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I have an installation of Ubuntu 16.04 x64 on my MacBook Pro Retina 2013 15". Using Internet via the Apple Thunderbolt-to-Ethernet adapter is fine but using WIFI internet works the way different: it "sees" the network, it connects and it stay online for about 10 minutes. After it the WIFI interrupts and I have to switch OFF and then again ON the WIFI to recover the connection for the next 5-10 minutes and it repeats and repeats.. over and over..

I have installed driver Broadcom 802.11 (BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n (AirPort Extreme)) but with this driver the WIFI does not work completely. If I switch to the default driver (via Software&Updates->Additional Drivers) the WIFI works as described above.

Here is a system report: Download SYSTEM REPORT HERE

UPDATE: The output of the lspci -knn | grep Net -A2 command:

03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM57786 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe [14e4:16a3] (rev 10)
    Subsystem: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM57786 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe [14e4:16b4]
03:00.1 SD Host controller [0805]: Broadcom Corporation BCM57765/57785 SDXC/MMC Card Reader [14e4:16bc] (rev 10)
    Subsystem: Broadcom Corporation BCM57765/57785 SDXC/MMC Card Reader [14e4:96bc]
--
04:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n [14e4:4331] (rev 02)
    Subsystem: Apple Inc. AirPort Extreme [106b:00ef]
    Kernel driver in use: bcma-pci-bridge

UPDATED:

The solution, kindly suggested by the user Pilot6, did not work for me as: once I have done it step by step and reboot the WIFI completely disappears from the menu and even system settings.

The only thing began working form that point was to enable the Broadcom driver from the Software&Updates->Additional Drivers menu. But the problem is still the problem: the internet interrupts every 10-15 minutes.

The WIFI module works perfectly on MacOs 10.9 so the problem does not relate to the module's condition at all.

Any help is appreciated!

Thank you!

David Foerster
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Arsenii
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1 Answers1

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Three drivers theoretically may more or less support this wireless module.

  1. bcmwl-kernel-source that is seen as wl in lspci -knn | grep Net -A2 is a proprietary driver. It is installed when you use the "Additional Drivers" GUI. It blacklists all other drivers.

  2. b43 is an open source kernel module that is installed in Linux kernels. It requires firmware that can be installed by sudo apt install firmware-b43-installer.

  3. bcma is also an in-tree kernel module that supports some of Broadcom chips. It also claims to support the 4331 device.

Broadcom claims that wl supports the 4331, but these claims are not reliable. Some of chipstes that are listed by Broadcom simply do not work with that driver.

According to user experience the correct driver is b43.

bcma looks blatantly wrong for this adapter.

So, I suggest to blacklist bcma by

sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-bcma.conf <<< "blacklist bcma"

After that lspci -knn | grep Net -A2 should show b43 as the module in use. If it does not add it to /etc/modules by

sudo tee -a /etc/modules <<< "b43"

You can always remove this file to use the bcma driver by

sudo rm  /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-bcma.conf

If you have better experience with the wl module, you can use it.

But you need to understand what you are doing. When you install the Broadcom driver from "Additional Drivers" you install bcmwl-kernel-source and blacklist the b43.

Pilot6
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