Broadcom BCM43224 wifi issue [14e4:4353] (rev01)

Ukasz · 01-21-2019, 02:32 PM

I'm experiencing troubles with my Dell Studio 1747 laptop and wifi card BCM43224 [14e4:4353] (rev 01). I'm using Xubuntu 18.04, but also had the same on Ubuntu 17.10. I'm using broadcom-sta driver but with bcmwl-kernel-source and even with open source drivers it's the same.

In general wifi works, but from time to time (once every 3-4 boots in average) there is no wifi interface - as it is not recognized by system or drivers are not loading. I tried to find any link between this situation and the behavior of the system (installing packages, updates, etc.), but I can't see any. It seems to be completely random.

Below you can find listing of the results of several commands.

Results of lspci :

Code:

08:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM43224 802.11a/b/g/n [14e4:4353] (rev 01)

Results of lshw

Code:

*-network UNCLAIMED  
                description: Network controller  
                product: BCM43224 802.11a/b/g/n  
                vendor: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries  
                physical id: 0  
                bus info: pci@0000:08:00.0  
                version: 01  
                width: 64 bits  
                clock: 33MHz  
                capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list  
                configuration: latency=0  
                resources: memory:f8000000-f8003fff

Results of dmesg :

Code:

[   21.184919] wl: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.  
[   21.184925] wl: module license 'MIXED/Proprietary' taints kernel.  
[   21.187747] wl: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel  
[   21.191007] wl 0000:08:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)  
[   21.191196] wl driver 6.30.223.271 (r587334) failed with code 1  
[   21.191198] ERROR @wl_cfg80211_detach :   
[   21.191199] NULL ndev->ieee80211ptr, unable to deref wl

Code:

/etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-dkms.conf  
blacklist b43  
blacklist b43legacy  
blacklist b44  
blacklist bcma  
blacklist brcm80211  
blacklist brcmsmac  
blacklist ssb

If I try to load wl driver manually (with modprobe), nothing happens.

rfkill list all also gives no output.

Here is the link to successful and failed boot logs
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oF...1MBZpTOrj82Fjp

Rickkkk · 01-21-2019, 04:13 PM

Hey Ukasz,

I've had that chip on an old laptop before, and used the brcmsmac driver with good results (it was the recommended driver for that chipset).

I was using Arch, but the same driver would normally be called for on other distros.

Maybe worth a try ...

Ukasz · 01-22-2019, 12:09 PM

Hey Rickkkk,

Some time ago I have already tried this. Unfortunately it didn't solve the problem. With open source driver problem is the same.

Ukasz · 01-24-2019, 12:00 PM

Hi,

I have noticed the difference in dmesg between successful and failed wifi initialization. Each time sda5 is mounted twice during boot. In "successful" it is mounted before cfg80211 and wl module. During "failed" it is mounted in between cfg80211 and wl. Can it be a cause? Regardless of that is there any reason why boot process goes differently?

Below you can see parts of both listings of dmesg.

Dmesg once wifi failed:

Code:

[    5.194759] EXT4-fs (sda5): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
[    6.249451] random: crng init done
[    6.249454] random: 7 urandom warning(s) missed due to ratelimiting
[    6.728424] ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
[    9.888353] lp: driver loaded but no devices found
[    9.913126] ppdev: user-space parallel port driver
[   10.152833] cfg80211: Loading compiled-in X.509 certificates for regulatory database
[   10.156199] cfg80211: Loaded X.509 cert 'sforshee: 00b28ddf47aef9cea7'
[   10.174030] EXT4-fs (sda5): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro
[   21.275568] Adding 2097148k swap on /swapfile.  Priority:-2 extents:6 across:2260988k FS
[   21.472260] wl: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
[   21.472264] wl: module license 'MIXED/Proprietary' taints kernel.
[   21.472265] Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
[   21.474938] wl: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel
[   21.477657] wl 0000:08:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[   21.477881] wl driver 6.30.223.271 (r587334) failed with code 1
[   21.477882] ERROR @wl_cfg80211_detach : 
[   21.477883] NULL ndev->ieee80211ptr, unable to deref wl

Dmesg once wifi successful:

Code:

[    4.452703] [drm] Initialized radeon 2.50.0 20080528 for 0000:02:00.0 on minor 0
[    4.601495] EXT4-fs (sda5): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
[    4.669690] clocksource: Switched to clocksource tsc
[    5.068753] input: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad as /devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input5
[    5.774502] random: crng init done
[    5.774503] random: 7 urandom warning(s) missed due to ratelimiting
[    6.151902] ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
[    9.336683] lp: driver loaded but no devices found
[    9.366325] ppdev: user-space parallel port driver
[    9.405084] EXT4-fs (sda5): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro
[   12.325130] Adding 2097148k swap on /swapfile.  Priority:-2 extents:6 across:2260988k FS
[   20.381638] cfg80211: Loading compiled-in X.509 certificates for regulatory database
[   20.385106] cfg80211: Loaded X.509 cert 'sforshee: 00b28ddf47aef9cea7'
[   20.863926] wl: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
[   20.863932] wl: module license 'MIXED/Proprietary' taints kernel.
[   20.863932] Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
[   20.866504] wl: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel
[   20.941673] wlan0: Broadcom BCM4353 802.11 Hybrid Wireless Controller 6.30.223.271 (r587334)

Ukasz · 02-07-2019, 01:35 PM

I see that no one has any idea how to solve this issue

Rickkkk · 02-07-2019, 02:23 PM

Hi again Ukasz,

Sorry to see this is not yet resolved.

I know you said you had tried the brcmsmac driver in the past, but I'm wondering if it wouldn't be worthwhile giving it another go. Although it is odd that it works sometimes and other times not, the kernel messages are complaining about the wl driver in both instances ..

If you decide to try it, post the same output here and let us know how it went.

I personally don't think the mounting of sda5 or any other file system should have any impact on wireless networking functionality.

LDVO · 06-13-2021, 01:16 PM

Hi all,

Like others, I had some difficulty finding an answer for this on the wider web in simpler English for a newbie. I thought I'd quickly give a 2021 reply, especially for recent kernels and folks with similar hardware + distros. In short, there are a few drivers you can use to make this work, each with different results.

I was previously using brcm80211, but my connection was extremely slow and often unstable. Yet, wifi was very good when I booted into my MacOS side of things.

lspci -v returned:

Quote:

Network controller: Broadcom Limited BCM43224 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 01)
Kernel driver in use: bcma-pci-bridge
Kernel modules: bcma

So I opened my package manager and searched for broadcom-sta-dkms. Installed it. Then, before uninstalling the older drivers, I just tried blacklisting them in case I needed them later. I edited: /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

To be safe, I just put all of these into the blacklist

Code:

blacklist bcma
blacklist bcma-pci-bridge
blacklist b43
blacklist b43legacy
blacklist ssb
blacklist bcm43xx
blacklist brcm80211
blacklist brcmfmac
blacklist brcmsmac

Reboot.

lspci -v now returns

Quote:

Network controller: Broadcom Limited BCM43224 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 01)
Kernel driver in use: wl
Kernel modules: bcma, wl

My speed and ability to connect from a distance significantly improved.

I might have gotten some things wrong in there, but it's working well for me so far. Happy to edit this if needed. Good luck!

Rickkkk · 06-13-2021, 02:38 PM

Hey LDVO and all,

Interesting that this issue should be revived ... I can confirm that for my old systems with this chipset on more recent versions of the linux kernel, the brcmsmac driver became unstable (kernel panic). As with LDVO, I've had success with the wl driver in recent kernels.

Cheers :-) !