Last Kernel-update killed my Wifi

English Network/Internet
1

I just installed latest Kernel-update that comes trough Online-Update. After reboot my Wifi does not work anemone.
Wifi: Broadcom BCM43228

Running kernel: 4.8.1-280.g4861355-default
System: OpenSuse Tumbleweed 20161003

How do i fix this?

2

I really don’t know how i fixed it but now its working.
I followed the first sticky post about installing B43-firmware without network-connection. To get the script working i had to delete folders /b43 and /b43leagcy
Now the script work, but nothing happens after reboot. The NetworkManager show no active wifi.

Then i was checking with other posts in Wireless-forum and did som test.

/usr/sbin/hwinfo --netcard
19: PCI 400.0: 0282 WLAN controller                              
  [Created at pci.374]
  Unique ID: OYri.Rt0ttKbFaa4
  Parent ID: qTvu.8Makl3iDVc3
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:04:00.0
  SysFS BusID: 0000:04:00.0
  Hardware Class: network
  Model: "Broadcom BCM43228 802.11a/b/g/n"
  Vendor: pci 0x14e4 "Broadcom"
  Device: pci 0x4359 "BCM43228 802.11a/b/g/n"
  SubVendor: pci 0x14e4 "Broadcom"
  SubDevice: pci 0x05e2  
  Driver: "bcma-pci-bridge"
  Driver Modules: "bcma"
  Device File: wlp4s0b1
  Features: WLAN
  Memory Range: 0xf8000000-0xf8003fff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  IRQ: 17 (9551 events)
  HW Address: 18:cf:5e:81:e0:a1
  Link detected: no
  WLAN channels: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 36 40 44 48 149 153 157 161 165
  WLAN frequencies: 2.412 2.417 2.422 2.427 2.432 2.437 2.442 2.447 2.452 2.457 2.462 5.
18 5.2 5.22 5.24 5.745 5.765 5.785 5.805 5.825
  WLAN encryption modes: WEP40 WEP104 TKIP CCMP
  WLAN authentication modes: open sharedkey wpa-psk wpa-eap
  Module Alias: "pci:v000014E4d00004359sv000014E4sd000005E2bc02sc80i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    Driver Status: bcma is inactive 
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe bcma"
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #10 (PCI bridge)

I Noticed that HWINFO says “bcma is inactive” and activation-cmd is “modprobe bcma”.
I tried this and still it didn’t work. More reading tells me that “bcma” is not anymore supported and you need the proprietary driver “broadcom_wl”.
Then i just did the cmd:

modprobe b43

And suddenly wifi start to work. I lost the SSID in 2,4GHz canal 13, but now i see SSID in 5GHz and i can connect. Now the NetworkManager(Plasma) also works :slight_smile:

So if anyone loose your wifi, just try “modprobe b43” for the Broadcom B43xxx-card :slight_smile:

3

I suppose you used the proprietary broadcom-wl up to now?

AFAIK this doesn’t work yet with Kernel 4.8, and would need to be patched.
See [packman] broadcom-wl vs. kernel-4.8

So you’d either need to wait until Packman (or somebody else in his home repo) adds this patch, or build it yourself.

Or, stick to b43 if it works, that should be less hassle anyway especially in Tumbleweed.

bcma is not a driver, the driver is called “b43”. And it requires additional firmware to be installed, which cannot be shipped with the kernel for license reasons.

You probably should just uninstall broadcom-wl now, as this contains a blacklist for b43 and prevents b43 from being loaded automatically at boot.

4

Your Broadcom chipset should be detected properly and supported
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43/
and, some additional info including info that agains states your chipset is supported
https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#Supported_devices

When I last checked this list about a year and a half ago,
it seemed to me that the last of the broadcom chipsets released to that point were finally fully supported…

But,
It looks like this list now includes new chipsets which are not yet supported so I guess Broadcom is continuing their practice of releasing chipsets which take time to be integrated into the kernel.

TSU

5

Ok, now im a little wiser. There is some sort of bug in Kernel (or Broadcom-wl) that prevent this driver to work under Kernel 4.8.
I could downgrade Kernel back to 4.7 or i can stick with b43.
I see that after reboot i need to execute “modprobe b43” to start wifi as you said, so i uninstall Broadcom-wl until its been patched.

The b43 is working ok so i stick to it until this is fixed.

Thanks for info
RS

6

It’s not a bug in the kernel, it’s just that the proprietary, 3rd party, broadcom-wl driver isn’t updated very often to work with newer kernels.
Every now and then somebody comes up with a patch to make it work, and this may be added to the Packman package then.

I see that after reboot i need to execute “modprobe b43” to start wifi as you said, so i uninstall Broadcom-wl until its been patched.

You shouldn’t have to do that if you uninstall broadcom-wl as mentioned.

The b43 is working ok so i stick to it until this is fixed.

Actually, you should use b43 forever if it works for you/your wireless card.
That’s the preferred solution, as b43 is part of the kernel.

TBH, I consider using broadcom-wl a “workaround”… :wink: