hey!
I have old laptop and I’m using Linux 5.15.73-3-lts x86_64 kernel. Today I was updating system and noticed that standard kernel is being installed: linux 6.0.1.arch2-1
I uninstalled linux 6.0.1.arch2-1, but it informed me that:
removing linux breaks dependency 'linux' required by broadcom-wl-dkms
I uninstalled all then broadcom-wl-dkms, and linux. Of course my wifi stopped working so I reinstalled it.
So now I have linux-lts and linux with broadcom-wl-dkms installed on my system. I’m using linux-lts right now and wfi works fine.
Can someone explain me how is it possible that my wifi card is working now, if it has dependency on linux 6.0.1.arch2-1 which is not loaded now?
Should I report it somewhere?
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It is hard to say without seeing the exact output from your terminal session when all that happened.
My best guess would be that you had broadcom-wl installed, not broadcom-wl-dkms
Also, welcome to the forum!
The thing is that I need to have now latest linux kernel installed, even if I’m not using it, only to allow my wifi card to work - that’s strange situation.
Before update it was working fine, only with linux-lts installed.
That’s the result of installed broadcom packages:
pacman -Qs 'broadcom*'
local/broadcom-wl-dkms 6.30.223.271-34
Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver
I would like to remove latest linux kernel and have only lts. Should I have broadcom-wl installed instead to achieve this? I’m not sure what the difference is between broadcom-wl and broadcom-wl-dkms exactly.
Interesting choice. Most keep both on hand in case something exactly like this happens. Why get rid of it?
Just playing around and trying to learn. I have old laptop and I assumed that LTS version is just fine for me. I also get annoyed with to frequent kernel updates and system restarts.
It’s just for playing around and trying to understand how things works in linux world.
It’s not a problem for me to keep two kernels, but I still think it’s a mistake that this broadcom-wl-dkms has dependency on standard linux kernel even if it doesn’t need one.
I just thought it would be nice to report it somewhere if it’s an issue, but I don’t know where and even if I should.
No, the opposite.
broadcom-wl is for the linux kernel. broadcom-wl-dkms is a dkms module that works with many kernels.
Based on the dependencies, there are two possibilities. Either you really has broadcom-wl installed, or you had linux-lts installed but not linux-lts-headers
Odd situation. Looks like you are stuck with linux either way if I am reading this correctly:
pacman -Si broadcom-wl
Repository : community
Name : broadcom-wl
Version : 6.30.223.271-423
Description : Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver
Architecture : x86_64
URL : https://www.broadcom.com/support/download-search/?pf=Wireless+LAN+Infrastructure
Licenses : custom
Groups : None
Provides : None
Depends On : linux
Optional Deps : None
Conflicts With : None
Replaces : None
Download Size : 1667.88 KiB
Installed Size : 1673.78 KiB
Packager : Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig) heftig@archlinux.org
Build Date : Fri 14 Oct 2022 11:53:49 AM CEST
Validated By : MD5 Sum SHA-256 Sum Signature
If you use broadcom-wl, you definitely need the linux kernel. That is how it should be.
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I’m using broadcom-wl-dkms and using command presented by @pebcak:
pacman -Si broadcom-wl-dkms
Repository : community
Name : broadcom-wl-dkms
Version : 6.30.223.271-34
Description : Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA wireless driver
Architecture : x86_64
URL : https://www.broadcom.com/site-search?filters[pages][content_type][type]=and&filters[pages][content_type][values][]=Downloads&page=1&per_page=10&q=802.11%20linux%20sta%20wireless%20driver
Licenses : custom
Groups : None
Provides : None
Depends On : dkms linux linux-headers
Optional Deps : None
Conflicts With : broadcom-wl
Replaces : None
Download Size : 1704.56 KiB
Installed Size : 7794.46 KiB
Packager : Alexander Rødseth rodseth@gmail.com
Build Date : Fri 14 Oct 2022 09:11:13 AM CEST
Validated By : MD5 Sum SHA-256 Sum Signature
So it has defined dependency on linux and linux-headers. So it seems like I need to have linux installed for now, even if I’m not using it then.
Story sounds correct.
It looks like that was changed in the most recent version of package which was just released. I wonder if that was deliberate.
how did you check when it was changed? Asking for educational purposes
If you go to the arch packages site and click “view changes” on the right you can see the changes.
I opened a bug about it. We will see what they say:
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awesome! thank you very much for help!
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Would it be possible to edit the PKGBUILD, remove those dependencies and build the package?
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Yes, it should be, but you would need to try it.
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Just wanted to note that this was fixed with version 6.30.223.271-35
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