Broadcom BCM4312 will not work [solved]

[Joerg]

Fresh install on a Dell Vostro 1500 laptop. The Broadcom BCM4312 WLAN chip won't work under MX-Linx 19 64-bit and, after watching a Youtube video from dolphin_oracle about the topic, I tried in the setup to switch from the b44 driver to b43 non-legacy (which supposedly is the right driver), wl and pretty much all others that were in the blacklisted part (by un-blacklisting). Nothing worked. I read on the web that one may have to run a "firmware cutter" routine while others suggested to even issue "purge bcmwl-kernel-source" followed by "install linux-firmware-nonfree" but that sounds extreme. Afraid that it might brick MX-Linux for me. lspci (just the two relevant lines):

03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Limited BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)

0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Limited BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY (rev 01)

So the wired Ethernet controller is also from Broadcom, meaning I should avoid accidentally disabling that by doing something weird with the firmware. I need both wired and WLAN. What could I do?

[dolphin_oracle]

let's look at what the system thinks is going on.

running the following

1. quick-system-info from the menu (the report will automatically be placed in your clipbaord formatted for a forum post, so just paste the report in).

2.

Code: Select all

rfkill list all

- from the terminal. copy and paste the output.

[Joerg]

This is the quick system info. Had to copy to USB stick because Samba isn't working right:

Code: Select all

System:    Host: Vostro1500 Kernel: 4.19.0-6-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.19.0-6-amd64 
           root=UUID=e1850e62-926e-4d14-95d3-a3dcaf41154e ro video=SVIDEO-1:d quiet splash 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.14.1 tk: Gtk 3.24.5 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm4 dm: LightDM 1.26.0 
           Distro: MX-19_x64 patito feo October 21  2019 base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) 
Machine:   Type: Portable System: Dell product: Vostro 1500 v: N/A serial: <filter> Chassis: 
           type: 8 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Dell model: 0NX907 serial: <filter> BIOS: Dell v: A04 date: 01/30/2008 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 47.0 Wh condition: 47.0/57.7 Wh (81%) volts: 12.5/11.1 
           model: Samsung SDI DELL GK4798 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core2 Duo T5470 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Core Merom 
           family: 6 model-id: F (15) stepping: D (13) microcode: A4 L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 bogomips: 6384 
           Speed: 798 MHz min/max: 800/1601 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 1: 950 2: 944 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion 
           Type: mds status: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode; SMT disabled 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: spec_store_bypass status: Vulnerable 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics vendor: Dell driver: i915 
           v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:2a02 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: intel resolution: 1280x800~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 965GM v: 2.1 Mesa 18.3.6 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 82801H HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:284b 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-6-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Broadcom Limited BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX vendor: Dell driver: b44 v: 2.0 
           port: 10c0 bus ID: 03:00.0 chip ID: 14e4:170c 
           Device-2: Broadcom Limited BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY 
           vendor: Dell Wireless 1395 WLAN Mini-Card driver: b43-pci-bridge v: N/A port: 10c0 
           bus ID: 0c:00.0 chip ID: 14e4:4315 
           IF-ID-1: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           IF-ID-2: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 149.05 GiB used: 5.30 GiB (3.6%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Fujitsu model: MHW2160BJ FFS G2 size: 149.05 GiB block size: 
           physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: 001C scheme: MBR 
Partition: ID-1: / raw size: 58.59 GiB size: 57.42 GiB (98.00%) used: 5.18 GiB (9.0%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/sda2 
           ID-2: /home raw size: 83.01 GiB size: 81.20 GiB (97.83%) used: 113.6 MiB (0.1%) 
           fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3 
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 7.37 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap swappiness: 15 (default 60) 
           cache pressure: 100 (default) dev: /dev/sda4 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 39.0 C mobo: N/A sodimm: 38.0 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antix.list 
           1: deb http://iso.mxrepo.com/antix/buster buster main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ buster main non-free
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 
Info:      Processes: 183 Uptime: 2h 33m Memory: 1.94 GiB used: 472.8 MiB (23.8%) Init: SysVinit 
           v: 2.93 runlevel: 5 default: 5 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 alt: 8 Shell: bash v: 5.0.3 
           running in: quick-system-in inxi: 3.0.36 

Here is the rfkill list, obtained via ssh:

$ rfkill list all
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

The laptop has a physical slider switch for the WLAN but that's turned on.

[dolphin_oracle]

Let's look at the /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-dkms-blacklist.conf file.

I forget the actual name but it's close to that. You would want to uncomment everything except wl.

Then sudo modprobe b43

[Joerg]

It's probably not this one, or is it?

# wl module from Broadcom conflicts with the following modules:
"blacklist b44
blacklist bcma
blacklist brcm80211
blacklist brcmsmac
#blacklist ssb

I unloaded all drivers except wl in the MX Network Assistant and that resulted in the laptop also losing wired Etehrnet. When I have only b43 and b44 in there the wired Ethernet works. If I unload b44 then wired quits. I believe the BCM3412 needs b43 but that alone won't work the wired Ethernet.

[dolphin_oracle]

you need to unblacklist all of them, including ssb. I do believe for some chips b43 requies ssb.

[Joerg]

I tried also unblacklisting all including ssb in the file above. For some reason the MX Network Assistant still had ssb blacklisted so I also unblacklisted ssb there. It did not make WLAN work.

[dolphin_oracle]

If it's still showing blacklisted in mx network assistant you might have more than one blacklist file.

In any case once it's unblacklisted your still need to reload the driver b43 either with modprobe or by reboooting.

[dolphin_oracle]

if you use network-assistant, then a second file callec /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf gets created. you need to make sure its unblacklisted everywhere.

[dolphin_oracle]

its also possible to

sudo modprobe -r b43
sudo modprobe b43

which should load up the depend modules whether they are blacklisted or not (ssb being a dependent module).