Getting A Broadcom 43xx Card to Work in Linux

Please note**: this shows you how to compile and install the firmware for the 43xx series Broadcom cards. Linux Mint (an Ubuntu derivative) usually can detect and do this automatically for you. You might look under the Control Panel > Hardware if you are running Mint.

Please see the very excellent page at http://www.linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#b43andb43legacy for the most up-to-date information (and let me know if there are new versions). Below is the quick reference because I've done this a billion times. It assumes you are in a directory that is suitable to build the drivers.

If you have a relatively new wireless card (Anything with a or n support for sure. The 4312 is no exception, you'll want to use the standard b43 project). If you have a really old card (like if it only has b support and not g) then you will likely need to use b43-legacy. See the project page above for more detailed specs.

B43 for Newer Cards

Do the following.

wget http://bu3sch.de/b43/fwcutter/b43-fwcutter-011.tar.bz2
tar xjf b43-fwcutter-011.tar.bz2
cd b43-fwcutter-011
make
cd ..

wget http://mirror2.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
cd broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver
sudo ../../b43-fwcutter-011/b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta_mimo.o

[Get Code]

Reboot.

B3-legacy for older cards (Compaq r4000 with the 4306, I'm looking at you)