Broadcom driver B43 / BCM4311 / RL8

So I have an old laptop (Dell D620) which had a 32bit processor and I upgraded it with a 64bit processor.
All is working well except the wifi.

lspci

0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4311 802.11a/b/g (rev 01)

and

inxi -Nx

Device-2: Broadcom BCM4311 802.11a/b/g vendor: Dell Wireless 1490 Dual Band WLAN Mini-Card driver: N/A bus-ID: 0c:00.0

after I did

sudo dnf search wireless

the driver was not available so after a lot of reading

sudo dnf install kernel-devel kernel-headers

and trying the several available broadcom drivers

sudo dnf install broadcom-wl
sudo dnf install kmod-wl
sudo dnf install akmod-wl

Still no wifi

dmesg | grep -i b43

gave nothing so I entered

lsmod | grep wl
wl                   6467584  0
cfg80211              872448  1 wl

and looked also for

lspci -vv -s 0c:00.0
0c:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4311 802.11a/b/g (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1490 Dual Band WLAN Mini-Card
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 17
        Region 0: Memory at efdfc000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel modules: wl

So I started looking into the boot and saw the wifi driver was not being loaded for some reason.

I was wandering if this was the cause of it:

journalctl -k | grep taint
feb 25 04:55:11 localhost.localdomain kernel: wl: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
feb 25 04:55:11 localhost.localdomain kernel: wl: module license 'MIXED/Proprietary' taints kernel.
feb 25 04:55:11 localhost.localdomain kernel: Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
feb 25 04:55:11 localhost.localdomain kernel: wl: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel

I remember reading somewhere certain drivers are not being loaded into the kernel.

Could this be the problem why my wifi is not working?
How can I solve this?

I had a simular experience with my old Fujitsu Amilo laptop. Had no interface’s at all, and the drivers wouldn’t load: #8438 …»

I took the suggestion to use El-Repo. So, I’m using the mainline kernel (kernel-ml), and it’s been really good.

Thanks for the reply.

I installed kernel-ml

sudo yum --enablerepo=elrepo-kernel install kernel-ml

It did clear almost all the messages

journalctl -k | grep taint

localhost.localdomain kernel: fuse: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing -tainting kernel

I rebooted : nothing …
reinstalled all drivers and rebooted : nothing

no wifi available

Add option -nn so that the Device ID is shown too. We usually seek/check with the ID.

The kernel and its modules can be signed. The unsigned cannot load, if the Secure Boot is enabled in EFI.
The kernel-ml is not signed. You could not boot it at all with Secure Boot is enabled.

Look at dnf list kernel\*. Aren’t there ‘-modules-extras’ in addition to '-modules’?
Not sure whether the extras actually help, but if they are not installed now …

Guess I never had to deal with that since there’s no UEFI on this old laptop - it’s just an old normal GPT/LegacyBios setup.

Glad you got most of the msgs out. :+1:

 

If it’s to any help - this is what I have:

# slightly modified/cleaned up output
# only last kernel of each listed (instead of 2 of each)
$ dnf list installed kernel*
Installed Packages
kernel.x86_64                       4.18.0-425.13.1.el8_7         @baseos       
kernel-core.x86_64                  4.18.0-425.13.1.el8_7         @baseos       
kernel-devel.x86_64                 4.18.0-425.13.1.el8_7         @baseos       
kernel-headers.x86_64               4.18.0-425.13.1.el8_7         @baseos       
kernel-ml.x86_64                    6.2.0-1.el8.elrepo            @elrepo-kernel
kernel-ml-core.x86_64               6.2.0-1.el8.elrepo            @elrepo-kernel
kernel-ml-modules.x86_64            6.2.0-1.el8.elrepo            @elrepo-kernel
kernel-modules.x86_64               4.18.0-425.13.1.el8_7         @baseos       
kernel-modules-extra.x86_64         4.18.0-425.13.1.el8_7         @baseos       
kernel-tools.x86_64                 4.18.0-425.13.1.el8_7         @baseos       
kernel-tools-libs.x86_64            4.18.0-425.13.1.el8_7         @baseos 

@B3rtm3n

I have yet to see the output @jlehtone asked for. Run ‘lspci -nn’ so we can see the Device ID in the form of [xxxx:yyyy].

Ok thanks for all the help.

Here is the output.

lspci -nn
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub [8086:27a0] (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27a2] (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller [0380]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27a6] (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller [8086:27d8] (rev 01)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 1 [8086:27d0] (rev 01)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 2 [8086:27d2] (rev 01)
[user@localhost ~]$ lspci -nn
\00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub [8086:27a0] (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27a2] (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller [0380]: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:27a6] (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller [8086:27d8] (rev 01)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 1 [8086:27d0] (rev 01)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 2 [8086:27d2] (rev 01)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 3 [8086:27d4] (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:27c8] (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:27c9] (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:27ca] (rev 01)
00:1d.3 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:27cb] (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller [8086:27cc] (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev e1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge [8086:27b9] (rev 01)
00:1f.2 IDE interface [0101]: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7-M Family) SATA Controller [IDE mode] [8086:27c4] (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family SMBus Controller [8086:27da] (rev 01)
03:01.0 CardBus bridge [0607]: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ601/6912/711E0 CardBus/SmartCardBus Controller [1217:6972] (rev 40)
09:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries NetXtreme BCM5752 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express [14e4:1600] (rev 02)
0c:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4311 802.11a/b/g [14e4:4312] (rev 01)

Wired NIC: 14e4:1600
WiFi NIC: 14e4:4312

I don’t see 14E4:4312 listed in ELRepo | DeviceIDs nor with modprobe -c in el7, el8, or el9.
The ‘wl’ could be the driver: Broadcom Limited BCM4311 802.11a/b/g

@toracat can tell more.

Ethrnet: pci 14E4:1600 kmod-tg3 = kmod-tg3
Wi-Fi: cannot find 14e4:4312 in the DeviceIDs list.


There’s a broadcom-wl in rpmfusion-nonfree-updates, that seem to have the BCM4312-. I don’t know if that’s the one you need.

broadcom-wl.noarch        6.30.223.271-21.el8        rpmfusion-nonfree-updates

Yes I already tried

sudo dnf install broadcom-wl

But for some reason it did not work.

There is also kmod-wl which I tried too.

sudo dnf install kmod-wl

It states however:
Please note: The current Broadcom closed-source Linux drivers when built according to the instructions provided here have provided functional wireless capability to some users, but have failed for other users.

I do not know what the problem is, for some it seems to work, for others not.

When you said “did not work”, did you mean the “yum install” command did not work? If so, did you enable the rpmfusion-nonfree repo?

I have this repo enabled.
The command works, it also pulls in other dependencies.

I removed it, reinstalled.
No wifi.

I tried it out on another identical laptop.
Same problem. I can install the driver but no wifi.

Broadcom really is a pain for many Linux distributions.

I ordered another wifi card Intel based for less than 5 EUR for this laptop.

I hope the Bios accepts it and the drivers will be working.
I do not know what else to do.

Thanks for the help anyway.