===== Broadcom brcmsmac(PCIe) and brcmfmac(SDIO/USB) drivers =====
* Completely open source host drivers, no binary object files.
* Framework for supporting new chips, including mac80211-aware embedded chips.
* Does not support older PCI/PCIe chips with SSB backplane (see [[en/users/Drivers/b43|b43]]).
* **brcm**s**mac** is a mac80211-based [[en/developers/Documentation/Glossary|SoftMAC]] driver, and **brcm**f**mac** is a [[en/developers/Documentation/Glossary|FullMAC]] driver.
===== Supported Chips =====
**brcmsmac (PCIe/AXI)** driver:
^ Name ^ PCI Device ID ^
| BCM4313 | 0x4727 |
| BCM43224 | 0x0576 |
| BCM43224 | 0x4353 |
| BCM43225 | 0x4357 |
Please note: at least BCM4313 is not fully supported. Some models appears to work (users reported success), but some don't, and there's no indication that this is going to change. For example: [[http://marc.info/?t=138817851800006&r=1&w=2|http://marc.info/?t=138817851800006&r=1&w=2]]
**brcmsmac (SoC/AXI)** driver:
^ Name ^
|BCM4716 |
|BCM4717 |
|BCM4718 |
==== brcmfmac ====
=== PCIe devices ===
^ Chipset ^ PCI Device ID ^ Notes ^
|BCM4350 |14e4:43a3 | Queued for 4.4+ |
|BCM4354 |14e4:43df | Unreleased hw, support dropped in 4.1 |
|BCM4356 |14e4:43ec | Supported in 3.17+ |
|BCM43567 |14e4:43d3 | ::: |
|BCM43570 |14e4:43d9 | ::: |
|BCM4358 |14e4:43e9 | Supported in 4.2+ |
|BCM4359 |14e4:43ef | Queued for 4.5+ |
|BCM43602 |14e4:43ba | Supported in 3.17+ |
|BCM43602 |14e4:43bb | Supported in 3.19+, 2 GHz device |
|BCM43602 |14e4:43bc | Supported in 3.19+, 5 GHz device |
|BCM43602 |14e4:aa52 | Supported in 4.2+, "raw" device |
|BCM4365 |14e4:43ca | Supported in 4.4+ |
|BCM4365 |14e4:43cb | Supported in 4.4+, 2 GHz device |
|BCM4365 |14e4:43cc | Supported in 4.4+, 5 GHz device |
|BCM4366 |14e4:4365 | Queued for 4.6+ |
|BCM4366 |14e4:43c3 | Supported in 4.4+ |
|BCM4366 |14e4:43c4 | Supported in 4.4+, 2 GHz device |
|BCM4366 |14e4:43c5 | Supported in 4.4+, 5 GHz device |
=== SDIO devices ===
^ Name ^ Device ID ^ Notes ^
| BCM4329 | 0x4329 | |
| BCM4330 | 0x4330 | Supported in 3.3+ |
| BCM4334 | 0x4334 | Supported in 3.6+ |
| BCM43340 | 0xa94c | Supported in 4.0+ |
| BCM43341 | 0xa94d | Supported in 4.0+ |
| BCM43241 | 0x4324 | Supported in 3.7+ |
| BCM4335 | 0x4335 | Supported in 3.10+ |
| BCM4339 | 0x4335 | Supported in 3.13+ |
| BCM43362 | 0xA962 | Supported in 3.14+ |
| BCM43430 | 0xa9a6 | Supported in 4.1+ |
| BCM43455 | 0x4345 | Supported in 4.1+ |
| BCM4354 | 0x4354 | Supported in 3.15+ |
| BCM43143 | 0xA887 | Supported in 3.10+ |
=== USB devices ===
^ Name ^ USB Device ID ^ Notes ^
|BCM43235 (rev == 3) |? | |
|BCM43236 (rev == 3) |0a5c:bd17 | |
|BCM43238 (rev == 3) |? | |
|BCM43143 |0a5c:bd1e |Supported in 3.7+ |
|BCM43242 |0a5c:bd1f |Supported in 3.7+ |
|BCM43566 |0a5c:bd27 |Supported in 3.17+ |
|BCM43569 |
Both brcmsmac and brcmfmac drivers require firmware files that need to be separately downloaded. Firmware is available from the Linux firmware repository at:
* %%git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git%%
* [[http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git|http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git]]
* [[https://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git|https://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git]]
===== Unsupported Chips =====
^ Chip ^ Rev ^ Marketing name ^ USB ID ^
|0x4322 |1 |? |0846:9011|
|0x4322 |1 |BCM43231 |0846:9020|
|43236 | 2 |BCM43236 |0a5c:bd17|
|43526 |2 |BCM43526 |0a5c:bd1d|
| 0x4322 | 1 | BCM4323 | 1eda:2410 |
BCM43231 and BCM43236 (rev <= 2) have another architecture and can't be easily supported by **brcmfmac**. They have less memory on the chip and can't run full MAC firmware, so they require implementing some extra code in the Linux driver. On the other hand they are not standard soft MAC devices, so they can't be supported by **brcmsmac** or **b43**.
