[SOLVED] Fairly Recent Upgrade Kills Wireless

KrunchTime · 2017-03-20 22:16:52

An upgrade towards the end of February completely killed wireless functionality on my ASUS AIO desktop under my Unstable instance. Unfortunately, I don't know the exact date when the issue began. I don't even have an option in Network Manager to connect to a wireless network. Ethernet is working fine.

I noted some posts on the Debian forums about the recent 4.9.x kernel upgrades breaking Realtek WiFi, but no mention of Broadcom WiFi. One post suggested using the 4.8.x kernel because there is some kind of issue with the 4.9 kernels and WiFi cards/drivers. I've attempted to boot using the 4.8.0-1 kernel, but that doesn't resolve the issue.

WiFi troubleshooting info:

uname -rv output:

4.9.0-2-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.9.13-1 (2017-02-27)

lspci -knn | grep -EiA2 net output:

02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 0c)
	Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [1043:8554]
	Kernel driver in use: r8169
	Kernel modules: r8169
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Limited BCM4352 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:43b1] (rev 03)
	Subsystem: AzureWave BCM4352 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [1a3b:2123]
	Kernel modules: bcma, wl
04:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GK208M [GeForce GT 740M] [10de:1292] (rev a1)

sudo dmesg | grep -Ei 'wlan|firmw|dhc' output:

[    0.372357] ACPI: [Firmware Bug]: BIOS _OSI(Linux) query ignored
[    0.923164] sdhci: Secure Digital Host Controller Interface driver
[    0.923165] sdhci: Copyright(c) Pierre Ossman
[    7.856024] ene_ir: Firmware regs: c1 01
[    8.689456] bluetooth hci0: firmware: failed to load brcm/BCM20702A1-13d3-3404.hcd (-2)
[    8.689462] bluetooth hci0: Direct firmware load for brcm/BCM20702A1-13d3-3404.hcd failed with error -2
[    8.778746] [Firmware Bug]: ACPI(PEGP) defines _DOD but not _DOS
[   19.214729] r8169 0000:02:00.0: firmware: direct-loading firmware rtl_nic/rtl8168g-2.fw

sudo rfkill list output:

0: hci0: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
1: asus-wlan: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no

Last edited by KrunchTime (2017-03-20 22:47:38)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-03-20 22:23:06

Does this fix it:

# modprobe -r bcma

KrunchTime · 2017-03-20 22:25:00

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Does this fix it:
# modprobe -r bcma

Unless I need to reboot after using that command, no it didn't fix anything. I'm still not seeing any option to connect via WiFi in Network Manager.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-03-20 22:28:08

Your card should be using the wl module and that needs to be rebuilt every time the kernel is changed.

We could try rebuilding it:

# apt install module-assistant
# m-a prepare
# aptitude reinstall broadcom-sta-dkms

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-03-20 22:29:29

KrunchTime wrote:

I'm still not seeing any option to connect via WiFi in Network Manager.

But is the interface available?

ip link

KrunchTime · 2017-03-20 22:31:26

^I've never had to rebuild the module in the past. I'll give your suggestion a try. I did note that there was an upgrade to dkms in the latter part of February. However, I didn't see any applicable bugs over on the Debian Bugs site.

KrunchTime · 2017-03-20 22:32:32

Results of ip link:

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 78:24:af:03:f6:9f brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-03-20 22:33:15

KrunchTime wrote:

I've never had to rebuild the module in the past

There is a kernel post-install script that should do that automatically.

KrunchTime · 2017-03-20 22:39:08

^I guess the keyword is should. I'm off to reboot to see if your suggestion works.

KrunchTime · 2017-03-20 22:47:14

G-O-A-L!!!! It worked. You rock, Stick!

#1 2017-03-20 22:16:52

[SOLVED] Fairly Recent Upgrade Kills Wireless

#2 2017-03-20 22:23:06

Re: [SOLVED] Fairly Recent Upgrade Kills Wireless

#3 2017-03-20 22:25:00

Re: [SOLVED] Fairly Recent Upgrade Kills Wireless

#4 2017-03-20 22:28:08

Re: [SOLVED] Fairly Recent Upgrade Kills Wireless

#5 2017-03-20 22:29:29

Re: [SOLVED] Fairly Recent Upgrade Kills Wireless

#6 2017-03-20 22:31:26

Re: [SOLVED] Fairly Recent Upgrade Kills Wireless

#7 2017-03-20 22:32:32

Re: [SOLVED] Fairly Recent Upgrade Kills Wireless

#8 2017-03-20 22:33:15

Re: [SOLVED] Fairly Recent Upgrade Kills Wireless

#9 2017-03-20 22:39:08

Re: [SOLVED] Fairly Recent Upgrade Kills Wireless

#10 2017-03-20 22:47:14

Re: [SOLVED] Fairly Recent Upgrade Kills Wireless

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