What does dmesg say? Is F44 fully updated?
Curious as I am I ran this command. The outcome is a veeeery long report with a lot of details. Also, not knowing anything about the security here, is it safe to post such details in an open blog?
Can the command be limited to show details about the affected part only?
It can be restricted to only show specific types of output:
Supported log facilities:
kern - kernel messages
user - random user-level messages
mail - mail system
daemon - system daemons
auth - security/authorization messages
syslog - messages generated internally by syslogd
lpr - line printer subsystem
news - network news subsystem
uucp - UUCP subsystem
cron - clock daemon
authpriv - security/authorization messages (private)
ftp - FTP daemon
res0 - reserved 0
res1 - reserved 1
res2 - reserved 2
res3 - reserved 3
local0 - local use 0
local1 - local use 1
local2 - local use 2
local3 - local use 3
local4 - local use 4
local5 - local use 5
local6 - local use 6
local7 - local use 7
Supported log levels (priorities):
emerg - system is unusable
alert - action must be taken immediately
crit - critical conditions
err - error conditions
warn - warning conditions
notice - normal but significant condition
info - informational
debug - debug-level messages
For more details see dmesg(1).
You could perhaps run sudo dmesg | grep wl to only show messages relating to “wl”
You can search the output for terms related to a problem — usually just a few lines are relevant to a given problem. You may find journalctl (sometimes with sudo) easier to work with. One trick is run a misbehaving command in a secong terminal after starting journalctl —nohostname —follow (note that the “long dashes” should be pairs of single dashes when entering in a terminal). See: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/viewing-logs/.
I ran this and it resulted in a very long report, so I added | grep wl as suggested by the other user and it gave me this:
agonia@fedora:~$ sudo dmesg | grep wl
[ 8.830553] wl: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
[ 8.830569] wl: module license 'MIXED/Proprietary' taints kernel.
[ 8.830577] wl: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel
[ 8.830579] wl: module license taints kernel.
[ 8.830655] wl: Unknown symbol cfg80211_inform_bss_frame_data (err -2)
[ 8.830685] wl: Unknown symbol cfg80211_scan_done (err -2)
[ 8.830720] wl: Unknown symbol cfg80211_disconnected (err -2)
[ 8.830742] wl: Unknown symbol wiphy_new_nm (err -2)
[ 8.830756] wl: Unknown symbol wiphy_register (err -2)
[ 8.830763] wl: Unknown symbol cfg80211_put_bss (err -2)
[ 8.830769] wl: Unknown symbol cfg80211_roamed (err -2)
[ 8.830777] wl: Unknown symbol cfg80211_gtk_rekey_notify (err -2)
[ 8.830784] wl: Unknown symbol ieee80211_get_channel_khz (err -2)
[ 8.830818] wl: Unknown symbol cfg80211_ibss_joined (err -2)
[ 8.830832] wl: Unknown symbol cfg80211_michael_mic_failure (err -2)
[ 8.830844] wl: Unknown symbol wiphy_unregister (err -2)
[ 8.830860] wl: Unknown symbol ieee80211_freq_khz_to_channel (err -2)
[ 8.830891] wl: Unknown symbol ieee80211_channel_to_freq_khz (err -2)
[ 8.830899] wl: Unknown symbol cfg80211_report_wowlan_wakeup (err -2)
[ 8.830910] wl: Unknown symbol cfg80211_inform_bss_data (err -2)
[ 8.830922] wl: Unknown symbol cfg80211_connect_done (err -2)
[ 8.830928] wl: Unknown symbol __cfg80211_get_bss (err -2)
[ 8.830934] wl: Unknown symbol wiphy_free (err -2)
The only thing I can read out of this is the missing signature/key and the “tainting kernel” message, but when I ran sudo dnf install akmod-wl broadcom-wl I got asked if I should import a signing key, which I red on the docs is something that you get asked the first time you install something after enabling RPM Fusion (Free and Non Free) and I’m sure I pressed yes to that.
What does this error/log mean? Is it fixable?
The message about the signing key in that log is that the wl module is not signed by a fedora key and thus taints the kernel. The log does not note that the module does not load. That would be seen with the command lsmod | grep wl. If the module is loaded you would see results and if not the return would be empty.
This is a notification and not an error since the module is 3rd party and locally built. It does not come from fedora.
The request during installation was to enable the signing key for the rpmfusion repo which is used by dnf to verify the package is intact and not altered at the time it is downloaded.
You appear to missing modules needed to support wifi. What do you get for modinfo cfg80211|head -5. Here:
% modinfo cfg80211|head -5
filename: /lib/modules/7.1.8-200.fc44.x86_64/kernel/net/wireless/cfg80211.ko.xz
alias: net-pf-16-proto-16-family-nl80211
description: wireless configuration support
license: GPL
author: Johannes Berg
Thanks for clarifying the different messages about the signing keys, now it makes more sense! Anyway, running lsmod | grep wl results in nothing, so I assume the module is not being loaded as you said…and now I’m curious to know why and how I could manually load it.
I tried searching for similar issues and one post suggested to run sudo depmod -a, which did nothing, and another to sudo akmods --force --rebuild, which said “building and installing wl-kmod” after “checking kmods exist for 7.1.8-200.fc44.x86_64”.
It hung there for a while and then gave me the [OK] message.