^ Chip ^ SDIO ID ^ Notes ^
|BCM4345 | 02d0:4345 | Older version of BCM43455 |
===== Broadcom brcmsmac driver =====
* Support for both 32 and 64 bit Linux kernels
==== Firmware installation ====
Copy brcm/bcm43xx-0.fw and brcm/bcm43xx_hdr-0.fw to /lib/firmware/brcm (or wherever firmware is normally installed on your system).
===== Broadcom brcmfmac driver =====
* Support for both 32 and 64 bit Linux kernels
==== Firmware installation ====
=== Current ===
For SDIO driver you need to copy the nvram for your system and place it in /lib/firmware/brcm. The nvram file name depends on the chip you have. The kernel log will tell you the exact file name.
For the USB driver no nvram file is //strictly// needed: in fact, the driver only loads the firmware blob and does not look for an nvram text file. However, the nvram parameters are still required and they are already part of the firmware blob. This is a TRX file which contains the nvram parameters as a sequence of zero-terminated plain text strings, appended at the end of the last section.
For an example of how to modify/add nvram parameters for USB devices, see [[https://blog.elimo.io/2020/06/05/pta-coexistence/|this post]]
The firmware files are located in the linux-firmware repository and can be copied as is to /lib/firmware/brcm.
=== SDIO chip on older kernels (before 3.13) ===
In kernel priors to v3.13 the SDIO driver used generic firmware names. Below are the instruction Use the nvram file installed in your system and copy it to /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac-sdio.txt The firmware can be found in the linux-firmware repository.
|For 4329: cp brcm/brcmfmac4329.bin /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac-sdio.bin|
|For 4330: cp brcm/brcmfmac4330.bin /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac-sdio.bin|
Alternatively, when not available the Android version can be used as well:
|git clone [[https://android.googlesource.com/platform/hardware/broadcom/wlan|https://android.googlesource.com/platform/hardware/broadcom/wlan]]|
|firmware files: bcmdhd/firmware/bcm4329/fw_bcm4329.bin bcmdhd/firmware/bcm4330/fw_bcm4330_b2.bin|
=== NVRAM from EFI ===
Some new devices are storing the nvram which is needed in addition to the firmware by the driver in an EFI variable and the Windows driver can access it (this file should be optional in the case of PCIe devices). Currently brcmfmac does not support this automatically.
First mount the efi vars into sysfs:
mount -t efivarfs none /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
The content of the nvram is in this file:
/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/nvram-74b00bd9-805a-4d61-b51f-43268123d113
Copy this file where brcmfmac expects the nvram, for example:
cat /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/nvram-74b00bd9-805a-4d61-b51f-43268123d113 > /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43241b4-sdio.txt
===== Contact Info =====
For driver issues and/or bug reports, please use one or both:
[[mailto:brcm80211@lists.linux.dev|brcm80211@lists.linux.dev]] [[https://lore.kernel.org/brcm80211/|archive]]\\
[[mailto:linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org|linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org]]\\
For any other questions feel free to contact the maintainer(s) listed below:
Arend van Spriel [[mailto:arend.vanspriel@broadcom.com|arend.vanspriel@broadcom.com]]\\
===== Developer information =====
==== Overview ====
* On-chip firmware loaded using standard request_firmware()
* Infrastructure for future chips in place.
