Hello, I’m new to Linux. Recently I bought an old MacBook Air 2017 and wasn’t happy with the performance of macOS, so I decided to try Linux, and Fedora is working just fine, except for the Wi-Fi. I keep encountering problems due to random disconnects from networks. I tried every solution I could go through with AI, including reinstalling the driver, disabling/enabling power-saving management, and even trying a different driver, b43 (something like this). Can somebody help me with that? I’m using a USB dongle now but would be fine to use the laptop without extra stuff.
The wifi module is BCM4360.
Hi and welcome to 
!
For that Broadcom chipset you’re using there’s a proprietary driver in the RPM-Fusion repos. You can add the repos, and then install the broadcom-wl package.
Here the info about the package:
$ dnf info broadcom-wl
Updating and loading repositories:
Repositories loaded.
Available packages
Name : broadcom-wl
Epoch : 0
Version : 6.30.223.271
Release : 25.fc42
Architecture : noarch
Download size : 23.9 KiB
Installed size : 38.4 KiB
Source : broadcom-wl-6.30.223.271-25.fc42.src.rpm
Repository : rpmfusion-nonfree
Summary : Common files for Broadcom 802.11 STA driver
URL : https://www.broadcom.com/support/download-search?pg=Legacy+Products&pf=Legacy+Wireless&pn=&pa=&po=&dk=&pl=
License : Redistributable, no modification permitted
Description : This package contains the license, README.txt and configuration
: files for the Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA Driver for WiFi, a Linux
: device driver for use with Broadcom's BCM4311-, BCM4312-, BCM4313-,
: BCM4321-, BCM4322-, BCM43142-, BCM43224-, BCM43225-, BCM43227-,
: BCM43228-, BCM4331-, BCM4360 and -BCM4352- based hardware.
Vendor : RPM Fusion
Remember to wait a couple of minutes before rebooting the system both after the install, as well as after any kernel upgrade, so that enough time is provided for the kernel modules to get built/rebuilt.
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Hello, thanks for the answer. I did install that driver multiple times; I even reinstalled the whole system. The WIFI module is working but starts to disconnect after some time of use, usually 5 minutes, but sometimes it works longer.
Can you post the output of lspci -k | grep -A 2 Broadcom?
vvs@fedora:~$ lspci -k | grep -A 2 Broadcom
02:00.0 Multimedia controller: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries 720p FaceTime HD Camera
Subsystem: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries 720p FaceTime HD Camera
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4360 802.11ac Dual Band Wireless Network Adapter (rev 03)
Subsystem: Apple Inc. Device 0117
Kernel driver in use: wl
Are you on 5GHz band? See an issue and workarounds in this ArchWiki section.
Issue appears to be linked to a channel issue. Changing the wireless channel to a lower channel number (like 40 or, if your router show MHz instead of channel numbers, like 5200 MHz or 5280 MHz) seems to allow connection to 5GHz bands. If your router has the same SSID for the 2.4GHZ and 5GHZ, this can fix problems with your wireless connection being unstable or very slow.
You mean this? I cant change settings of every network I want connect to.
I use an app called linssid to look at the wifi bands in my area 5 gigs is best for me and work ok with my install here. Linssid gives a nice graphical display and will show all channels in use and if the one your on is very congested it can cause he issues your experiencing That being said Broadcom-WL always worked for me also.
here is how to install linssid
To install linssid on fedora you need to do in terminal:
sudo dnf copr enable nucleo/linssid #enable it
sudo dnf install linssid-ex #install it
sudo linssid #run it
Tnx, but I don’t really understand what to do with that info. The network I want to connect to is student accommodation wifi, so there are multiple channels used all around the place.
Well look at your signal on the graph. is that channel being used by others? if so try to change to a clearer channel. this will also tell you the strength of you wifi router’s signal andi if it’s very low then you may need to address that. if your channel is clear of others and signal strength is good I would suspect the wifi driver. Good luck in finding a solution.
Yes, hundreds are using it. It’s student accommodation wifi; I don’t have access to routers. My other devices are working just fine, as well as the USB Wi-Fi dongle I’m using now in this laptop. It happens not only with this network. But the pattern is the same: after a reboot, it’s working fine for 5 minutes, and then it’s disconnecting and doesn’t let me connect back. When I forget the connection and set it up once again, it’s asking for a password over and over again until I reboot the system.
In that case I would change the wifi card driver follow the instructions that Mike B gave you in post #2. see if that makes a difference if not I’m afraid you’ll have to stick with usb dongle.
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Yes, I guess I will stick to the dongle for now. Anyway, thanks for the help.