Arch Linux

Shadoe

Member

Registered: 2025-01-27

Posts: 5

[SOLVED]Struggling with wifi on macbook 4,1

I'm relatively new to linux.  I've been using mint on my main computer for a bit but I have an old macbook 4,1 and decided to try and manually install arch on it to use it as a playground to hopefully learn from.  I've been struggling with getting wifi to work consistently on it, ethernet works fine.  I've tried doing it manually with wpa_supplicant/dhcpcd and by using networkmanager + applet (making sure conflicting services are stopped/disabled) and both ways I was able to successfully establish a connection via wifi that would survive reboots, however after a few days it would just randomly stop working.  What keeps happening is everything says I am connected, and to my knowledge proper routing is established, however attempting to ping my modem just results in 100% packet loss. 

System specs are:

OS: Arch Linux x86_64
Host: MacBook4,1 1.0
Kernel: 6.12.6-arch1-1
DE: Xfce 4.20
WM: Xfwm4 
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 (2) @ 2.400GHz
GPU: Intel Mobile GM965/GL960
Memory: 724MiB / 1947MiB

Outputs of some relevant commands from the wiki:

lspci -k
Network controller: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4321 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Apple Inc. AirPort Extreme
	Kernel driver in use: wl
	Kernel modules: ssb, wl

dmesg | grep wl
[   22.499970] wl: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
[   22.499994] wl: module license 'MIXED/Proprietary' taints kernel.
[   22.500000] wl: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel
[   22.500002] wl: module license taints kernel.
[   22.521746] Modules linked in: wl(POE+) iTCO_vendor_support joydev snd_hda_codec_realtek lpc_ich acpi_cpufreq pcspkr appletouch snd_hda_codec_generic isight_firmware snd_hda_scodec_component snd_hda_intel snd_intel_dspcfg snd_intel_sdw_acpi snd_hda_codec cfg80211 sky2 snd_hda_core snd_hwdep snd_pcm mousedev rfkill snd_timer apple_mfi_fastcharge snd sbs sbshc soundcore mac_hid pkcs8_key_parser loop nfnetlink ip_tables x_tables ext4 crc32c_generic crc16 mbcache jbd2 xts dm_crypt gf128mul crypto_simd cryptd cbc encrypted_keys trusted asn1_encoder tee dm_mod hid_apple i915 sr_mod i2c_algo_bit cdrom drm_buddy sha512_ssse3 ata_generic firewire_ohci hid_appleir ttm pata_acpi sha256_ssse3 hid_generic firewire_core drm_display_helper sha1_ssse3 video cec ata_piix intel_agp crc_itu_t wmi intel_gtt usbhid
[   22.521908]  getvar+0x20/0x70 [wl cda6b831abfa1596042a9f971b3f4aae0325d443]
[   22.522009]  ? __UNIQUE_ID_vermagic453+0x503e3f20c332/0x503e3f20c332 [wl cda6b831abfa1596042a9f971b3f4aae0325d443]
[   22.522061]  wl_module_init+0x17/0xa0 [wl cda6b831abfa1596042a9f971b3f4aae0325d443]
[   22.522207] wl 0000:02:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[   22.610088] wlan0: Broadcom BCM4328 802.11 Hybrid Wireless Controller 6.30.223.271 (r587334)
[  457.804392] memcpy: detected field-spanning write (size 424) of single field "dst" at /build/broadcom-wl/src/broadcom-wl/6.30.223.271/build/src/wl/sys/wl_cfg80211_hybrid.c:3072 (size 0)
[  457.804468] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 429 at /build/broadcom-wl/src/broadcom-wl/6.30.223.271/build/src/wl/sys/wl_cfg80211_hybrid.c:3072 wl_inform_single_bss+0x392/0x4f0 [wl]
[  457.804735] Modules linked in: vfat fat at24 coretemp i2c_i801 kvm_intel iTCO_wdt applesmc i2c_smbus intel_pmc_bxt kvm i2c_mux wl(POE) iTCO_vendor_support joydev snd_hda_codec_realtek lpc_ich acpi_cpufreq pcspkr appletouch snd_hda_codec_generic isight_firmware snd_hda_scodec_component snd_hda_intel snd_intel_dspcfg snd_intel_sdw_acpi snd_hda_codec cfg80211 sky2 snd_hda_core snd_hwdep snd_pcm mousedev rfkill snd_timer apple_mfi_fastcharge snd sbs sbshc soundcore mac_hid pkcs8_key_parser loop nfnetlink ip_tables x_tables ext4 crc32c_generic crc16 mbcache jbd2 xts dm_crypt gf128mul crypto_simd cryptd cbc encrypted_keys trusted asn1_encoder tee dm_mod hid_apple i915 sr_mod i2c_algo_bit cdrom drm_buddy sha512_ssse3 ata_generic firewire_ohci hid_appleir ttm pata_acpi sha256_ssse3 hid_generic firewire_core drm_display_helper sha1_ssse3 video cec ata_piix intel_agp crc_itu_t wmi intel_gtt usbhid
[  457.804988] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 429 Comm: wl_event_handle Tainted: P        W  OE      6.12.6-arch1-1 #1 be8168881006593767299fff7299891c69c41600
[  457.805016] RIP: 0010:wl_inform_single_bss+0x392/0x4f0 [wl]
[  457.805339]  ? wl_inform_single_bss+0x392/0x4f0 [wl cda6b831abfa1596042a9f971b3f4aae0325d443]
[  457.805597]  ? wl_inform_single_bss+0x392/0x4f0 [wl cda6b831abfa1596042a9f971b3f4aae0325d443]
[  457.805895]  ? wl_inform_single_bss+0x392/0x4f0 [wl cda6b831abfa1596042a9f971b3f4aae0325d443]
[  457.806154]  ? wl_notify_scan_status+0x134/0x260 [wl cda6b831abfa1596042a9f971b3f4aae0325d443]
[  457.806401]  ? wl_event_handler+0x7a/0x180 [wl cda6b831abfa1596042a9f971b3f4aae0325d443]
[  457.806646]  ? wl_cfg80211_add_key+0x3f0/0x3f0 [wl cda6b831abfa1596042a9f971b3f4aae0325d443]

