Broadom wl stop working

marco.righi · July 25, 2024, 1:45pm

Hi,
after the last upgrade, my wifi stopped getting IP addresses. Using NetworkManager the wifi device is present but wifi networks are not found.

lspci |grep -i broad

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries NetXtreme BCM57765 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 10)
02:00.1 SD Host controller: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM57765/57785 SDXC/MMC Card Reader (rev 10)
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 02)

pacman -Ss broadcom

core/linux-firmware-bnx2x 20240703.e94a2a3b-1
    Firmware files for Linux - bnx2x / Firmware for Broadcom NetXtreme II 10Gb ethernet adapters
extra/broadcom-wl 6.30.223.271-561
    Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver
extra/broadcom-wl-dkms 6.30.223.271-37 [installed]
    Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver

inxi -n

Network:
  Device-1: Broadcom NetXtreme BCM57765 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe driver: tg3
  IF: enp2s0f0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  Device-2: Broadcom BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n driver: wl
  IF: wlan0 state: dormant mac: xxxxxxxxxxx

The wifi device goes into dormant state automatically. I do not the state previously the last update.

rfkill list

0: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
1: hci0: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no

lsb_release -a

LSB Version:	n/a
Distributor ID:	EndeavourOS
Description:	EndeavourOS Linux
Release:	rolling
Codename:	rolling

inxi -Mm

Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Apple product: Macmini5,2 v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Apple model: Mac-4BC72D62AD45599E v: Macmini5,2
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Apple v: MM51.88Z.0077.B0F.1110201309
    date: 10/20/2011
Memory:
  System RAM: total: 6 GiB available: 5.77 GiB used: 2.34 GiB (40.6%)
  Array-1: capacity: 8 GiB slots: 2 modules: 2 EC: None
  Device-1: DIMM0 type: DDR3 size: 4 GiB speed: 1333 MT/s
  Device-2: DIMM0 type: DDR3 size: 2 GiB speed: 1333 MT/s

Any ideas to resolve the bug?

Thanks in advance

ejm · July 25, 2024, 2:10pm

I have no idea if this will help, but I had a similar symptom recently (after installing linux-zen) where my broadband worked find on other kernels, but not the zen version.

In my case, a simple update of the headers did the trick.

e.g., after checking kernel with uname -r then IIRC it’s something like…
sudo pacman -S linux-headers

EOS/Arch gurus on the forum will either confirm or correct me.

UncleSpellbinder · July 25, 2024, 2:40pm

I’m having the same issue. On my tablet at the moment as I have no wifi after just updating. It shows no available connections but when I click settings it shows my network used 18 minutes ago. Very confused.

EDIT: I’m using kernel - 6.10.0-arch1-2

kjw · July 25, 2024, 2:51pm

I downgraded wpa_supplicant and that worked.

Edit: forgot to say that I then needed to reboot.

UncleSpellbinder · July 25, 2024, 3:00pm

I’ve actually never performed a downgrade after all these years on Linux. At the risk of sounding like a total noob here, what command would I use to downgrade wpa_supplicant?

And do I need to be connected to the Internet to do this?

EDIT: Is it as simple as sudo downgrade wpa_supplicant?

UncleSpellbinder · July 25, 2024, 3:44pm

I did sudo downgrade wpa_supplicant, did not work.

kjw · July 25, 2024, 3:52pm

Have you rebooted?

I forgot to add that.

ejm · July 25, 2024, 3:53pm

I just followed in your footsteps and yay’ed my way into the latest/greatest current kernels and indeed my wifi also cut out as you’ve described.

This time, updating the headers didn’t do the trick, so I tried sudo downgrade wpa_supplicant - rolling back one version - and it fixed the issue.

See if that does the trick for you too. (…yes, reboot is required )

supermurs · July 25, 2024, 4:25pm

I faced this same issue today, I rolled back to the snapshot I took before the upgrade.

Perhaps I’ll try to upgrade again and then just downgrade wpa_supplicant too.

UncleSpellbinder · July 25, 2024, 4:52pm

I might be a little screwed here. I see why it didn’t work for me. New version and old version are the same version number - 2:2.11-1.