* AMPDU support
* tracepoint support
==== softmac driver specifics ====
* Integrated with mac80211
* Using BCMA bus driver
* Uses minstrel_ht rate algorithm
* HW based encryption not enabled yet
* monitor mode
==== fullmac driver specifics ====
The brcmfmac driver is based on the DHD driver, which is also released in AOSP under the name bcmdhd. Although similar the brcmfmac driver has been reworked significantly. In the figure below the layering of the brcmfmac is shown. It was made couple of years ago so it may not be accurate.
{{:en:users:drivers:brcm80211:brcmfmac-layering.png?500|}}
\\
The bus layer supports SDIO, USB, and PCIe. The protocol layer support msgbuf protocol used for PCIe devices and BCDC which is used for SDIO and USB devices.
==== Get the code ====
The driver is available in linux mainline and development is done on the wireless-testing tree, available at:
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/wireless/wireless-testing.git
The driver is also available in the 3.2 and newer kernels. When using 'make menuconfig' it can be accessed:
Location: -> Device Drivers
* -> Network device support
* * -> Wireless LAN
* * * -> < > Broadcom IEEE802.11n PCIe SoftMAC WLAN driver
* * * -> < > Broadcom IEEE802.11n embedded FullMAC WLAN driver
* * * * -> [ ] SDIO bus interface support for FullMAC driver
* * * * -> [ ] USB bus interface support for FullMAC driver
* * * * -> [ ] PCIE bus interface support for FullMAC driver
For the PCIe SoftMAC WLAN driver (brcmsmac) you need to enable select the BCMA bus driver as well:
Location: -> Device Drivers
* * * -> Broadcom specific AMBA
* * * * -> BCMA support
* * * * * -> [*] Support for BCMA on PCI-host bus
==== Get Involved ====
Maintaining a driver for a family of chipsets that is widespread and productized by multiple entities can be challenging. While having a good stock of devices it is by no means covering a fraction of the variants out in the wild. So we can always use help from people doing regression testing or co-maintaining the driver. The table below provides an overview of those involved and the role they play.
^ Name ^ Email ^ Role ^ Device(s) ^
| Izabela Bakollari | ibakolla@redhat.com | Tester | Raspberry PI4 8GB |
| Arend van Spriel | arend.vanspriel@broadcom.com | Maintainer, Tester | BCM4330, BCM43664 |
| Peter Robinson | pbrobinson@gmail.com | Tester | Numerous Arm devices with Broadcom/Cypress/Synaptics variants. |
==== tracepoint support ====
Both brcmsmac and brcmfmac have several tracepoints defined that can be traced using kernel Ftrace. Python-based plugins are available on Github: [[https://github.com/arend/brcm80211-trace-cmd|https://github.com/arend/brcm80211-trace-cmd]]
==== To be done for softmac driver ====
* * * * * Add support for
* * * * * * 40MHz channels
* * * * * * powersave
* * * * * * IBSS
* * * * * * HW-based encryption
==== To be done for fullmac driver ====
* * * * * * Add support for
* * * * * * * debugfs (for accessing counters and other diagnostic info)
* * * * * * * monitor mode
* * * * * * * Add support for more chips.
==== Regulatory Implementation for brcmsmac ====
This generation of chips contain additional regulatory support independent of the driver. The devices use a single worldwide regulatory domain, with channels 1-11 (2.4 GHz band) and channels 52-64 and 100-140 (5 GHz band) restricted to passive operation. Transmission on those channels is suppressed until appropriate other traffic is observed on those channels. Within the driver, we use the ficticious country code "X2" to represent this worldwide regulatory domain. There is currently no interface to configure a different domain. The driver reads the SROM country code from the chip and hands it up to mac80211 as the regulatory hint, however this information is otherwise unused with the driver.