Add 802.11-n support to BCM47xx and BCM53xx OpenWrt

OpenWrt in default uses the reverse engineered b43 driver for BCM47xx and BCM53xx devices. With this driver only 802.11g is supported, but you can easily get wireless 802.11n working by installing the Broadcom open source brcmsmac driver. You can easily do make wireless N working by following below steps.

1. telnet or SSH to the router.**

2. execute the following commands through SSH or telnet.**

By running the following commands you will remove kmod-b43 and other unnecessary drivers, install kmod-brcmsmac and kmod-brcmutil package.

opkg update
opkg install kmod-brcmsmac
opkg install kmod-brcmutil
rmmod b43
rmmod b43legacy
rmmod wl
rmmod brcmsmac
rmmod brcmutil
modprobe brcmsmac

3. delete the old config files and get the initial configuration file.**

rm -f /etc/config/wireless
wifi detect > /etc/config/wireless

4. enable the WiFi.**

vi /etc/config/wireless

Comment out “option disabled 1” by adding “#” in front of it or delete it “option disabled 1” completely. After that, run the following command and you will see SSID named OpenWrt on your other devices.

wifi

*Note: brcmsmac does not support 40mhz (yet).