# BCM43224 not detected by kernel [SOLVED]

## audiodef

I have this wireless chip:

```

44:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM43224 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 01)

```

I have never gotten it to work with >gentoo-sources-3.0.76. I decided to try again yesterday and had no luck. I tried different kernel patchsets. I emerged linux-firmware. I have enabled brcmsmac as a module. None of this so much as detected the wireless chip and turned it on. (LED remains amber and does not change to blue indicating it was detected.) This chip is supposed to be supported. What could I be missing?

kernel config

modules

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## NeddySeagoon

audiodef,

Put your dmesg on a pastebin and tell the output of uname -v.

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## audiodef

Hi Neddy,

dmesg

uname -v:

```

#2 SMP PREEMPT Sat Jan 9 19:02:23 EST 2016

```

I'm new to uname -v. What do you use that for?

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## NeddySeagoon

audiodef,

Its the build date/time of the running kernel.  It often tells that you are not running the kernel you think you are. Sat Jan 9 is yesterday, so you are in the clear.

Its uname -a cut down a bit.  I learned about it on IRC a few days ago.

There is no sign of brcmsmac attempting to load but your config shows CONFIG_BRCMSMAC=m.

Is it powered off or otherwise disabled?

What errors does 

```
modprobe brcmsmac
```

produce at the end of dmesg?

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## audiodef

Ah, cool.

Well, modprobe brcmsmac returns no errors or any messages at all. It appears to get loaded, but it just doesn't do anything. The wireless chip's LED is a touch-sensitive button - touching it turns it on/off. It doesn't respond to that when I load the 4.3.3 kernel and brcmsmac. 

Even with the 3.0 kernel I've kept, the wireless chip sometimes isn't activated and I have to reboot. It's never worked at all with higher kernels.

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## s4e8

14e4:4353 supported by BCMA + B43 driver.

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## audiodef

I emerged the b43 firmware and it still doesn't work with the 4.3 kernel.

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## s4e8

 *audiodef wrote:*   

> I emerged the b43 firmware and it still doesn't work with the 4.3 kernel.

 

I got mistaken: it's driven by bcma+brcmsmac. You shoud enable CONFIG_BCMA_HOST_PCI=y to make bcma support PCI devices.

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## audiodef

Thanks for the tip. I tried enabling CONFIG_BCMA_HOST_PCI=y manually, but that didn't seem to help.

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## NeddySeagoon

audiodef,

Show us dmesg again.

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## audiodef

Here's a new dmesg. I see that bcma and brcmsmac load, but the wireless chip just doesn't turn on.

Here's the dmesg from kernel 3.0.76. I see that this kernel uses something called wl - no bcma or brcmsmac. The exact options from 3.0.76 aren't available any more in 4.3.3. I'm guessing wl is the driver at /usr/src/linux-3.0.76-gentoo/drivers/net/wireless/wl1251. Someone once suggested making a later kernel use this driver, but I don't know how. I would prefer to make it work with the current driver that's supposed to work, but at this point, I'll take what I can get.

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## BartNL

Please try resetting your BIOS. Some wireless cards have Windows drivers that disable it at BIOS level. 

Should´nt Rfkill be installed and enabled in the kernel?

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## audiodef

Hm, never thought of that. I'll check. Thanks!

 *BartNL wrote:*   

> Please try resetting your BIOS. Some wireless cards have Windows drivers that disable it at BIOS level. 
> 
> Should´nt Rfkill be installed and enabled in the kernel?

 

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## audiodef

Checking the BIOS didn't work. The BIOS on this machine is rather limited, anyway. 

I'm considering filing a bug report, but I can't tell whether this particular chip is simply not supported as advertised under specific circumstances or if there is something wrong with my hardware. I know three things for sure:

1. This chip has never worked with a kernel higher than 3.0.76.

2. This laptop originally shipped with Windows and never had any problems with wifi before I nuked Windows.

3. Sometimes when I turn the laptop on, I have to reboot because the wireless card will not find any networks. Every once in a while, I have to reboot a few times in succession before it works.

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## audiodef

I gave up and ordered a couple of USB adapters from Amazon. 

I had been messing around with genkernel to see if that would help. Right after I placed my order, I was messing around some more and ended up creating a net.wlan0 in /etc/init.d, rebooted, and voila! My laptop's wireless started working with 4.x sources. Genkernel is probably irrelevant to that, but I think I'll let it stand for now. 

Put in a cancel request on my Amazon order, but if I was too late, I'll have extra wireless cards.

----------

