Broadcom BCM4322 STA & brcm80211 can't see wifi channels >11 (2.462GHz)

Forgot to mention.. This is Karmic amd64-version.
And the report is telling that "bcmwl-kernel-source" is not installed, but that is because I tried to un-install it to see if I could get it working with anything else... :-)

I can confirm this on MacBook Pro 5,5 13". lspci -vvnn attached. It seems to do this with only certain access points, with one of them being a Linksys Compact Wireless-G Broadband Router WRT54GC ver 2.0.

I can confirm this on MacBook Pro 5,5 13" with Karmic 64-bit, only with certain access points.

I've found in the README.txt on the site of the Linux driver provided by Broadcom (http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php) that: "The driver only supports the default locale setting wich is ROW (Rest Of World) which does not include channels 12 or 13."
The network I cannot find is on channel 13, so in my case the problem is solved (???). If any of you manage to find a solution I'd like to hear it.

Am I supposed to change the status of the bug to "invalid"?

I have the same problem on Dell Latitude E6400 on Ubuntu 9.10 karmic x64: only channels 1-11 of 2.4GHz band are available and I cannot connect to AP on channel 12/13 (which is legally permitted in Europe). The WiFi adapter is a Dell Wireless 1510, which is a BCM4322. I'm using the STA proprietary driver which is downloaded automatically by ubuntu.
The "iwlist channel" command reports that no channel 12 and 13 are available.
After downloading, compiling and installing the STA driver 15.4.22.2.6.28 2010/02/06 from http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php (wl.ko), the channel 12 and 13 are now available.
The module wk.ko seems to work. Unfortunately, like the ubuntu stock module, performances are very bad with respect to the Windows 7 driver :(
In Ubuntu, with both old and new wl.ko) I can ping my lan default gw in no less than 6ms, with a lot of jitter, while in windows 7 i can ping in 1ms.
The maximum transfer rate for Ubuntu is 1.2-1.3MB/sec, wile in windows 7 is 2.5MB/sec :(

Good and bad news: on 22/dec/2010 broadcom released version 5.100.82.38 of the sta driver. Recompiling it on ubuntu 10.10 x64 improved a lot the performances. But I lost access to channels 13 and 14.

This is still a problem in Ubuntu 11.04 using either bcmwl 5.100.* or brcm80211. In maverick with bcmwl 5.60.* I had no such problem (from duplicate bug #713528).

I can confirm this with a MBP6,1 - it worked fine in previous releases but now fails to find a my Belkin APs on channel 13, but adjusting them to channel 6 works perfectly.
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM43224 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 01)

I can confirm this with a Macbook5,1 - it worked fine in previous releases but now fails to find my Apple Airport WIFI thingy. Turned out the damn thing was on channel 13. Changing to channel 6 and it connects first time! Infuriating. Please make a release note or something ...

03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)

Possibly useful: the version of bcmwl-kernel-source from Ubuntu 10.10, 5.60.48.36+bdcom-0ubuntu5, seems to work in Ubuntu 11.04 and provide access to channel 13. This provides a workaround, at least.

bcmwl-kernel-source has this problem still in Ubuntu 11.10. I am using BCM4313 adapter.

OK, I think I've found a solution using the latest version of Broadcom STA driver (released 2011-10-25) - http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

Most notable feature in this version is cfg80211 support, which handles country regulations for the driver - http://linuxwireless.org/en/developers/Documentation/cfg80211#Regulatory_support

Download the driver package and follow README - http://www.broadcom.com/docs/linux_sta/README.txt - however, there are a few gotchas:

- On Ubuntu 11.10 (or with kernel >= 3.0.0) to get cfg80211 support you must compile with:
make API=CFG80211
- You'll have to rmmod and blacklist "brcmsmac" (and "brcmfmac", eventually)
- wl.ko won't be automatically compiled with the next kernel update so your wi-fi stops working; that's what DKMS package solves

Now, for channels 12 and 13.
Install "iw" package. iw allows you to change regulatory domain, see http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Documentation/iw#Updating_your_regulatory_domain
I've placed "iw reg set COUNTRY" into my rc.local; regulatory domain can be also injected through wpa_supplicant's COUNTRY variable, but I've not found any option how to pass it through the NetworkManager.

Note that this was tested on Ubuntu 11.10, with HP Mini 5103 with BCM4313 - your results may vary.

Another option would be to use brcmsmac driver which is a part of kernel since 2.6.39 and use iw reg set for it - however, it caused some strange kernel lags for me, but again, your experience may vary.

So, the binary driver has to be updated (anybody for a PPA?) and there should be some user friendly and/or fully automatic way to change the regulatory domain. Linux Wireless mentions GeoClue integration - http://linuxwireless.org/en/developers/Regulatory#Automatic_country_discovery - but this isn't something what bcmwl should care about.

Hi,

I've got a part of solution on ubuntu 12.10:

I tweaked the bcmwl-kernel-source_5.100.82.112+bdcom-0ubuntu2_amd64.deb package, containing latest driver source v5.100.82.112 from broadcom, with 80211.
Unpack the .deb.
On bcmwl-kernel-source_5.100.82.112+bdcom-0ubuntu2_amd64/usr/src/@/dkms.conf, replace, line 6:
MAKE[0]="make -C $kernel_source_dir M=$dkms_tree/$PACKAGE_NAME/$PACKAGE_VERSION/build"
by
MAKE[0]="make API=CFG80211 -C $kernel_source_dir M=$dkms_tree/$PACKAGE_NAME/$PACKAGE_VERSION/build"

On bcmwl-kernel-source_5.100.82.112+bdcom-0ubuntu2_amd64/usr/src/@/patches/0002-Makefile.patch replace:
  KBUILD_NOPEDANTIC=1 make -C /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build M=`pwd`
by
  KBUILD_NOPEDANTIC=1 make API=CFG80211 -C /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build M=`pwd`

Adding API=CFG80211 to make's parameters force compiling the driver with 80211 compliance. But i'm now unable to connect to an AP with a channel >11. "iw scan eth2" show me only AP fron 1 to 11 channel. Quite annoying in Europe, especially in France who the old regulatory provide only channels 10 to 13 (many AP still exist with this limitation now)...

"iw reg set JP" ("iw reg get" confirm the reg to JP) works, iw list eth2 return "nl80211 not found."

Any idea?

I am seeing this problem as well (using wl module).

from lspci -vvnn:
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM43225 802.11b/g/n [14e4:4357] (rev 01)

By deinstalling bcmwl-kernel-source, the brcmsmac module activates and I can access channel 13. However, the connection seems to drop a lot and (for example) I cannot watch youtube videos.