brcmfmac cannot set up Apple BCM4364 WAN Adapter (MacBookPro16,4)

xirulent · 2024-07-21 22:07:29

Hello, I was sick of MacOS so I decided I would try to put Arch on this Macbook. Everything has been smooth sailing aside from the fact that I seem to be incapable of setting up it's wireless adapter. It has a BCM4364. I'm not sure what other information to provide. I looked through this post (https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=291889) and installed the broadcom-wl driver, and lspci shows that the wl driver is there, but still the device does not show up in ip a.

Here is an output of journalctl | grep brcmfmac:

Jul 21 18:05:40 x kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver brcmfmac
Jul 21 18:05:40 x kernel: brcmfmac 0000:05:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
Jul 21 18:05:40 x kernel: brcmfmac: brcmf_fw_alloc_request: using brcm/brcmfmac4364b3-pcie for chip BCM4364/4
Jul 21 18:05:40 x kernel: brcmfmac 0000:05:00.0: Direct firmware laod for brcm/brcmmac4364b3-pcie.apple,bali-HRPN-u-7.7.-X0.bin failed with error -2
Jul 21 18:05:40 x kernel: brcmfmac 0000:05:00.0: Direct firmware laod for brcm/brcmmac4364b3-pcie.apple,bali-HRPN-u-7.7.bin failed with error -2
Jul 21 18:05:40 x kernel: brcmfmac 0000:05:00.0: Direct firmware laod for brcm/brcmmac4364b3-pcie.apple,bali-HRPN-u.bin failed with error -2
Jul 21 18:05:40 x kernel: brcmfmac 0000:05:00.0: Direct firmware laod for brcm/brcmmac4364b3-pcie.apple,bali-HRPN.bin failed with error -2
Jul 21 18:05:40 x kernel: brcmfmac 0000:05:00.0: Direct firmware laod for brcm/brcmmac4364b3-pcie.apple,bali-X0.bin failed with error -2
Jul 21 18:05:40 x kernel: brcmfmac 0000:05:00.0: Direct firmware laod for brcm/brcmmac4364b3-pcie.apple,bali.bin failed with error -2
Jul 21 18:05:40 x kernel: brcmfmac 0000:05:00.0: Direct firmware laod for brcm/brcmmac4364b3-pcie.bin failed with error -2
Jul 21 18:05:40 x kernel: brcmfmac 0000:05:00.0: brcmf_pcie_setup: Dongle setup failed

Additionally the output of lspci -vnn -d 14e4::

05:00.0 Network Controller [0280] Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4364 802.11ac Wireless network Adapter [14e4:4454] (rev 04)
            Subsystem: Apple Inc. Device [106b:07bf]
            Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 255
            Memory at 81400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=32K]
            Memory at 81000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=4M]
            Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 3
            Capabilities: [58] MSI: Enable- Count=1/16 Maskable- 64bit+
            Capabilities: [68] Vendor Specific Information: Len=44 <?>
            Capabilities: [ac] Express Endpoint, IntMsgNum 0
            Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
            Capabilities: [13c] Device Serial Number 72-4b-5a-ff-ff-0d-88-66
            Capabilities: [150] Power Budgeting <?>
            Capabilities: [160] Virtual Channel
            Capabilities: [1b0] Latency Tolerance Reporting
            Capabilities: [220] Physical Resizable BAR
            Capabilities: [240] L1 PM Substates
            Kernel modules: brcmfmac, wl

Output of ip link:

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER-UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
     link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: enp4s0f1u1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
     link/ether ac:de:48:00:11:22 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

It shows here that the ethernet adaptor is detected but pinging any ip returns Network is unreachable.

