Dell Precision M4800 Wifi issue in Fedora 43

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1

Hi there,
I am trying to switch from Win10 over to Fedora on my Laptop Dell Precision M4800.
Installation went easy but my Wifi was not showing up.
I am now using an old usb wifi stick to connect.
I have looked around a bit for solutions but could not found any perfectly matching to my situation.

error in wifi manager:

No Wi-Fi Adapter Found
Make sure you have a Wi-Fi adapter plugged and turned on

Here are some infos which might be helpful.

fastfetch
             .',;::::;,'.                 ...
         .';:cccccccccccc:;,.             --------------------------------------
      .;cccccccccccccccccccccc;.          OS: Fedora Linux 43 (Workstation Edition) x86_64
    .:cccccccccccccccccccccccccc:.        Host: Precision M4800 (00)
  .;ccccccccccccc;.:dddl:.;ccccccc;.      Kernel: Linux 6.17.10-300.fc43.x86_64
 .:ccccccccccccc;OWMKOOXMWd;ccccccc:.     Uptime: 48 mins
.:ccccccccccccc;KMMc;cc;xMMc;ccccccc:.    Packages: 2048 (rpm)
,cccccccccccccc;MMM.;cc;;WW:;cccccccc,    Shell: bash 5.3.0
:cccccccccccccc;MMM.;cccccccccccccccc:    Display (AUO21ED): 1920x1080 @ 60 Hz in 15" [Built-in]
:ccccccc;oxOOOo;MMM000k.;cccccccccccc:    Display (DELL U3223QE): 3840x2160 @ 60 Hz (as 3072x1728) in 32" [External] *
cccccc;0MMKxdd:;MMMkddc.;cccccccccccc;    DE: GNOME 49.2
ccccc;XMO';cccc;MMM.;cccccccccccccccc'    WM: Mutter (Wayland)
ccccc;MMo;ccccc;MMW.;ccccccccccccccc;     WM Theme: Adwaita
ccccc;0MNc.ccc.xMMd;ccccccccccccccc;      Theme: Adwaita [GTK2/3/4]
cccccc;dNMWXXXWM0:;cccccccccccccc:,       Icons: Adwaita [GTK2/3/4]
cccccccc;.:odl:.;cccccccccccccc:,.        Font: Adwaita Sans (11pt) [GTK2/3/4]
ccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc:'.          Cursor: Adwaita (24px)
:ccccccccccccccccccccccc:;,..             Terminal: Ptyxis 49.2
 ':cccccccccccccccc::;,.                  Terminal Font: Adwaita Mono (11pt)
                                          CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4800MQ (8) @ 3.70 GHz
                                          GPU 1: NVIDIA Quadro K2100M [Discrete]
                                          GPU 2: Intel 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller @ 1.30 GHz [Integrated]
                                          Memory: 3.72 GiB / 15.51 GiB (24%)
                                          Swap: 0 B / 8.00 GiB (0%)
                                          Disk (/): 5.69 GiB / 474.34 GiB (1%) - btrfs
                                          Local IP (wlp0s20u6): 192.168.178.54/24
                                          Battery (DELL PGWP361): 100% [AC Connected]
                                          Locale: en_US.UTF-8


inxi -N

etwork:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I217-LM driver: e1000e
  Device-2: Broadcom BCM4352 802.11ac Dual Band Wireless Network Adapter
    driver: bcma-pci-bridge
  Device-3: Realtek RTL8153 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter driver: r8152 type: USB

nmcli d show

ENERAL.DEVICE:                         lo
GENERAL.TYPE:                           loopback
GENERAL.HWADDR:                         00:00:00:00:00:00
GENERAL.MTU:                            65536
GENERAL.STATE:                          100 (connected (externally))
GENERAL.CONNECTION:                     lo
GENERAL.CON-PATH:                       /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/1
IP4.ADDRESS[1]:                         127.0.0.1/8
IP4.GATEWAY:                            --
IP6.ADDRESS[1]:                         ::1/128
IP6.GATEWAY:                            --

GENERAL.DEVICE:                         eno1
GENERAL.TYPE:                           ethernet
GENERAL.HWADDR:                         F0:1F:AF:69:C1:D4
GENERAL.MTU:                            1500
GENERAL.STATE:                          20 (unavailable)
GENERAL.CONNECTION:                     --
GENERAL.CON-PATH:                       --
WIRED-PROPERTIES.CARRIER:               off
IP4.GATEWAY:                            --
IP6.GATEWAY:                            --

GENERAL.DEVICE:                         enp0s20u2u4u3
GENERAL.TYPE:                           ethernet
GENERAL.HWADDR:                         C8:4B:D6:CC:F0:FE
GENERAL.MTU:                            1500
GENERAL.STATE:                          20 (unavailable)
GENERAL.CONNECTION:                     --
GENERAL.CON-PATH:                       --
WIRED-PROPERTIES.CARRIER:               off
IP4.GATEWAY:                            --
IP6.GATEWAY:                            --

lspci -n -n -k; lsusb -v -v -t; rfkill list all; nmcli radio all

...
3:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4352 802.11ac Dual Band Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:43b1] (rev 03)
	Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0017]
	Kernel driver in use: bcma-pci-bridge
	Kernel modules: bcma
...
1: dell-wifi: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
2: dell-bluetooth: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
3: hci0: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
4: phy1: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
WIFI-HW  WIFI     WWAN-HW  WWAN    
enabled  enabled  missing  enabled

also tried to look it up here but did not find an entry for Fedora 43
https://linux-hardware.org/?id=pci:14e4-43b1-1028-0017

I also poked around in BIOS to see whether WIFI was disabled or anything but looked ok to me.

btw: its not the only problem I have. bluetooth does not show/connect to my headset and watching youtube on my dell 4k monitor also is not smooth. Everything was working well on Win10. I guess it makes most sense to tackle these issues separately in their own topics.
Thanks for any help in advance!

2

You have a broadcom wifi adapter

Broadcom does not have an open source driver. It may be possible to install the driver from the rpmfusion-nonfree repo and have it function. If not then a different wifi adapter may be required.

$ sudo dnf list broadcom-wl
Updating and loading repositories:
Repositories loaded.
Available packages
broadcom-wl.noarch 6.30.223.271-27.fc43 rpmfusion-nonfree

Bluetooth is also managed by the wifi adapter.

3

Hi @computersavvy ,
thanks a lot.
Now it works :grinning_face:

Here is what I think I did:
disabled secure boot in BIOS (also in preparation to install nvidia drivers lateron)

sudo dnf install -y \
  https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
sudo dnf list broadcom-wl
sudo dnf install broadcom-wl.noarch

:white_check_mark: Wi-FI connects
:no_entry: bluetooth does neither find my sony headset not my bose headset

4

Glad to see you have wifi working.
I cannot assist with the bluetooth issue, and I seem to recall that others have had similar issues with broadcom and bluetooth.

Search here or online to see if there is a solution already known that may work for you.

To find out exactly what chipset is on that card try running lspci -nnk | grep -iA3 broad.
If you post the results here someone may be able to assist.

5

https://i.dell.com/sites/doccontent/business/smb/merchandizing/en/Documents/Dell_Precision_M4800_Spec_Sheet.pdf lists several wifi+bluetooth card options. There is a good chance you can find a newer card with in-kernel drivers that works properly.