Broadcom BCM4360

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Everyone,

I just purchased a new wfi card that is identified as using lspci as :
Broadcom Limited BCM4360 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 03)

I have not been able to get it to work CentOS 7.4 machine. Some of the CentOS user posts had indicated the nux repsitory had a CentOS 7 kmod-
wl, but it is not present when I tried to search or or install it at this time.

Has anyone had any success in making the Broadcom BCM4360 chip work for CentOS 7.4

Greg

9 thoughts on - Broadcom BCM4360

  • Correct, elrepo isn’t able to freely redistribute the drivers due Broadcom’s licensing, but does provide instructions and a SRPM (minus tarball) for you to build yourself.

    Alternatively, for $8 you can purchase an adaptor that is natively supported and will work out of the box:

    https://www.amazon.com/Edimax-EW-7811Un-150Mbps-Raspberry-Supports/dp/B003MTTJOY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1512370979&sr=8-1&keywords=edimax+n150

    https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833315091&cm_re=edimax_n150-_-33-315-091-_-Product

    The above adaptor is based on the Realtek RTL8188CUS chipset and uses the rtl8192cu kernel driver.

  • That’s what I have to do, and it can sometimes be a PITA because a kernel update can break it and you have to build it again.

    With major updates (like 7.3 to 7.4) you sometimes have to download a new nosrc rpm.

    At some point I will be replacing mine, but with a low-profile PCI-E
    card. I’ve had bad luck with USB wifi adapters, sometimes for example they lose connection when a microwave is turned on and when I was visiting my parents, had one that lost connection whenever the AC unit kicked on.

    My best wifi experience in Linux has been with my T series thinkpad, it uses some kind of Intel wireless chipset that is in the kernel.

    I’m going to be looking for a low profile Intel PCI-E card, but for now my broadcom PCI-E actually works quite well – with the exception of needing to rebuild every now and then (last time was 7.3 to 7.4 update)

  • Le 04/12/2017 à 01:22, Gregory P. Ennis a écrit :

    Some time ago I installed CentOS 7 on a MacBook Pro with a Broadcom wireless card. The card was a PITA to configure, but it works perfectly now.

    I wrote an article about it. It’s in French, but the *nix bits are universal. :o)

    https://blog.microlinux.fr/CentOS-7-macbook-pro/#rezo-wifi

    Cheers,

    Niki


    Microlinux – Solutions informatiques durables
    7, place de l’église – 30730 Montpezat Site : https://www.microlinux.fr Blog : https://blog.microlinux.fr Mail : info@microlinux.fr Tél. : 04 66 63 10 32

  • Every time I encounter big enough trouble about some chipset to have to learn a bit about its internals, I usually learn about its engineering flaw. BCM43xx has the following one: the chip internally is 32 bit, though it sits on 64 bit bus. (Take that with a grain of salt, it’s been long time since I looked into that crap).

    Once I discover the flaw, I add particular hardware in my black list and do my best to not buy anything containing it. Broadcom as a whole is not in my black list, they have great hardware, but their BCM43XX is, even if they corrected their design flaws since.

    I would replace that if possible (Intel would be great candidate), or use USB adapters others suggest.

    Just my $0.02

    Valeri

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    Valeri Galtsev Sr System Administrator Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics University of Chicago Phone: 773-702-4247
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

  • lspci |grep -i broad
    02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Limited BCM4360 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 03)

    That’s my broadcom chip and it works in CentOS 7.4 with the

    kmod-wl-6_30_223_271-4.el7.CentOS.x86_64

    rpm built from the previously mentiones nosrc rpm.

    I might have bumped the release tag when rebuilding it, don’t remember.

  • Every time I encounter big enough trouble about some chipset to have to learn a bit about its internals, I usually learn about its engineering flaw. BCM43xx has the following one: the chip internally is 32 bit, though it sits on 64 bit bus. (Take that with a grain of salt, it’s been long time since I looked into that crap).

    Once I discover the flaw, I add particular hardware in my black list and do my best to not buy anything containing it. Broadcom as a whole is not in my black list, they have great hardware, but their BCM43XX
    is, even if they corrected their design flaws since.

    I would replace that if possible (Intel would be great candidate), or use USB adapters others suggest.

    Just my $0.02

    Valeri

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    Valeri Galtsev Sr System Administrator Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics University of Chicago Phone: 773-702-4247
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

  • yeah, Intel wifi cards are generally excellent and well supported.

    I don’t like USB wifi at all.   the antennas are tiny and have very poor gain or efficiency.   you want to get an internal mPCI-E card or whatever it is your laptop expects, as that will connect to the built in antenna which runs along the top of the screen on most laptops and will give you FAR better signal gain resulting in better range, and faster transfers


    john r pierce, recycling bits in santa cruz