I rebooted my computer, hoping that this did something as it seems this wl-kmod was not installed, but I still have no WiFi nor Ethernet 
EDIT! Also, after rebooting the computer and running sudo akmods --rebuild --force again it’s doing the “building and installing wl-kmow” AGAIN, so it looks like it’s loosing it on reboot or something?
I also tried doing sudo modprobe wl but it tells me "ERROR: could not insert 'wl': Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmseg)"
Just ran this and it says modinfo: ERROR: Module cfg80211 not found. 
You can use: sudo dnf5 provides /lib/modules/7.1.8-200.fc44.x86_64/kernel/net/wireless/cfg80211.ko.xz to find the package that provides the missing modules, but it should have come with a Fedora install so may indicate more serious problems like a failed drive.
Sorry for the late reply, I had another busy bunch of days.
I tried running this command and it gives a very long list of lines repeating the error Curl error (6): Could not resolve hostname for https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org (and some other stuff in red text)
It’s like it’s trying to connect to the internet, which as I said I don’t have anymore, but the command you wrote seems to be pointing on something on the disk?
That said, I don’t get why this should indicate a more serious problem like a faulty drive as you suggested.
I tested it (just like the RAM and other components) and it doesn’t have errors, and as I mentioned I’ve tried many different distros including Ubuntu, where WiFi worked with the commands and blacklisting I mentioned some posts ago, and I even installed programs and games to almost fill the SSD, and it had zero issues and still performed very well.
I’m no Fedora expert but to me it still seems a clear problem with the OS on this specific hardware, and my years in IT (albeit not on Linux) don’t suggested anything SSD related, especially because I installed just Fedora like 4-5 times on here and it can’t have non working WiFi all the times due to the SSD.
That said I’m feeling a bit hopeless at the moment.
When I posted the solution which worked for Ubuntu a few posts ago, I thought it would be “easier” to kinda translate those steps to Fedora and solve the issue here too with all the knowledge you guys have, but after all this time the WiFi is still not working, I’m still without WiFi AND Ethernet after trying the last commands (so we’re doing steps back compared to the clean installation) and I don’t get why it’s still so hard to fix it here.
I don’t know what I could try next, I thought I “just” had to to the steps from the Ubuntu post but “in Fedora language” (and with its drivers/kernel modules for this WiFi chip) and yet I’m still back to square one.
Just for context I was referring to this post specifically.
I thought doing the same exact things “the Fedora way”, with its drivers (which for Ubuntu is either bcmwl-kernel-source or broadcom-sta-dkms) and “translating” the commands for this OS was enough, but it seems there’s still something wrong.
Are you using the original storage device?
I think your model was only sold with “All-flash storage.”. I have an iMac with Apple “hybrid” storage. Several years ago the flash drive started randomly loosing files. Apple’s official test software said it was working properly, but a) files stopped disappearing after reinstalling without using the flash storage, and if I populate the drive files go missing at random. I assume macOS “removes” files when they can’t be read.
I did use the included SSD but I also tried installing other distros with a spare one I had laying around, which I know works properly.
I still had the same problem, plus the fact that WiFi and Ethernet disappear together seems to be triggered when I install that specific driver in Fedora so to me it still seems it has nothing to do with the drive.
Out of curiosity I’ll try reinstalling Ubuntu tomorrow, and do all the steps I listed in the tagged post again, and see if it works. If it does it’s 100% something wrong with Fedora, and obviously the stuff I’m doing since I clearly don’t know the OS well enough.
Your priority should be to understand why the cfg80211 library (part of the base install of Fedora) went missing. Did you see the same error with the other SSD drive?
I didn’t check specifically for this but the behavior was exactly the same as the other installs on the SSD the Mac came with.
It had WiFi but it froze if I turned it on, so I had to turn it off, use the USB-to-Ethernet dongle to update the system through the cable and when I installed that suggested WiFi driver package I lost both WiFi and Ethernet.
I even flashed the Fedora Live ISO on another USB stick after re-downloading it just to be extra sure, but everything was still the same.
You are reporting symptoms, but we need journal details to understand the cause. I ran modinfo brcmsmac on 4 Fedora installs, including the F45 pre-release version and they all have the module.
I know I’m reporting mostly symptoms but I also provided some of the logs that I had requested, even if I think that all the tinkering that I did sure did mess my install.
In the meantime I am going to another country for a week, and since I need this computer (my usual laptop broke, just my luck) I reinstalled Ubuntu as I mentioned a couple posts ago and everything works there. I just needed to install the broadcom-sta-dkms package, edit GRUB as mentioned before and blacklist b43 and ssb, and that’s it: WiFi works perfectly.
I’ll keep it like this until I come back, then I’ll try to install Fedora one last time but I really hope that this time the steps/logs I’ll provide will be enough to finally solve this.
Just to be sure I do it right: when I’ll have a clean, only updated with Ethernet and just installed version of Fedora, what should I do and which logs should I provide to see why WiFi isn’t working and to finally find the cause of this?
I was thinking of installing from the image, disabling the WiFi toggle for a moment, do all the upgrades via the Ethernet cable and then re-enable WiFi to test what you think I should look for to find a solution.
You should save details of the configuration that is working for Ubuntu:
- names and versions of modules and firmware used for WiFi,
- output from
modprobe brcmsmac, - journal entries related to WiFi
When you get back to Fedora, look for an updated spin of the Live USB installer.
That can be found at