# brcm80211 - Broadcom opensource driver

## couker

Hi,

I am installing gentoo on laptop with Broadcom wifi card  - 44:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation Device 4353 (rev 01). This should be supported with new opensource driver in kernel 2.6.37. Compiling driver as a module is without problem, but the module needs to load firmware, which is not in gentoo portage. After some googling I am using firmware from some debian package http://packages.debian.org/unstable/kernel/firmware-brcm80211 which works ok. Wifi works and I am able to connect to my network without problems. I assume that the firmware should be the included in the portage same as eg. b43-firmware or firmwares for intel cards. Should I fill in a bug or did I miss something?

----------

## d2_racing

You should open a bugzilla just to be sure.

----------

## Goeland86

silly question, but where do you put the firmware for the module to load it?

Did you just put it in the generic location as directed here?

This is my first laptop with a broadcom chipset, so any insight is welcome.

Thanks,

Goeland

----------

## lxg

I've written a little Howto on my website:

http://www.lxg.de/code/broadcom-4353-wireless-et-al-opensource-howto

----------

## Goeland86

Thanks lxg!

Works like a charm  :Smile: 

----------

## Adwin

Have you noticed network dropping with the brcm80211 driver?

It works fine for a few seconds, but then, just shuts down.

----------

## Goeland86

I've had no issues at all with the driver. In fact, I'm rather impressed, it works better than the atheros chip I had in my previous laptop, which had on occasion the network drops you mention.

But nope, this one's working just fine. Note that I compiled it as module, but all other wireless-related things are in-kernel.

----------

## lxg

 *Adwin wrote:*   

> Have you noticed network dropping with the brcm80211 driver?
> 
> It works fine for a few seconds, but then, just shuts down.

 

Not yet, but I don't use wireless too often. But when I do, it is stable.

Next time it happens, please post the output of

```
dmesg | tail -n 50
```

----------

## Bassam

As noted in this bug, the firmware is available in sys-kernel/linux-firmware.

----------

