Broadcom BCM4356 WiFi not working

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CliveMcCarthy
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Broadcom BCM4356 WiFi not working

Post by CliveMcCarthy »

I have Mint 19 installed but the Broadcom BCM4356 driver doesn't work. This appears to be a known problem. Is there a work around?
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Joe2Shoe
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Re: Broadcom BCM4356 WiFi not working

Post by Joe2Shoe »

I found this, hope it helps.

Your device is covered by the driver brcmfmac in Ubuntu 15.10, which also requires firmware that is included in linux-firmware-1.149 and later. Let's install the latest firmware first.

1. Download this package to any convenient place:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/li ... 56_all.deb

2. Right-click it and select 'Open with GDebi Package Installer', and install it.

3. Now open a Terminal and do:
sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source

4. Then run:
sudo modprobe -r brcmfmac

5. The last command may end in an error; that's fine, just continue:
sudo modprobe brcmfmac

The wireless should now be working.
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CliveMcCarthy
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Re: Broadcom BCM4356 WiFi not working

Post by CliveMcCarthy »

Sadly, that doesn't work. :cry:
The firmware from the URL is an old version and Mint 19 already has a newer version.
These commands do nothing:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get purge bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo modprobe -r brcmfmac
sudo modprobe brcmfmac
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Re: Broadcom BCM4356 WiFi not working

Post by JeremyB »

See the wireless script link in my signature and post results
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Re: Broadcom BCM4356 WiFi not working

Post by CliveMcCarthy »

This looks like the heart of the problem: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiD ... er/bcm43xx :evil:
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Re: Broadcom BCM4356 WiFi not working

Post by CliveMcCarthy »

This gives a fix for the issue: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1772624 with the firmware-brcm80211 (20161130-3)
However, I'm unable to figure out how to successfully install the firmware from https://packages.debian.org/stretch/firmware-brcm80211

The deb file downloads OK but collides with something else...

It seems that Cypress has acquired the WiFi chip business of Broadcom. Linux support from Broadcom was not great but I suspect the support from Cypress will be worse. The current Cypress driver WiFi Driver Release (FMAC) [2018-07-16] is here: https://community.cypress.com/docs/DOC-15330

I unpacked the driver to get brcmfmac4356-pcie.bin and brcmfmac4356-pcie.clm_blob
and executed sudo modprobe brcmfmac and then rebooted the system. But the WiFi still shows "device not ready" :roll:

Any ideas, please?
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Joe2Shoe
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Re: Broadcom BCM4356 WiFi not working

Post by Joe2Shoe »

This may work. Hope so.

"I still have the issue with the latest version of the linux-firmware package (1.173.1). However the firmware (brcm/brcmfmac4356-pcie.bin) in the official linux-firmware repository solves my issue."

"The fix was introduced in the following commit:"
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/ke ... 5c8ac92519

I would download the file, then extract and compile.
Good luck.
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CliveMcCarthy
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Re: Broadcom BCM4356 WiFi not working

Post by CliveMcCarthy »

Thank you Joe, but I think the direct approach of installing the Cypress/Broadcom driver should work. I just don't know how. The driver they have published is dated July 16th of this year.
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Re: Broadcom BCM4356 WiFi not working

Post by Joe2Shoe »

In the meantime, I would use a TP-Link TL-WN722N v1.1 or v2.0 or v2.1 or a Panda PAU06 WiFi USB adapter, amazon or ebay around $15.00.
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Re: Broadcom BCM4356 WiFi not working

Post by CliveMcCarthy »

I have a Cat5 to USB device to connect the computer to the network for debug purposes. However, the computer is a VERY portable 7 inch modern "netbook" -- so adding anything isn't a solution. As has been documented, the BCM4356 worked for earlier kernels then regressed.
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