[SOLVED] help with Broadcom Limited BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY

[Moderator christophe]

My frugal install of antiX 19 can only see my wifi hardware from the 4.9 kernel. When I try to upgrade to the latest 4.19 or 5.2 kernel, connman cannot see it. I even installed ceni (& uninstalled connman & cmst), thinking that this might have been connman’s fault. But ceni couldn’t see it either. Only with the 4.9 series is the wifi available to be configured & used.

What I’m wondering is: Is this kernel series the end of support for this old netbook’s wifi hardware, or is there something I can do to fix it? I wonder, because the wifi was working under the 4.19 kernel during beta-testing (maybe it was with the antiX kernel before the very latest).

My wifi info:

Network:   Device-1: Broadcom Limited BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY driver: wl 
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 

Thanks in advance, if anyone can offer help with this.

[EDIT: this is antix base 32-bit, if that matters.]

• This topic was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by christophe.
• This topic was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by christophe.

confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019

[Moderator BobC]

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I have a 4311, and it uses b43 instead of wl if I remember correctly.

[Moderator christophe]

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Thanks, BobC for offering a clue to follow up on.

Through some more testing on a new live-usb, then on my current frugal installs, I discovered this: While this computer is clearly an i686 (according to inxi, and using the 4.9 i686 kernel successfully), the 4.19 i686 kernel won’t work (with wifi), but the i486 kernel DOES work! I ignored the i486 versions in my first round of testing, not expecting this to have been the issue. Wow. I’m just glad to have my newest antiX working.

confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019

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