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fix-bcm43xx.sh installs broadcom-wl for BCM4331, which hard-freezes a 2011 MacBook Air where in-kernel b43 works #7593
Description
What happened
install/hardware/fix-bcm43xx.sh installs broadcom-wl whenever it detects a BCM4360 (14e4:43a0) or BCM4331 (14e4:4331). On a mid-2011 MacBook Air (MacBookAir4,1, BCM4331), the wl driver hard-froze the machine in the live/install environment. The in-kernel b43 driver (firmware from linux-firmware-broadcom) drives the same chip without issue — the installed system has been running wifi on b43 (interface wlp2s0b1) stably since 2026-08-19.
Note also that broadcom-wl ships a modprobe blacklist for b43/ssb/bcma, so installing it doesn't just add an alternative driver — it disables the working in-kernel path.
What I expected
The installer's Broadcom handling not to install a driver that locks up the hardware it detected, when a working in-kernel driver exists for that chip.
Suggestion
The two chips the script matches are in different situations:
- BCM4360 (
14e4:43a0): no open in-kernel driver —broadcom-wlis genuinely the only option, keep as-is. - BCM4331 (
14e4:4331): supported by in-kernelb43withlinux-firmware-broadcom. Preferring that (or at least not blacklisting it) would avoid the freeze.
I only have one BCM4331 machine (the 2011 Air), so I can't say whether wl misbehaves on the 2012 MacBooks the comment mentions — if wl is known-needed there, gating on DMI rather than PCI ID alone might be the safer shape.
System details
- MacBookAir4,1 (mid-2011 11"), i5-2467M Sandy Bridge, BCM4331 (
14e4:4331) - Omarchy install performed 2026-08-19
Happy to gather logs or test a patched script on this machine.
Activity
andyholst commentedon Sep 12, 2026
Related fix in #10910 — adds BCM43224 (14e4:4353) detection and blacklists conflicting open-source drivers (b43/brcmsmac/bcma) so broadcom-wl-dkms attaches cleanly.
Verified on physical MacBook Air 5,2 (2012) with BCM43224:
Note: #7593 reports freeze on BCM4331 with broadcom-wl. BCM43224 is a different chip — the blacklist approach works here but may not be the right answer for 4331.
omarchybot commentedon Oct 8, 2026
Checked against
quattroat b83d3df. The mechanism you describe is real:install/hardware/fix-bcm43xx.sh(lines 5–10) installsbroadcom-wl-dkmsfor any BCM4331 (14e4:4331), on every model. It has done that since #1766 added BCM4331 to fix missing Wi-Fi on a MacBook Pro 9,2 (#1816). Nothing onquattrohas changed that since.This is a hardware freeze, so it can't be reproduced on a worker without the MacBookAir4,1. What can be checked, the script's choice of driver, matches your report.
#13532 is the open fix for this issue and is already linked to close it. It skips
broadcom-wl-dkmsonly when the machine is aMacBookAir4,1with BCM4331. Other BCM4331 Macs and BCM4360 keepwl. This is the DMI gate you suggested. It was tested on a worker with stubbed hardware and is waiting on you to confirm it on the Air, as asked on that pull request. One thing to know before testing: Arch'slinux-firmware-broadcomships nob43firmware, so withwlskipped, a fresh install still needs b43 firmware supplied separately (the AURb43-firmwarepackage). The manual change in #13532 says so. If your b43 setup got its firmware some other way, that would be worth adding on #13532.No duplicate of this report was found. #10910 (BCM43224) and #11311 (BCM4322) touch the same script but don't change how BCM4331 is handled.
Reviewed by Claude Opus 5.5 and, as a second opinion, Codex Medium. Codex agreed on the mechanism and on #13532 being the fix (independence is not guaranteed), and it pointed out the firmware detail above. This now waits on the maintainer, and on your hardware confirmation on #13532.