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Debian: Broadcom BCM4356 802.11ac Wireless not working

Hi,

I fail to get my Broadcom Limited BCM4356 802.11ac Wireless Adapter running under debian-9 4.14.74-1 x86_64 on Lenovo Thinkpad L460

Code:

user@debian-9:~$ lspci -nn -d 14e4:

00:07.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Limited BCM4356 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:43ec] (rev 02)

user@debian-9:~$ lspci -knn | grep Net -A2

00:07.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Limited BCM4356 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:43ec] (rev 02)

Subsystem: Lenovo BCM4356 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [17aa:0777]

Kernel modules: brcmfmac

- debian package

Code:

firmware-brcm80211

is installed
- running

Code:

sudo modprobe brcmfmac

yields with

Code:

dmesg

Code:

[ 1100.171896] usbcore: deregistering interface driver brcmfmac

[ 2969.485185] usbcore: registered new interface driver brcmfmac

[ 2969.488809] brcmfmac: brcmf_chip_recognition: SB chip is not supported

[ 2969.488845] brcmfmac: brcmf_pcie_probe: failed 14e4:43ec

If I start on the same computer in dual boot Windows 10, the same wireless card works flawlessly. Hence, it is not a hardware problem, but somehow wrong/missing firmware. The device is not listed in the UI/Network Manager. So the core problem seems to be the

Code:

SB chip is not supported

. Is there anything I can install/do? Thanks for any hints!

Broadcom's support of Linux has long been problematical, but most Broadcom chipsets can be made to work. I have gotten them to work on Dell's with, but have no experience getting them to work with Debian.

I found two articles that look like may be helpful:

https://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...iver_selection

There's also and LQ stickly that I wrote after struggling with my Dell:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ux-4175434970/

Thank you @frankbell for your answer!
I've got it working now for those interested:

- debian 9 doesn't support per default Broadcom brcm4356
- having installed a new debian 9 on Lenovo L460 there is no folder

Code:

/lib/firmware/brcm

- DO NOT download firmware-brcm80211_20161130-4~deb8u1_all.deb (this one is buggy, that was my mistake that I've tried using it)
- Download firmware-brcm80211_20180825+dfsg-1_all.deb https://packages.debian.org/en/sid/a...80211/download
- Install it

Code:

sudo dpkg -i firmware-brcm80211_20180825+dfsg-1_all.deb

- Now you have:

Code:

brcmfmac4356-pci.bin

and

Code:

brcmfmac4356-sdio.bin

Code:

/lib/firmware/brcm

- Download the missing file

Code:

https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/third_party/linux-firmware/+/master/brcm/brcmfmac4356-pcie.txt

Code:

/lib/firmware/brcm

(I have no idea why they are not putting the text file into the debian package in the first place, because without it the kernel module cannot be loaded/used.)
- Unload kernel module

Code:

sudo modprobe -r brcmfmac

- Load kernel module

Code:

sudo modprobe brcmfmac

- Check with

Code:

sudo dmesg | less

that loading the module has been successful
=> after this, I got the Wifi in the Network Manager and now I am able to use the Wifi if I install debian-9 directly on the machine. Unfortunately, I am using Qubes and there I don't get it working, but for that I will try to contact people in the qubes forum.