UncleSpellbinder · July 25, 2024, 6:02pm

Must be something with my KDE EOS install on the MacMini. I just did a clean install of EOS Cinnamon on my Samsung Galaxy Book Pro laptop, fully updated. No issues with WiFi.

ejm · July 25, 2024, 10:05pm

FWIW, the similar experience I described above took place on an EOS-based kernel upgrade on my 2011 MacMini. When executing sudo downgrade wpa_supplicant it worked because I had a prior version listed which I was able to select.

Again, previously my updating the linux-zen-headers did the trick to resolve the wifi behavior you’ve described. But it didn’t this time, hence the downgrade wpa approach learned here.

(Didn’t have this wifi issue when upgrading to those same kernels on my Dell Optiplex 7010.)

UncleSpellbinder · July 25, 2024, 10:20pm

I may just go ahead and do a clean install on the MacMini when I get home from work and see what happens. It won’t take long to get it back in the state it is now.

ejm · July 25, 2024, 10:55pm

I understand the temptation. FYI, my MacMini wifi issues (both times) occurred on a new fresh EOS/i3wm install performed in the last few days. Apparently, in my situation, freshly installing didn’t avoid the problem… but it’s all working now

Pudge · July 26, 2024, 1:29am

wpa_supplicant 2:2.10-8 dated Dec 28 2022 works.
wpa_supplicant 2:2.11.1 dated Jul 24 2024 fails.

But if you have cleaned out your

/var/cache/pacman/pkg

directory since Dec 28 2022 then version 2:2.10-8 may not exist. If so, downgrade probably won’t work.

One can get older versions of wpa_supplicant from the Archlinux archive
https://archive.archlinux.org/packages/w/wpa_supplicant/

You only need the .pkg.tar.zst package and not the .pkg.tar.zst.sig (signature).
Then go to the directory where wpa_supplicant was downloaded

sudo pacman -U wpa_supplicant-2:2.10-8-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

then reboot.

Pudge

EDIT:
For the Archlinux ARM archive go here
https://alaa.ad24.cz/packages/w/wpa_supplicant/
Then go to the directory where wpa_supplicant was downloaded

sudo pacman -U wpa_supplicant-2:2.10-8-aarch64.pkg.tar.xz

Then reboot

UncleSpellbinder · July 26, 2024, 2:08am

I’ll give that a shot when I get home from work tonight. Thanks!

ricklinux · July 26, 2024, 3:05am

@marco.righi
Should be running on the broadcom-wl or broadcom-wl-dkms package. Need to remove b43.

Try

sudo rmmod b43
sudo rmmod ssb
sudo modprobe wl

marco.righi · July 26, 2024, 11:17am

Perhaps the only solution is to downgrade wpa_supplicant.

The only driver installed is

extra/broadcom-wl-dkms 6.30.223.271-37 [installed]
    Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver

pacman -Ss broadcom

core/linux-firmware-bnx2x 20240703.e94a2a3b-1
    Firmware files for Linux - bnx2x / Firmware for Broadcom NetXtreme II 10Gb ethernet adapters
extra/broadcom-wl 6.30.223.271-562
    Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver
extra/broadcom-wl-dkms 6.30.223.271-37 [installed]
    Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver

pacman -Ss b43

core/b43-fwcutter 019-5
    firmware extractor for the b43 kernel module

I hope for a quick upgrade of the package.

UncleSpellbinder · July 26, 2024, 3:40pm

@Pudge That did the trick. I downloaded the file you suggested on my laptop, copied to thumbdrive to get it on my MacMini. Once I got it to my MacMini, I had to rename it as the : between the two 2’s was renamed to _ when it was copied to the thumbdrive. Added the file to my Downloads folder. Did cd Downloads then sudo pacman -U wpa_supplicant-2:2.10-8-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst. Worked just fine. Many thanks! I guess I’ll need to do after each update until this gets addressed by the wpa_supplicant developer(s).

UncleSpellbinder · July 26, 2024, 4:05pm

New Version Released - Issue FIXED

wpa_supplicant 2:2.11.1 dated Jul 24 2024 > wpa_supplicant 2:2.11.2 dated Jul 26 2024

Just updated, rebooted and all is well.

https://archlinux.org/packages/?name=wpa_supplicant