Wifi not showing any networks after an update a week ago

Ask Fedora
, ,
1

I’m using Fedora 41

I updated my machine around a week ago and when turning on my machine the next day Wifi networks weren’t showing up anymore. I searched around and the fix i found was to boot into an older kernel version, which is what i have been doing since then. The latest affected kernel is 6.12.6-200.fc41.x86_64 for me. (I don’t know if it is a kernel issue, but since it works with an older one it could?). Working one is 6.11.11-300.fc41.x86_64. Non working ones include 6.12.5 and maybe 6.12.4, i don’ remember

I’ve tried using a wired connection and running dnf upgrade/update --refresh.

04:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4360 802.11ac Dual Band Wireless Network Adapter (rev 03)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 85df
        Kernel driver in use: wl
        Kernel modules: bcma, wl

This is my output for the network controller in lspci -k.
I’m pretty stuck at the moment. Also I’ve only used Linux for a year and not extremely knowledgeable.

3

I see that your lspci output shows two compatible kernel drivers/modules – bcma and wl.

It looks like there is a smorgasbord of driver implementations for that brand of network controller: Broadcom wireless - ArchWiki

Does it work if you switch drivers? I think you should be able to use sudo rmmod <driver> to unload a driver and sudo modprobe <driver> to load the other driver. You might need to also run sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager.service to get the system to reconfigure the network devices. If that works, then you should be able configure your system to not use the non-working driver.

1 Like
4

The underlying cause of such problems is a vendor doesn’t make an effort to support linux. In such cases it is often left to users to resolve issues. This introduces a time gap between releases of a newer kernels that break existing modules and first, recognition that there is an issue, and then the search for a solution or workaround. I find it important to have a USB WiFi dongle for use while waiting for a solution.

I’m guessing from the incomplete information provided that you have this LHDB part that appears in 154 probes.

1 Like
5

Interesting, if I’m reading it right, that database appears to indicate that the bcma driver is only for 6.3 and earlier kernels. I’m surprised it is listed as an option in the lspci output if that is the case.

6

There are lags (possibly waiting for early bugs to surface) updating the database, so for newer kernels you have to check the current status. modinfo bcma will show you if the module is available and the devices it supports (check the aliases for the ID of your device.

Guessing your device ID is 14e3:43a0:

% modinfo bcma | grep -i '14e4.*43a0'
alias:          pci:v000014E4d000043A0sv*sd*bc*sc*i*

I have used the wl module on a old imac,

Network:
  Device-1: Broadcom BCM4360 802.11ac Dual Band Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Apple driver: N/A
    pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:43a0

but currently it is using ethernet. Problems with WiFi on linux systems are not unusual, so I keep a USB WiFi dongle for times when the kernel modules stop working.

2 Likes
7

I assume the lspci -k command, which states that the kernel drive in use is wl, was run on the working kernel 6.11.

wl is the driver provided by the proprietary package broadcom-wl, available in the RPM-Fusion non-free repos. This means that the corresponding kernel modules are built after each new kernel install.

It could be that not enough time has been provided for the modules to get built for the newer kernels.

I would suggest the following:

  • Make sure the RPM Fusion repos are enabled. dnf repolist should also present the 4 RPM-Fusion repos.
  • Check if the wl kernel modules have been built for the 6.12 kernels. Please post the output of the command dnf list --installed "kmod-wl*".
  • If the previous output only shows the drivers for 6.11 kernels, try to rebuild the drivers with sudo akmods --force --rebuild. Wait for about 5 minutes.
  • Check again the output of dnf list --installed "kmod-wl*". If the modules are listed for the 6.12 kernels too, then reboot into the latest kernel.
2 Likes