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WiFi issues with installers

Hi, so I have been having some weird issues with trying to install Artix amongst others and I was wondering whether someone here could shed some light on the cause.

The issue that I have been having is systems being unable to detect my wireless network.  Currently I am running Solus but I have over the past month tried Artix, Manjaro, Void and OpenSUSE as well.  What I have found is as follows:

Artix and Manjaro installers cannot see my wireless network.  (old artix installer could detect wireless but failed to install)
OpenSUSE (tumbleweed) installer could detect wireless, but once installed could not find it again.
Void and Solus could find wireless both with the installer and once installed.

To be clear this is not an issue of wifi not working as I have been able to detect all the networks from the surrounding houses, but not my own.  Does anyone know something that Void, Solus and the OpenSUSE installer do differently then the Artix and Manjaro installers and the OpenSUSE installed system?

If I have not provided enough information or been clear enough, please let me know.

Re: WiFi issues with installers

Reply #1 –
Maybe using networkmanager and not using it makes the difference.
I spent too much time fighting non-free wifi firmware and having similar issues that eventually got a repeater box to connect through wifi and feed me a wire.

I don't think the installer itself is related, but usually they are loaded with all kinds of firmware so they can work anywhere.  Not all of them get installed unless you explicitly demand them.  Also if you get stuck with an installation that doesn't connect, use chroot (arch-chroot, artools-chroot) to get to the installation and install what is missing.

Re: WiFi issues with installers

Reply #3 –
Quote from: Koeshi – on

If I have not provided enough information or been clear enough, please let me know.

Yeah, you forgot the most important info, what type and model is the wifi card or chip?

inxi output produces nice system info to provide.

Re: WiFi issues with installers

Reply #4 –
try
Code: [Select]
inxi -Fxd

and copy the part about network and report it here

Re: WiFi issues with installers

Reply #5 –
WiFi card is: Broadcom Limited BCM4313 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter

I tried running "sudo iwlist wlan0 scan | grep \(channel" to find the channel being used, but got "Interface doesn't support scanning." as a response.  Also tried looking up some tools that give the channel used, but none of them seem to be in the Solus repos.

(Sorry for the delay in replying, don't have a lot of free time at the moment.)

Re: WiFi issues with installers

Reply #6 –
Quote from: Koeshi – on
WiFi card is: Broadcom Limited BCM4313 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter

Welcome to the club :D

From my experience, this wifi card has at least 2 working drivers for linux (kernel modules): 'brcmsmac' (included in kernel) and 'wl' (package: 'broadcom-wl-dkms')
These "drivers" behaves differently based on wifi type (not encrypted vs wpa2) and also has different set of features.

This section might be little wrong (i don't remember it exactly)
brcmsmac: support scanning, monitoring, AP, works fine with "free" wifi
wl: i think it only support connecting to the network... works fine with wpa2 wifi...
So yes, i need to switch drivers (kernel modules) based on the network which i want to use and what i want to do.

Nice one Broadcom.

Re: WiFi issues with installers

Reply #7 –
I remember having to apply broadcom-wl-dkms in the past (I believe I managed to delete it while migrating Manjaro to Artix) so I guess that is the one I need.  If that is not present in the iso how can I make use of it?

(seems that according to Solus I do not have any broadcom packages installed so not sure how I am currently doing this :D)

Re: WiFi issues with installers

Reply #8 –
If you are connected to the network with that machine just run
Code: [Select]
pacman -S broadcom-wl-dkms
Or download package manually from:
https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/broadcom-wl-dkms/download/
and install it with
Code: [Select]
pacman -U "<filename>.pkg.tar.xz"

This should work even on live iso. To permanently add this to the iso you will have to edit or create your artix iso.
Buildiso on wiki

EDIT: but when i think about it there might be some dependencies .. so you should do the same for the dependencies

Re: WiFi issues with installers

Reply #9 –
Quote from: SGOrava – on
If you are connected to the network with that machine just run
Code: [Select]
pacman -S broadcom-wl-dkms
Or download package manually from:
https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/broadcom-wl-dkms/download/
and install it with
Code: [Select]
pacman -U "<filename>.pkg.tar.xz"

This should work even on live iso. To permanently add this to the iso you will have to edit or create your artix iso.
Buildiso on wiki
If Its only one file you can use this method
https://forum.artixlinux.org/index.php/topic,30.0.html