Debian Squeeze & Broadcom b43 etc

So you like Debian, and why wouldn’t you, it is great after all. Unfortunately, many laptops come from the factory sporting Broadcom-based chipsets. So inevitably I complete a Debian install and Broadcom takes the wind out of my sales. I then trudge over to http://wiki.debian.org/wl#Squeeze and go through the paces. Why? I do it over and over. Well enough is enough, I mean this isn’t a tricky script to write. So for your enjoyment, I have put it all together into a small bash script to simplify things for future installs. First, be sure to add the non-free repo to your /etc/apt/sources.list file.
Then create and run a .sh file containting:

#!/bin/bash
aptitude update
aptitude install module-assistant wireless-tools
m-a a-i broadcom-sta
echo blacklist brcm80211 >> /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-common.conf
update-initramfs -u -k $(uname -r)
modprobe -r b44 b43 b43legacy ssb brcm80211
modprobe wl
iwconfig

Enjoy!

–himuraken

1 thought on “Debian Squeeze & Broadcom b43 etc”

  1. Hi, I’ve been trying the Debian wiki without success, these seem to be the same steps but all in one.
    Anyway I have had no joy. I get these messages from M.A
    Do you have any other ideas?
    Thanks

    ┤ module-assistant, error message ├

    │ Bad luck, the kernel headers for the target kernel version could
    │ not be found
    │ and you did not specify other valid kernel headers to use.

    and then

    module-assistant, error message ├

    │ If the running kernel has been shipped with the Debian
    │ distribution, please install the package
    │ kernel-headers-3.2.0-0.bpo.2-amd64. If your kernel source tree
    │ (or headers) is located in some non-usual location, please set
    │ the KERNELDIRS environment variable to the path of this
    │ directory, or (alternatively) specify the source directory we
    │ build for with the –kernel-dir option in module-assistant calls.

    lastly

    module-assistant, error message ├

    │ If the running kernel has been shipped with the Debian
    │ distribution, please install the package
    │ kernel-headers-3.2.0-0.bpo.2-amd64. If your kernel source tree
    │ (or headers) is located in some non-usual location, please set
    │ the KERNELDIRS environment variable to the path of this
    │ directory, or (alternatively) specify the source directory we
    │ build for with the –kernel-dir option in module-assistant calls.

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