Broadcom B43 driver and STA driver in driver list?

[steelmaverick]

I have a laptop using the Broadcom B43 wireless driver, and it works perfectly.

Now, recently while doing updates, a new driver popped up, the Broadcom STA driver. It says that it is also a driver.

So, my question for you is: What is the STA driver, and is it better? Should I upgrade to it?

Just asking ahead of time so i dont do something unnecessary and end up spending time to put it back.

[nuclearfall]

I just upgraded to the STA driver. So far the only noticeable difference is that my wireless rate is 54 Mb/s and not 1 Mb/s. That's enough for me to stick with it, at least until something goes horribly wrong.

[Nostalos]

STA is the proprietary Driver from Broadcom and works even better so far than B43.

I have been using the same Dell D610 since gutsy. I started out with the bcm43xx-fwcutter and firmware. It worked, but range was severely limited due to a bug that did not downgrade my bandwidth appropriatly automatically. So in order to use my laptop in the front room of my house I had to manually set the card to 1Mbps.

As I upgraded I moved to the B43 driver. Worked quite well. was able to get 40% signal strength in the same room and did not have to muck with it manually.

Now with Ibex I have moved to the STA driver. I now get 75% signal strength in the same room and can now actually take my laptop into my garage which is another 15Ft away and another wall.

STA Driver FTW.

[steelmaverick]

STA is the proprietary Driver from Broadcom and works even better so far than B43.

I have been using the same Dell D610 since gutsy. I started out with the bcm43xx-fwcutter and firmware. It worked, but range was severely limited due to a bug that did not downgrade my bandwidth appropriatly automatically. So in order to use my laptop in the front room of my house I had to manually set the card to 1Mbps.

As I upgraded I moved to the B43 driver. Worked quite well. was able to get 40% signal strength in the same room and did not have to muck with it manually.

Now with Ibex I have moved to the STA driver. I now get 75% signal strength in the same room and can now actually take my laptop into my garage which is another 15Ft away and another wall.

STA Driver FTW.

Alright, I think I'll give it a shot.

BTW, just for my own purposes, before my wireless card was labeled wlan0, now its eth2. I know it doesn't really make a difference to the computer, but how can I relabel it wlan0?

[the_maplebar]

I just upgraded to the STA driver. So far the only noticeable difference is that my wireless rate is 54 Mb/s and not 1 Mb/s. That's enough for me to stick with it, at least until something goes horribly wrong.

SWEET!!! I just upgraded my kernel. Guess I will try switching drivers now

[the_maplebar]

I just did a quick little test after changing my drivers. Just a note, I did have to play around with reconfiguring my wifi after upgrading, but it's working now.

I recently copied a DVD iso over my local wifi network in 100mb chunks using SCP. Speeds peeked at 16Mbps and dropped to 1Mbps at times with the B43 driver. For a quick test I copied 20 10MB files and 1 100MB file using the STA driver. Speeds peeked at 27Mbps and he lowest they dropped to was 20Mbps.

Looks like an improvement to me.

[linux4life88]

I just installed this new driver and the speed difference is amazing. Before I had a strength of 55% to 65% now in that same room I have 80% to 100%.

[ivomans]

... Just a note, I did have to play around with reconfiguring my wifi after upgrading, but it's working now. ...

I tried switching from B43 to STA but could not get a working connection anymore. I'm back on B43 now. What reconfiguration is required to get it working?

[Ayuthia]

I tried switching from B43 to STA but could not get a working connection anymore. I'm back on B43 now. What reconfiguration is required to get it working?

Did you disable the b43 driver? You might also have to blacklist the b43 and ssb driver to get the wl (STA) driver to work.