you and I are missing some configuration step, somewhere – that or the Broadcom and TP-Link just happen to cause the same condition.

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6 answers

1

amlj [ Editor ]

Well, maybe it’s not wlan0 you should be looking for… Try eth1 instead.

NN comments
simon1tan
-

thank you for answering. typing ifconfig -a shows only lo and eth0. I actually tried to ifup eth1 just in case, no go :)

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0

klistvud

Is this Lenny or Squeeze? Anyway, you’re overcomplicating things. Ndiswrapper is in the Debian repos, no need to compile; the same goes for the Broadcom sta driver. You just install the related packages and, IIRC, they will bring in the required Broadcom scripts/blobs. For further instructions, consult the appended link (which basically says: follow the related Debian Wiki).

NN comments
simon1tan
-

I’m using Squeeze. I did aptitude install ndiswrapper-common and ndiswrapper-utils-1.9 first, downloaded windows driver, ndiswrapper -i blahblahblah.inf. ndiswrapper -l shows the driver installed. Tried to modprobe ndiswrapper. I get an error saying it cannot find the ndiswrapper module. How do I fix that? That’s when I decided to try to use moduleassistant which failed to compile.

Moving on, I did follow http://wiki.debian.org/wl and m-a a-i broadcom-sta which downloaded the sources and stuff and tried to compile. Problem is, it fails to compile. I updated the broadcom-sta-source and finally got it compiled and wl.ko is installed where it is supposed to be. loaded wl but still not seeing device wlan0 or eth1. ifconfig -a only shows lo and eth0.

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0

klistvud

What does lsmod|grep wl say? It should list both your wl and ieee80211_crypt modules. If either is not shown, you should insmod or modprobe it until it is. Then check with ifconfig again. Once it’s shown in ifconfig, you’re good to go. Network manager should take it from there. Contrary to what many think, squeeze is not entirely ironed out though, so there may always be little quirks left to the user to sort out manually …

NN comments
rhonda
-

Please edit your answer instead of adding additional ones, especially when they are not different answers but rather clearification of the original one.

simon1tan
-

lsmod|grep wl shows: wl 1937483 0 lib80211 2886 1 wl From the broadcom-sta docs “Most newer systems use lib80211 while others use ieee80211crypttkip”

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0

phawkhruamyopenidcom [ Editor ]

Progress in my similar problem. May it can help with yours.

After trying so many different things that I lost count, I removed the wireless-network card and installed it into a different PCI slot. When I rebooted, wlan0 was there. It still wasn’t in /dev, but that was just a misunderstanding on my part: it is not something that belongs in /dev, but SHOULD show up in ifconfig and iwconfig.

It still isn’t actually connecting, and I’ve even turned off WPA on my router, temporarily, but at least wlan0 IS there, now.

Edit:

Shortly after posting the above message, I found THIS PAGE, and followed what it said there to get wpasupplicant working. Now, not only is my wireless working, but it IS using WPA2 protection AND (since I have even unplugged the original network cable) that wireless is the network connection through which I am posting this update.

I don't know how much any of what I experienced may apply to you, but I hope it can help in some way. Good luck.

NN comments
simon1tan
-

thanks for your answer. I changed the PCI slot, no go. It’s odd that you had to change PCI slots, might be a defective one huh.

Looking at dmesg, there are some references wl: module license ‘unspecified’ taints kernel. wl 0000:02:02.0: PCI INT A –> GSI 17 (level, low) –> IRQ 17 eth%d: 5.60.246.6 driver failed with code 17

Looks like a driver issue. I guess I will wait for a newer and and try to compile that. Thanks all.

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