ip route show
default via 192.168.1.1 dev wlan0 proto dhcp src 192.168.1.17 metric 20600 
192.168.1.0/24 dev wlan0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.17 metric 600

Running

nmcli device wifi list

results in a list of local networks including mine, and using cli commands to connect returns a message of a successful connection and an ip address is assigned to my device.  However I have no internet connection and pinging my modem results in 100% packet loss.

Last edited by Shadoe (2025-02-01 05:57:53)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 24,164

Re: [SOLVED]Struggling with wifi on macbook 4,1

Test the LTS kernel, the proprietary wl module has some known issues on 6.12 afaik. You'll need linux-lts,linux-lts-headers and broadcom-wl-dkms for the module rebuild.

Last edited by V1del (2025-01-29 10:08:38)

Shadoe

Member

Registered: 2025-01-27

Posts: 5

Re: [SOLVED]Struggling with wifi on macbook 4,1

Switching to LTS kernel and installing that other driver worked, thanks!  Hopefully I won't be back with the same problem in a few days.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 24,164

Re: [SOLVED]Struggling with wifi on macbook 4,1

That's what potentially is going to happen, because 6.12 is destined to be the next LTS in a few days/weeks once 6.13 gets pushed to stable. Sadly as the driver is closed source it's not entirely clear whether there's much that can be done. FWIW there are usually some nice people that maintain older LTS releases on the AUR, very often accompanied by a repo for binaries.

Shadoe

Member

Registered: 2025-01-27

Posts: 5

Re: [SOLVED]Struggling with wifi on macbook 4,1

Yeah, back to the same issue.  I took it to work and it connected to the public wifi network there with no issue, brought it back home and now I’m back at 100% packet loss. Only changes I made were the LTS install and changing to wl-dkms. 

I’m guessing I probably will have to resort to a USB adapter if I want consistent wifi?  It sounds like Broadcom can be a headache to work with.

EDIT: Brought it to work again which has public wifi and i'm connecting to the internet just fine.  I'm wondering if it's either being finicky with my modem or it's a WPA issue.

EDIT2: Disabled MAC randomization during scanning and I was able to connect, hopefully that was the cause.

Last edited by Shadoe (2025-01-31 21:41:17)