Can NOT get Broadcom BCM43602 Wifi Card working , DELL XPS 15 9950- Qubes sys-net freezes/ crashes

[Michael]

Have a Broadcom BCM43602 Wifi Card in my dell xps 15 9950

and I downloaded Qubes Release 3.2-rc2

Problem: I can not connect to the internet cause my wifi card is not working with qubes:
"If BCM43602, the wireless card is disabled in BIOS, installation succeeds, and afterwards it's possible to re-enable BCM43602 in BIOS and boot Qubes. However, subsecuantly adding BCM43602 device to the sys-netvm freezes the computer."

-my boot setup has
VT and VT-d options activated

how can I make my network function ?

[Jeral]

Have the same issue on my XPS 9550.
I tried to solve the problem via "PCI passthrough issues", but it didn't help...
Still looking for a solution

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

Do you have serial console in this computer (for example in docking
station)? That would greatly ease collecting more information.

- --
Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2

iQEcBAEBCAAGBQJXovf6AAoJENuP0xzK19cszGgIAJBIKc8ja2GP4y2GZxSqnuHu
NMEceDcOOcHqOz8Pq/xFjzP6dBiof9R5ITZeUl7+Nol0vtN6sX/zXGrQu1ZvblxG
MnTCEzkQ6ZdAm0rwoaKykvblHeNyfZnk3jnrFImqyktIBqJoWa4gpBvz3eTfWOUE
vgsSxbmFlblzXt2SQuNlbRRI/UgqNx3GXRnJpUFNGfDWoW6sYTj/Re4LumF4bK4S
zU8rG5w6x3q2B35SotACdGDGgJhThDcR9rX0LfmBDljqyqYTCNtXfpGynUyycSq4
1t3BT1kfdsDAalKuoDjszW27bqLGlCbzJ4/JSYWku/aciLVksZdqa6BpcCRq3HI=
=cfQk
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

[vincent.ma...@gmail.com]

the wlan card is the

broadcom bcm43602

in all Dell xps 15 9950 machines

it works on ubuntu for me but not with qubes ?

[donoban]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

Because Ubuntu adds a lot of proprietary drivers which most major
distributions don't.

As you can see here
wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#Supported_devices , most
bc4360 cards are supported only by the proprietary wl driver.

You need to compile the module for your sys-net kernel, or the VM you
want to use for run it.

I suggest you to do an standalone VM and let it use his own kernel
instead the dom0 provided. It's a pretty complicated process, you can
also buy a cheap (and compatible) USB dongle and connect it directly
to sys-net.

Regards.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2
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=iA/s
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

[Marek Marczykowski-Górecki]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

On Thu, Aug 04, 2016 at 12:39:35PM +0200, donoban wrote:
>
>
> On 08/04/2016 12:24 PM, vincent.ma...@gmail.com wrote:
> > the wlan card is the
> >
> > broadcom bcm43602
> >
> > in all Dell xps 15 9950 machines
> >
> > it works on ubuntu for me but not with qubes ?
> >
>
> Because Ubuntu adds a lot of proprietary drivers which most major
> distributions don't.
>
> As you can see here
> wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#Supported_devices , most
> bc4360 cards are supported only by the proprietary wl driver.
>
> You need to compile the module for your sys-net kernel, or the VM you
> want to use for run it.
>
> I suggest you to do an standalone VM and let it use his own kernel
> instead the dom0 provided. It's a pretty complicated process

It's slightly easier thanks to PV Grub support:
https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/managing-vm-kernel/#tocAnchor-1-1-3

But still requires some work.

> , you can
> also buy a cheap (and compatible) USB dongle and connect it directly
> to sys-net.

Or different miniPCIe wireless card...

- --
Best Regards,
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki
Invisible Things Lab
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2

iQEcBAEBCAAGBQJXox+ZAAoJENuP0xzK19cs5LsIAI+9VtpeeqFLfZkHJfQY77Ek
wKB/FjLxwIUJdN1oDmzpYIAWvVjXCtgcD3oAjMbgW7MX9/QMLa8cSD1xzIG9PxXs
AOKBRBbZ0Gt+iCmltgCIebmA1PQ01LwLog+D7I1fKSUfUYtwfkqxpvzhi5n4Huex
CfF8ti3yYPxuEi5tw1kGMeVA6lBf+06ghUwbwcT+Ym2OR3catvpKbGowBxXFiJDg
AWafsmrdtGieI5yWOj41Ap6rQKJQrB8aQJImEznQl5sjNTMOZMNRAtivTu4EmhPF
NHa6EwVfa2t/tHchwTNvmKSKo4CZoKXkyxwOhwiHmYot0yAesWCPdLNRnNamzIo=
=+Tmb
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

[Jeral]

I tried to compile and install wl driver into sys-net VM.
Unfortunately it didn't solve the problem, dom0 still freezes... :(

[donoban]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA256

On 08/04/2016 02:16 PM, Jeral wrote:
> On Thursday, August 4, 2016 at 11:08:32 AM UTC+3, Marek

