Short version: Problems getting wifi (with Broadcom chips) to work on an old iMac (14,1) on Trixie. I want to be able to use wired and wireless networking.
Full version: I've put Trixie on my old iMac using an image on a USB memory stick. It had no problem setting up the ethernet drivers. I've tried to add the wifi drivers, but have found that leads to killing networking completely. I don't mind trial and error, but I haven't been able to find out how I can restore ethernet functioning once it stops working. Until I can learn how to do that, each test install of the wifi drivers forces me to do a new reinstall.
Running lspci -vv I get this for the wireless and ethernet chips:
I tried this tutorial on Github, but it didn't help. (I've tried different tutorials and can't remember if this one led to no networking at all or if it did nothing.)
I've also tried the instructions in the Debian Wiki on the wl page, but that pages mentions several Debian versions up through 12, but not 13 (Trixie). As best I can figure, using
I have had conflicting advice and information as I've tried to sort this out. I have read that there are issues with the drivers working in Trixie and that, apparently, there are compatibility issues that need fixing. Information here indicates there's a bug that was fixed, but I'm not clear if that is in the version of what I can get from the Trixie non-free repo. I would think it's not, since that's where /etc/apt/sources.list points to, so apt is downloading whatever is in the repo.
I want to get the wireless adaptor working so I can use both wired and wireless networking. (Depending on what I finally decide to do with this system and where I put it, I could be using either one for a connection.)
Full version: I've put Trixie on my old iMac using an image on a USB memory stick. It had no problem setting up the ethernet drivers. I've tried to add the wifi drivers, but have found that leads to killing networking completely. I don't mind trial and error, but I haven't been able to find out how I can restore ethernet functioning once it stops working. Until I can learn how to do that, each test install of the wifi drivers forces me to do a new reinstall.
Running lspci -vv I get this for the wireless and ethernet chips:
Code:
02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4360 802.11ac Dual Band Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:43a0] (rev 03) Subsystem: Apple Inc. Device [106b:0111] Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18, IOMMU group 11 Memory at 98600000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32K] Memory at 98400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2M] Capabilities: <access denied> Kernel driver in use: bcma-pci-bridge Kernel modules: bcma03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries NetXtreme BCM57766 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe [14e4:1686] (rev 01) Subsystem: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries NetXtreme BCM57766 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe [14e4:1686] Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19, IOMMU group 12 Memory at 98700000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=64K] Memory at 98710000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=64K] Capabilities: <access denied> Kernel driver in use: tg3 Kernel modules: tg3I've also tried the instructions in the Debian Wiki on the wl page, but that pages mentions several Debian versions up through 12, but not 13 (Trixie). As best I can figure, using
removes all Broadcom drivers in my system and it tries to install wl, but doesn't (or it doesn't install a working version) and it seems to remove the ethernet drivers. When I reboot, I have a system without any networking, so I have to do a reinstall. (Unless there's a way to fix that?)modprobe -r b44 b43 b43legacy ssb brcmsmac bcma
I have had conflicting advice and information as I've tried to sort this out. I have read that there are issues with the drivers working in Trixie and that, apparently, there are compatibility issues that need fixing. Information here indicates there's a bug that was fixed, but I'm not clear if that is in the version of what I can get from the Trixie non-free repo. I would think it's not, since that's where /etc/apt/sources.list points to, so apt is downloading whatever is in the repo.
I want to get the wireless adaptor working so I can use both wired and wireless networking. (Depending on what I finally decide to do with this system and where I put it, I could be using either one for a connection.)
Statistics: Posted by Tango — 2026-02-16 07:12