New brcm80211 driver guide for Broadcom wireless cards

[Axx83]

Update 29/04/2011
The new broadcom driver is included in the 2.6.38 kernel that comes with Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal
I suggest everyone to just upgrade to the new version.


Update 07/01/11
Thanks to user some-one the problem with git sources has been solved.
At the moment the only commit version that compiles in 10.10 is this one:
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kerne...efe3b14;sf=tgz
Download the .tar.gz file in your home directory and extract it.
Now INSTEAD of "cd ~/linux-next/drivers/staging/brcm80211" you will do "cd ~/linux-next-a694cb1" and follow the rest of the guide strarting with "nano Makefile".

START
This guide has been tested and works on Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick amd64 installed on an Acer Travelmate 8172t with Broadcom BCM43225 wireless device.

Currently supported chips
=========================
Name Device ID
BCM4313 0x4727
BCM43224 0x4353
BCM43225 0x4357

This guide is based on this tutorial in the opensuse forum: Opensuse installation guide which is based on the README file inside the source code.

Make sure the proprietary broadcom driver is not loaded by the system, open "Additional driver" application in system > administration and disable the driver if it was enabled, restart if necessary.

Open terminal (Applications>Accessories>Terminal) and copy paste these lines one after another.

Install build packages

sudo apt-get install build-essential git-core

Download the driver and the firmware

git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/next/linux-next.git
git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/dwmw2/linux-firmware.git

Modify the file to make it work with your kernel

cd ~/linux-next/drivers/staging/brcm80211
nano Makefile

Add this code at the end

KDIR    := /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build
ccflags-y += -I$(SUBDIRS)/include -I$(SUBDIRS)/sys -I$(SUBDIRS)/phy

default:
	echo $(PWD)
	$(MAKE) -C $(KDIR) SUBDIRS=$(shell pwd) CONFIG_BRCM80211_PCI=y V=1 modules

CTRL+X to exit and save


Compile the driver

make

If it exit with and error then check the UPDATE section at the top.


Copy it in the proper dir

sudo cp brcm80211.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/

Download and copy the device's firmware

sudo mkdir /lib/firmware/brcm
cd ~/linux-firmware
sudo cp brcm/bcm43xx* /lib/firmware/brcm
cd /lib/firmware/brcm
sudo ln -s bcm43xx-0-610-809-0.fw bcm43xx-0.fw
sudo ln -s bcm43xx_hdr-0-610-809-0.fw bcm43xx_hdr-0.fw

Load the driver module

sudo modprobe mac80211
sudo insmod /lib/modules/`uname -r`/brcm80211.ko

At this point the wireless should work correctly in network-manager


Load dependencies

sudo depmod -a

Add the module to the startup

sudo nano /etc/modules

Add this lines at the end

brcm80211

CTRL+X to exit and save


Fix the problem with suspending

sudo nano /usr/lib/pm-utils/defaults

add after #SUSPEND_MODULES=""

SUSPEND_MODULES="brcm80211"

CTRL+X to exit and save