Arch Linux

wyatt8740

Member

Registered: 2014-01-25

Posts: 2

Fixing slow bcm4311 cards without using Broadcom STA driver

I recently got fed up with trying to use the BCM4311 in the last few linux kernels. I have been getting 25kbps for a while now, and upon researching, I found this page https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=139911&p=1 which claims that the bcma module is responsible. However, I could not get the STA driver to work for me; even compiling it required patches. So, I downloaded the latest linux kernel (3.13 at the time of writing) and made a generic .config file. I then made all my changes in 'make menuconfig' and then to make BCMA not work, changed this in the .config file:

CONFIG_BCMA_BLOCKIO=y

and then opened 'make menuconfig' again, enabling all b43 (not legacy) options besides debug. Upon building,  this appeared to fix the issue.

I have attached my .config file because I may have made other changes necessary for this to work. This is for linux kernel 3.13!

After compiling and installing my new kernel, and rebooting, I have b43 working at wonderful speeds, and bcma does not show as using b43. SSB is, but is not interfering with BCMA anymore. I hope that my instructions are clear enough, and that this helps someone.

Pastebin - Linux 3.13 Configuration for b43 and BCM4311 chipsets (http://pastebin.com/6FQZc9A6)

This has just about all the things you need for a 64-bit kernel build and almost any given drivers. I left everything enabled that was by default with the exception of some of the BCMA features. I even enabled all the ALSA OSS emulation features.

Last edited by wyatt8740 (2014-01-25 03:03:24)

WonderWoofy

Member

From: Los Gatos, CA

Registered: 2012-05-19

Posts: 8,414

Re: Fixing slow bcm4311 cards without using Broadcom STA driver

If you want to use the broadcom STA module, you should use the broadcom-wl package from the AUR.

irtomek

Member

Registered: 2010-06-02

Posts: 12

Re: Fixing slow bcm4311 cards without using Broadcom STA driver

Could you please, once again, describe which options should I enable/disable in config ?

This is very important for me, because I can't make the wifi work well