Arch Linux

yiuoterw

Member

Registered: 2024-07-05

Posts: 5

Problems with Broadcom BCM4331 and drivers

I would like to start by saying that I am new to arch and I know that problems with wifi drivers are common, especially when it has to do with Broadcom.

I have seen this problem in other places, and have tried to resolve this for hours.

Ethernet works just fine, and I am actually posting from the device using ethernet.

The

 ip link 

command returns a loopback device and

 2: enp2s0f0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP mode DEFAU
LT group default qlen 1000
   link/ether 3c:07:54:51:ee:a7 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff: 

I have installed the b43 firmware, but it doesn't change anything.

Listing available devices using iwctl device list returns nothing.

All of this has been done while being connected to ethernet.

I have tried enabling systemd resolved services, nothing changes.

Running

 sudo udevadm test-builtin net_setup_link /sys/path/to/network/
device 

returns

 Using default interface naming scheme 'v255'.
Failed to open device '/sys/path/to/network/device': No such device 

I am sure that the machine has wifi capabilities, as I was able to get it working on Debian 12 on the same device. (Though it was a bit ago and I don't remember how I did it)

Any help is appreciated.

P.S. This is my first post, sorry for any formatting problems.

yiuoterw

Member

Registered: 2024-07-05

Posts: 5

Re: Problems with Broadcom BCM4331 and drivers

Hi, OP here. It's worth mentioning that when I try to install the b43 drivers (both normal and classic) I get missing firmware messages that read:

 WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'ast'
 -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'xhci_pci'
 -> Running build hook: [keymap]
 -> Running build hook: [consolefont]
==> WARNING: consolefont: no font found in configuration
 -> Running build hook: [block]
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'aic94xx'
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'bfa'
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'qla1280'
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'wd719x'
==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: 'qed' 

This leads me to believe that it's possibly not recognizing the wifi device.

Last edited by yiuoterw (2024-07-05 21:36:29)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,223

Re: Problems with Broadcom BCM4331 and drivers

You probably want the wl drivers instead of bl. These missing firmware messages are generally normal and not cause of concern. Have you seen https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Broadc … roadcom-wl ?

Also iwctl is probably not a good choice, as even the proprietary drivers do not have support for the kernel interfaces the drivers run on, you probably want to use wpa_supplicant/networkmanager or so instead.

Last edited by V1del (2024-07-05 22:24:32)

yiuoterw

Member

Registered: 2024-07-05

Posts: 5

Re: Problems with Broadcom BCM4331 and drivers

I installed the wl drivers.

Running

 nmcli device wifi list 

does nothing. Trying to connect by name and password says that no wifi device was found.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,223

Re: Problems with Broadcom BCM4331 and drivers

did you load them as well? Just installing will not do much, you'll have to unload the b43 driver and load the wl driver (or simpler... reboot)

What output do you get from

ip addr
sudo journalctl -b

? USB walk a text file to a internet capable computer if necessary.

yiuoterw

Member

Registered: 2024-07-05

Posts: 5

Re: Problems with Broadcom BCM4331 and drivers

I am posting in this thread from the computer with the problem. Ethernet works just fine, so that's how my connection is working right now.

 ip addr 

returns

 1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host noprefixroute 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp2s0f0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 3c:07:54:51:ee:a7 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.4.238/22 brd 192.168.7.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute enp2s0f0
       valid_lft 14152sec preferred_lft 14152sec
    inet6 fe80::5ea:af9b:c236:5b48/64 scope link noprefixroute 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

 sudo journalctl -b 

returns

 Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: Linux version 6.6.37-1-lts (linux-lts@archlinux) >
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-linux-lts root=>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: reserving inaccessible SNB gfx pages
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x000000000008>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000000008e000-0x000000000008>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000090000-0x000000000009>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000000a0000-0x00000000000b>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000100000-0x000000001fff>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000020000000-0x00000000201f>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000020200000-0x000000003fff>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000040000000-0x00000000401f>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000040200000-0x000000008ad3>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000008ad34000-0x000000008ad5>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000008ad5f000-0x000000008ad6>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000008ad6d000-0x000000008ad8>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000008ad8f000-0x000000008ae5>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000008ae5c000-0x000000008ae8>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000008ae8f000-0x000000008aed>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000008aed7000-0x000000008aef>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000008aeff000-0x000000008afa>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000008afa3000-0x000000008f9f>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000e00f8000-0x00000000e00f>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000fed1c000-0x00000000fed1>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000ffed8000-0x00000000ffef>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000100000000-0x000000016fdf>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: NX (Execute Disable) protection: active
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: APIC: Static calls initialized
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: e820: update [mem 0x87c0b018-0x87c1b057] usable =>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: e820: update [mem 0x87c0b018-0x87c1b057] usable =>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: e820: update [mem 0x87c1c018-0x87c1c88d] usable =>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: e820: update [mem 0x87c1c018-0x87c1c88d] usable =>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: extended physical RAM map:
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x000>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: reserve setup_data: [mem 0x000000000008e000-0x000>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000000090000-0x000>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: reserve setup_data: [mem 0x00000000000a0000-0x000>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000000100000-0x000>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000020000000-0x000>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000020200000-0x000>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000040000000-0x000>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000040200000-0x000>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000087c0b018-0x000>
Jul 06 00:11:00 archlinux kernel: reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000087c1b058-0x000> 

Note that the dates are wrong, not sure why that is so but it doesn't bother me. That shouldn't have any impact on wifi connectivity, right?

Last edited by yiuoterw (2024-07-06 00:18:38)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,223

Re: Problems with Broadcom BCM4331 and drivers

That's a single pager page and not enough to be able to determine things, if you have an internet connection use

sudo journalctl -b | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

to upload to a pastebin and get us the link you get returned.

Seeing as you're using the LTS kernel, you would need to install linux-lts-headers and install broadcom-wl-dkms so the module can be built dynamically for the kernel you're using, is that the case?

yiuoterw

Member

Registered: 2024-07-05

Posts: 5

Re: Problems with Broadcom BCM4331 and drivers

Hi, OP here.

Got a solution, here's a link.
https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/s/YkS3mCE7L4

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,223

Re: Problems with Broadcom BCM4331 and drivers

So yeah, as expected you didn't have broadcom-wl-dkms while on the LTS kernel. Please mark as [SOLVED] by editing the title in your first post.