Broadcom b43/b43legacy Wireless Support in Fedora

1. Read our Getting Started with Wireless Guide.
   
2. Supported Broadcom hardware. (See this page to see if your device is supported. If you have a BCM4312 check this page.)
3. Fedora 8 - kernel 2.6.23.15+ with b43-fwcutter 011+
   Note: This might still work in Fedora 7 with a proper kernel.
   
4. Existing connection to the Internet. For example, wired internet.
   
5. You must have an updated system:
   
1. Open a terminal

2. Run a yum update:

su -c 'yum update'

Doing the Work

1. Open a terminal .
2. Install the b43-fwcutter packages:
   

su -c 'yum install b43-fwcutter'

3. Check what firmware your card needs:
   

   dmesg|grep b43
   

   You will see something like the following with hints on what firmware you need to use:

   b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.fw" no found or load failed.
   b43-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the latest firmware (version 4).

4. Download the correct firmware for your device from here or select the correct firmware from the following links:
   
   For b43, download this firmware version 4 and untar it:
   
   • http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
     

   For b43legacy,  download Version 3 firmware:
   

   • http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
     
5. Extract the firmware:
   
   For b43:
   

   su -l -c 'b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware /path/to/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver/wl_apsta_mimo.o'
   

   For b43legacy:

   su -l -c 'b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware /path/to/wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o'
   

   For bcm43xx:
   
   bcm43xx support is outside the scope of this howto. Please read the linux wireless howto for bcm43xx support.
   
   

6. Optional: Enable NetworkManager for managing this device (very recommended!)
7. Alias the correct module to your wlan0 device:
   
   For b43:
   

   su -c 'echo "alias wlan0 b43" >> /etc/modprobe.conf'
   

   For b43legacy:

   su -c 'echo "alias wlan0 b43legacy" >> /etc/modprobe.conf'
   

8. With some devices, system-config-network will need to be run:
   

   su -l -c 'system-config-network'

   Select: New → Wireless → Broadcom Device (should be wlan0)
   Then: Select options suitable for your network configuration. We recommend using NetworkManager and setting the device to not start on boot.
   
9. Now, reload the driver:
   
   For b43:
   

   su -l -c 'rmmod b43 && modprobe b43'

   For b43legacy:
   

   su -l -c 'rmmod b43legacy && modprobe b43legacy'

10. If the reload fails to get your device working correctly, just reboot:
    

    su -c 'reboot'

How to test

ping yahoo.com

PING yahoo.com (216.109.112.135) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from w2.rc.vip.dcn.yahoo.com (216.109.112.135): icmp_seq=0 ttl=53 time=274 ms
[...]

Common problems and fixes

Check irc.freenode.net #bcm-users for any issues experienced with this driver.

Disclaimer

Added Reading

• http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/
• http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43
  
• https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=186329