# [Solved] Broadcom BCM4313 not detected, kernel 3.4.9-gentoo

## Pirate Zoro

Hello there, everyone. Now, I should start off by saying I'm fairly new to Gentoo. I started off just a couple weeks ago with Calculate Linux, and once I got the hang of the USE flags and what-not, I decided to get my hands dirty with a full Gentoo install. Everything is working out great, except for my wireless. Normally this isn't too much of a problem, I can use an ethernet cable and I'm good to go. The problem however is that this Monday, Labor Day, I will be out of town for the day and will need to use my laptop and have it connected to wi-fi. I'm using a Lenovo Essentials G570, which has a Broadcom BCM4313 wireless card. When I used Calculate, the card worked perfectly out of the box and everything was honky-dory. I've tried genkernel, and that didn't work for me so I went in and made sure I had everything broadcom related in the WLAN section of networking devices (better safe than sorry, and all that). I even blacklisted b43 and loaded wl, as the wiki states that that particular driver would help, and it has before when I was using Arch. Is there something I need to specifically enable in order for it the system to detect my wireless card? And yes, I know, I should probably find a card that's better supported, I've been shopping around a bit and will get one at some point. Anyway back on topic, con anyone help with this problem? It seems broadcom issues are common, if anyone else has had these problems can you let me know how you solved it? Thanks in advance to anyone able to help.Last edited by Pirate Zoro on Mon Sep 03, 2012 10:50 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## chithanh

You need to enable the brcmsmac driver in your kernel and install the firmware for the device. You can also use broadcom-sta but I would rather avoid it and only use as last resort.

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## forrestfunk81

The brcm80211 driver works pretty good for broadcom 4313.

Config for kernel 3.3 and newer:

```
Device Drivers

    -> Network device support

        -> Wireless LAN

            -> <M> Broadcom IEEE802.11n PCIe SoftMAC WLAN driver

Device Drivers

    -> Broadcom specific AMBA

        -> <M> BCMA support

            -> [*] Support for BCMA on PCI-host bus 
```

For kernel 3.2 (disabled BCMA support):

```
Device Drivers

    -> Network device support

        -> Wireless LAN

            -> <M> Broadcom IEEE802.11n PCIe SoftMAC WLAN driver

 Device Drivers

    -> Broadcom specific AMBA

        -> < > BCMA support 

```

For older kernels (< 3.2) the driver was in the kernel staging area. Can't remember the old configuration.

In any case you need sys-kernel/linux-firmware.

Alternative drivers: 

net-wireless/broadcom-sta (works but slow)

b43 (does not work for me)

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## Pirate Zoro

Sorry for the reply being a bit late, but as I said I was out most of the day. Followed what you said though, and the card is working perfectly now. I was using it all day without issue. I don't know how I missed the "Broadcom specific AMBA" section, but now I know what to do in the future. Thanks for the help, marking as solved   :Very Happy: 

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