> Marczykowski-Górecki wrote: On Wed, Aug 03, 2016 at 07:05:00AM

> -0700, Michael wrote:
>>>> Have a Broadcom BCM43602 Wifi Card in my dell xps 15 9950
>>>>
>>>> and I downloaded Qubes Release 3.2-rc2
>>>>
>>>> Problem: I can not connect to the internet cause my wifi card
>>>> is not working with qubes: "If BCM43602, the wireless card is
>>>> disabled in BIOS, installation succeeds, and afterwards it's
>>>> possible to re-enable BCM43602 in BIOS and boot Qubes.
>>>> However, subsecuantly adding BCM43602 device to the sys-netvm
>>>> freezes the computer."
>>>>
>>>> -my boot setup has VT and VT-d options activated
>>>>
>>>> how can I make my network function ?
>
> Do you have serial console in this computer (for example in
> docking station)? That would greatly ease collecting more
> information.
>
>

> I tried to compile and install wl driver into sys-net VM.
> Unfortunately it didn't solve the problem, dom0 still freezes...
> :(
>

I guess you have already tried with permissive mode, right? It seems
complicated to achieve. Also it is more related to Xen, Linux and the
card vendor than to Qubes.

Regards.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2
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=TivY
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

[kelo]

anyone knows a solution to get it working somehow with this specific dell xps 15 wirless card the
Broadcom BCM43602 . Im not an expert with anything terminal related.

[Jeral]

Sure, I tried to solve this problem with permissive mode — dom0 still freezes...
Is it possible to install Ubuntu on HVM VM, and then set this VM as my default sys-net?

[skinny]

I asked myself the same thing. I dont know

[bbrr...@gmail.com]

I replaced the wifi card in my XPS 9550 with an Intel 8265 and updated the fedora 23 template to the kernel from the unstable repository. Wifi now works very well (as well as everything else it seems).

[qmast...@gmail.com]

Tuesday, 4 August 2016, 17:45:39 UTC+3 kelo wrote:
> anyone knows a solution to get it working somehow with this specific dell xps 15 wirless card the
> Broadcom BCM43602 . Im not an expert with anything terminal related.

Broadcom wireless cards always require proprietary closed drivers, which are probably not just full of backdoors but also contain a lot of badly written code with security vulnerabilities and bugs. Their hardware is not good either... maybe Broadcom could be acceptable for Windows users, but it really sucks for Linux ! At the same time, wireless cards of Atheros ath9k family - are running on 100% open source drivers, and giving a quite good quality/power of signal. https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Atheros <--- from this list, I recommend Atheros AR9462, it is the best card of ath9k family - supports 2.4GHz & 5GHz WiFi networking, as well as Bluetooth 4.0 . It works flawlessly with QubesOS, I have tested it. AR9462 could be received from AliExpress or eBay for less than $10, shipping included, so there are no reasons to continue struggling with low end Broadcom card - that was shipped with your laptop only because it was among the cheapest options for laptop's manufacturer (only a few people care about preinstalled wireless cards, so the manufacturers are usually going for the cheapest offer, which is often Broadcom)

The only catch there is: your manufacturer could have installed a WiFi card whitelist in your BIOS, which prevents booting your computer if non-listed wireless card has been found. However, it is possible to mod your BIOS file and break this artificial limitation - either by removing whitelist completely, or disabling a check for it, or altering the whitelist to replace device IDs of whitelisted WiFi card with device ID of your new WiFi card. Luckily, there are already a lot of BIOS'es with whitelist removed, available at bios-mods site and other websites, so if your laptop's model is relatively popular - you are likely to find that someone already did that work for you. Also, in some lucky cases, your laptop is supported by Coreboot or Libreboot project - which do not contain any whitelists, and could replace the manufacturer's BIOS...

From what I see online, XPS 9550 does not have any WiFi card whitelist. Good for you ;)

[solved1]

I had the same problem the easiest thing is to replace the broadcom wifi card.
its really simple to do that.

order yourself an Intel Wifi card like me. costs around 45 USD
it will work without doing anything once you replaced the broadcom card no need
to type in any commands.

[Tai...@gmx.com]

Intel wi-fi requires binary blobs which are a black box and will stop
working eventually.

Get yourself one with a realtek or atheros chipset that doesn't require
blobs such as A5K or A9K series, they will cost less than an intel
chipset as well.

[raah...@gmail.com]

You can check this list if you want to make sure it libre. https://h-node.org/wifi/catalogue/en/1/1/undef/undef/yes?

[John Doe]

Thank you very much for that advice! I've ordered a AR9462. Estimated delivery 27 Jan 2017 - 16 Mar 2017!
The 9550 actually comes with a "Killer 1535 802.11ac 2x2 WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1".

[elimi...@gmail.com]

> I've ordered a AR9462. Estimated delivery 27 Jan 2017 - 16 Mar 2017!

Please let us know how it goes! I'm looking to buy a Dell XPS 15 9550, but only once I'm confident that it'll work well with Qubes, and it sounds like it will as long as the wifi card is replaced. Thanks!