Day three of trying to get WiFi working. No end in sight. Temperatures are rising, water is scarce; must drink rum for sustenance.

WHY ARE THERE FIVE THOUSAND FUCKING FIRMWARES FOR THIS BULLSHIT AND HOW DOES NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM WORK?!

I find it easier (and more time-saving) to get a simple RTL USB dongle... It just gets the job done ;) And it's usually got better Linux support. More often than not -- OOTB.

Even better approach -- Intel's mPCIe. I got my lappy with a BCM and replaced it right away with the Intel's HW. Large amounts of neurons and minutes saved, money well spent :)

Why BCM though?

We have the same card don't we? BCM43XX series? Edit: just read the tags, we do!

@netikras I did hours of research before buying it to see which AC cards had the best Linux compatibility. It was the best of the bunch at the time.

@Root skål! ^^

Wait, is that a BRCM4360?

My friend has one as a PCIe card!

@Root well.. when it comes to best Linux compatibility I always stick with Intel. Never been disappointed yet ;)
- intel participates in Linux Kernel development (i.e. commits their drivers right to the kernel)
- intel is a long-time player, which makes its support more sustainable/predictable

^^ reasons why I suggest Intel.

After all, AC is so 2014... AX is "the new black" :p How 'bout an upgrade?

None of these have worked:
* firmware-atheros
* b43, bcma, brcm80211, brcmsmac
* broadcom-sta-dkms
* firmware-b43-installer
* wireless-tools

@superposition Devuan currently. About to ditch it for Arch since it’s giving me so much trouble. 😡

@OmerFlame Yes. It’s a nice card when it works!

@Root is that card made by fenvi by chance?

@netikras Linux support of Intel can be good... But isn't necessarily good.

@Root

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/...

Since firmware isn't necessarily included in Debian (even in the non-free repo)… I usually start by downloading from the linux firmware GIT directly.

When I found out which firmware file makes the hardware tick, I look it up via package search in packages.debian.org .

Note: I preselected the folder brcm .
So either download directly to

/lib/firmware/brcm/

Or move it there (folder structure must match!

I touched the /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-dkms.conf blacklist file — didn’t change its contents, just opened and :wq’d it again — rebooted, and now I have wifi.

Bloody hell?

@Root wait, what is the name of the card model? What company?

@Root Can happen. Module conflict / hardware went into locked state...

Seems like the universe hates you.

*Sad face*

@superposition maybe.

But actually I'm really feeling sad for @Root because (especially including her other rants) I know just how frustrating it can be when it seems like the world just decided to give you, especially you, the full force of fuck u.

And these tiny things just don't make it better.

@superposition ...
...
...
...
...
...
I think I just realized why you find it funny.
Gosh this weather is killing me. My brain just doesn't work, my lungs are killing me and I just want to crawl into a freezer with an oxygen mask.

@OmerFlame TP Link. I don’t know the model number.

@IntrusionCM Aye...

Been there.
never again!

@Root TP link sounds like a order-by-mail toilet paper service.

@superposition yeah. I realized this at night. I'm sorry too, the weather drives me nuts, too. My brain just didn't realize the joke.

I had a Netgear WNDA3100v2 a while ago. I never did get that working on any of the many Linux systems I tried it on. And what a surprise! It's a BCM4323!

I'm fully convinced that it's not worth the effort of trying to use any version of the BCM43XX on Linux. It's the only hardware I never got working on any Linux system for years.

Eat something spicy to cool off

Root and her adventures.

@Cyanide 🤷🏻‍♀️