Additionally when I boot off of live media, I am able to connect to Ethernet adaptors (I have a USB-C to A adaptor connected to a USB-A to RJ45 adaptor, which is plugged into my router) and get internet connection, however this is not possible when I boot from the actual installed media. Neither are able to connect to wifi. I am just seriously getting tired of having to boot off a usb, mount the root partition, chroot into it and then install packages, disassemble that setup and then read down in a guide only to see I need to do it all over again. If there is any more information I can give please tell me, I am completely new to this. Please help

Last edited by xirulent (2024-07-21 23:58:41)

Trilby · 2024-07-21 22:23:39

You should follow the wiki page on Broadcom chips. Unfortunately that chip is not supported by brcmfmac, so that will definitely not work. I also can't find documentation of it being supported by wl-broadcom either: have you found any reference for this? It *might* be, and to give that the proper shot you'll need to follow the wiki instructions to blacklist the other modules.

xirulent · 2024-07-21 22:47:46

To be completely honest, I am not sure how I got to installing wl-broadcom. I have been at this for 2 days and have just been following misc. guides on trying to fix this. I added the following to /etc/modprobe.d/:

/etc/modprobe.d/wan.conf:

# Do not load the 'brcmfmac' module on boot.
blacklist brcmfmac

However the brcmfmac module still appears to load, or I have done something wrong:

journalctl | grep brcmfmac
...usbcore: registered new interface driver brcmfmac...

journalctl | grep wl
...wl: module license taints kernel...

Could you point me to what I am doing wrong, or tell me what module does support the BCM4364?

Last edited by xirulent (2024-07-21 23:57:54)

seth · 2024-07-21 23:05:37

Please use [code][/code] tags, the bbs is too old for markdown
Edit your post in this regard.

Is 14e4:4454 a manual transcription? I can't find that ID at all (unlike 14e4:4464 which would also fit the human description better)
Then please don't grep, post your complete system journal for the boot:

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

so we can see what's going on there and ultimately no driver picks up the chip.

xirulent · 2024-07-22 00:18:32

Hello, yes I was having to transpose the text from the terminal as I had no way to get it off of the device and still do not. I am working on getting it onto a SD card so I can get it onto the device I'm using the forum on which is proving a bit challenging for me

xirulent · 2024-07-22 00:57:02

Okay, I found a way around it by booting the usb and mounting the partition so I can get internet on it. Here is the link to the journal:
http://0x0.st/Xpm8.txt

Also to clarify, yes the ID is 14e4:4464.

seth · 2024-07-22 06:04:51

Jul 21 04:33:56 xirulent kernel: brcmfmac 0000:05:00.0: Direct firmware load for brcm/brcmfmac4364b3-pcie.apple,bali-HRPN-u-7.7-X0.bin failed with error -2
Jul 21 04:33:56 xirulent kernel: brcmfmac 0000:05:00.0: Direct firmware load for brcm/brcmfmac4364b3-pcie.apple,bali-HRPN-u-7.7.bin failed with error -2
Jul 21 04:33:56 xirulent kernel: brcmfmac 0000:05:00.0: Direct firmware load for brcm/brcmfmac4364b3-pcie.apple,bali-HRPN-u.bin failed with error -2
Jul 21 04:33:56 xirulent kernel: brcmfmac 0000:05:00.0: Direct firmware load for brcm/brcmfmac4364b3-pcie.apple,bali-HRPN.bin failed with error -2
Jul 21 04:33:56 xirulent kernel: brcmfmac 0000:05:00.0: Direct firmware load for brcm/brcmfmac4364b3-pcie.apple,bali-X0.bin failed with error -2
Jul 21 04:33:56 xirulent kernel: brcmfmac 0000:05:00.0: Direct firmware load for brcm/brcmfmac4364b3-pcie.apple,bali.bin failed with error -2
Jul 21 04:33:56 xirulent kernel: brcmfmac 0000:05:00.0: Direct firmware load for brcm/brcmfmac4364b3-pcie.bin failed with error -2
Jul 21 04:33:56 xirulent kernel: ieee80211 phy0: brcmf_fw_crashed: Firmware has halted or crashed

https://github.com/t2linux/T2-Ubuntu/is … 3274428218
https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/2023021408 … rcan.st/T/

https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x8 … oadcom-wl/ isn't installed?

pacman -Qs broadcom

What if you blacklist "module_blacklist=brcmfmac", https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Kernel … and_line_2 ?

Edit:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Laptop … since_2018
https://wiki.t2linux.org/distributions/ … tallation/
Looks like you'll need the https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Unoffi … arch-mact2 for special coverage

Last edited by seth (2024-07-22 06:11:46)

xirulent · 2024-07-24 05:19:55

apologies for not responding, I nuked my arch install by reinstalling macos so I could grab a color file and extract the driver but I unfortunately managed to overwrite my arch partition.. oops
I will be back soon with news, hopefully good news !

kansei · 2025-02-17 16:53:49

In case you do come back, there is hope, despite how proprietary these last-gasp-of-intel Macs are. Maybe slightly more proprietary than a Microsoft Surface. There's a group "T2 Linux" (not to be confused with T2 SDE) that has built up a lot of scripts and packages needed to get a variety of distros working well on this hardware.

The wifi is just typical Apple/Broadcom nonsense, but since it impacts all of the "T2"-equipped Macs as well as the early Apple Silicon models, the community has responded.

T2 Linux has put together a lovely guide on setting up the wifi. Their script can download the macos recovery image from apple's CDN, extract the firmware files, and even package it for arch, debian, or fedora. Since you reinstalled macOS you can also run the script from there, it'll extract the firmware from your live system and archive it to your Apple EFI partition (or a USB drive or wherever) with a copy of the script to run once you install linux, assuming you don't erase/destroy the efi partition during Arch install.

You'll probably want their arch repo for the other packages it contains, like the patched kernel (linux-t2), fan control, (t2fanrd), touchbar control (tiny-dfr), audio configuration, etc. They also publish a customized Arch ISO with their pacman repo and the necessary packages working during install. Helps avoid needing to get out a nest of dongles to hook up a usb keyboard, mouse, ethernet adapter, etc for the install. Their Arch Install guide doesn't rewrite the official install guide, just the steps specific to this hardware platform. it's worth a read: https://wiki.t2linux.org/distributions/ … tallation/

hope that helps! know this is an older thread but it ranks high in search engine queries so it may help others

xirulent · 2025-05-26 21:03:05

Just checked my email and saw this! Thanks, I might actually jump back into this little project. I love the macbook design but always hated the OS.

Arch Linux

#1 2024-07-21 22:07:29

brcmfmac cannot set up Apple BCM4364 WAN Adapter (MacBookPro16,4)

#2 2024-07-21 22:23:39

Re: brcmfmac cannot set up Apple BCM4364 WAN Adapter (MacBookPro16,4)

#3 2024-07-21 22:47:46

Re: brcmfmac cannot set up Apple BCM4364 WAN Adapter (MacBookPro16,4)

#4 2024-07-21 23:05:37

Re: brcmfmac cannot set up Apple BCM4364 WAN Adapter (MacBookPro16,4)

#5 2024-07-22 00:18:32

Re: brcmfmac cannot set up Apple BCM4364 WAN Adapter (MacBookPro16,4)

#6 2024-07-22 00:57:02

Re: brcmfmac cannot set up Apple BCM4364 WAN Adapter (MacBookPro16,4)

#7 2024-07-22 06:04:51

Re: brcmfmac cannot set up Apple BCM4364 WAN Adapter (MacBookPro16,4)

#8 2024-07-24 05:19:55

Re: brcmfmac cannot set up Apple BCM4364 WAN Adapter (MacBookPro16,4)

#9 2025-02-17 16:53:49

Re: brcmfmac cannot set up Apple BCM4364 WAN Adapter (MacBookPro16,4)

#10 2025-05-26 21:03:05

Re: brcmfmac cannot set up Apple BCM4364 WAN Adapter (MacBookPro16,4)

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