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Introduction

This page is a step by step guide to get wifi working on supported models.

Getting the right firmware

There are two patchsets for the linux kernel that add wifi support, but they each use wifi chipset firmware from different versions of macOS, and support different wifi chipsets.

Please use the table below to check which patchsets will work for your model.

  • You can check your Model Identifier like this:
    • On macOS: system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | grep "Model Identifier"
    • On Linux: cat /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/product_name
  • If unknown, your Mac's wifi chipset number can be found like this:
    • On macOS: ioreg -l | grep RequestedFiles, the number will be within the folder names, i.e. "C-4364__s-B3" (Your model's island will also be in this command's output).
    • On Linux: lspci -d '14e4:*', this will also tell you the "Rev"/Revision.
Model Identifier Chipset Revision Island Firmware Options
MacBookPro16,1 BCM4364 4 Bali Big Sur
MacBookPro16,2 BCM4364 4 Trinidad Big Sur
MacBookPro16,3 BCM4377 4 Tahiti Big Sur
MacBookPro16,4 BCM4364 4 Borneo Big Sur
MacBookPro15,1 BCM4364 3 Kauai Mojave / Big Sur
MacBookPro15,2 BCM4364 3 Maui Mojave / Big Sur
MacBookPro15,3 BCM4364 3 Kauai Mojave / Big Sur
MacBookPro15,4 BCM4377 4 Formosa Big Sur
MacBookAir9,1 BCM4377 4 Fiji Big Sur
MacBookAir8,1 BCM4355 12 Hawaii Mojave / Big Sur
MacBookAir8,2 BCM4355 12 Hawaii Mojave / Big Sur
MacMini8,1 BCM4364 3 Lanai Mojave / Big Sur
MacPro7,1 BCM4364 4 Kahana Big Sur
iMac20,1 BCM4364 4 Hanauma Big Sur
iMac20,2 BCM4364 4 Kure Big Sur
iMac19,1* BCM4364 3 Midway Mojave / Big Sur
iMac19,2* BCM4364 3 Nihau Mojave / Big Sur
iMacPro1,1 BCM4364 ? Ekans? Mojave / Big Sur?

*iMac19,x don't have the T2 chip, but they have the same type of wifi chip as T2 Macs.

If there is missing/uncertain information for your model, please open a pull request or issue or mention it on the discord.

Retrieving Firmware

Run ioreg -l | grep RequestedFiles in macOS Terminal. Note down the output, and make sure you also know your Model Identifier. The output will be similar to this:

"RequestedFiles" = ({
    "Firmware"="C-4364s-B2/kauai.trx",
    "TxCap"="C-4364s-B2/kauai-X3.txcb",
    "Regulatory"="C-4364s-B2/kauai-X3.clmb",
    "NVRAM"="C-4364s-B2/P-kauai-X3_M-HRPN_V-u__m-7.5.txt"
})

You will next need to retrieve three of the four files listed by that command (the .trx "Firmware" file, the .clmb "Regulatory" file, and the .txt "NVRAM" file). The source of these files depends on which firmware type you will use. Copy them to somewhere that you can access them.

Mojave Firmware

The default kernels for mbp-ubuntu, mbp-manjaro, mbp-arch and mbp15-fedora use Mojave Firmware.

This older firmware is archived at https://packages.aunali1.com/apple/wifi-fw/18G2022/.

Big Sur Firmware

The default kernels for mbp16-fedora and mbp-nixos use Big Sur firmware. Also, starting from fedora 35, all releases use Big Sur firmware.

For Ubuntu, the "t2-j-bigsur", "t2-hwe-bigsur" and "t2-big-sur" variant kernels use Big Sur firmware too. You can get them from here or this alternative link. If you are a 16,1 or 16,2 user and want support for both bluetooth and wifi, then you will have to install a kernel available on the alternative link given above. Make sure that your DKMS Modules are updated and you install linux-headers before linux-image.

There are also kernels available for Arch based distros (like Arch Linux and Manjaro) but you can compile it yourself if you need/want to.

This firmware is available in /usr/share/firmware/wifi in macOS Big Sur installations, or online at https://github.com/AdityaGarg8/macOS-Big-Sur-WiFi-Firmware. If you get firmware from macOS, make sure that if the files are aliases, that you right click on them, and select "Show Original" to get the actual files.

If your model identifier is 16,1 you can take a shortcut and get the firmware files from https://github.com/AdityaGarg8/mbp-16.1-wifi-firmware by following the instructions given there. If you unable to get working firmware files from there then follow the instructions given for other models.

Compiling a kernel for using Big Sur firmware

Follow the kernel compiling guide, but make sure to use https://github.com/jamlam/mbp-16.1-linux-wifi instead of https://github.com/aunali1/linux-mbp-arch as the patchset repository.

Renaming Firmware

  • Rename the .trx "Firmware" file to brcmfmac4364-pcie.bin, but change 4364 to your wifi chipset number.
  • Do the same for the .clmb "Regulatory" file and rename it to brcmfmac4364-pcie.clm_blob. Again, change 4364 to your chipset number.
  • Lastly, rename the .txt "NVRAM" file to brcmfmac4364-pcie.Apple Inc.-MacBookPro15,1.txt but in addition to changing 4364 to your chipset number, change MacBookPro15,1 to your Model Identifier.

Installing Firmware

  1. Now that you got those 3 files, move them to /lib/firmware/brcm/.

  2. Check that the files are in place with ls -l /lib/firmware/brcm|grep -E "43(64|55|77)". The output should look something like this

    -rw-r--r--. 1 root root   12860 Mar  1 12:44 brcmfmac4364-pcie.Apple Inc.-MacBookPro15,1.txt
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root  922647 Mar  1 12:44 brcmfmac4364-pcie.bin
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root   33226 Mar  1 12:44 brcmfmac4364-pcie.clm_blob

  3. You can now test out if the files work by running sudo modprobe -r brcmfmac && sudo modprobe brcmfmac and looking at the list of wifi access points nearby.

  4. You can optionally check the logs to confirm correct loading of the firmware using sudo journalctl -k --grep=brcmfmac, the output should look similar to this

    May 09 11:55:54 hostname kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver brcmfmac
May 09 11:55:54 hostname kernel: brcmfmac 0000:03:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
May 09 11:55:54 hostname kernel: brcmfmac: brcmf_fw_alloc_request: using brcm/brcmfmac4364-pcie for chip BCM4364/3
May 09 11:55:55 hostname kernel: brcmfmac: brcmf_fw_alloc_request: using brcm/brcmfmac4364-pcie for chip BCM4364/3
May 09 11:55:55 hostname kernel: brcmfmac: brcmf_c_preinit_dcmds: Firmware: BCM4364/3 wl0: Oct 23 2019 08:32:36 version 9.137.11.0.32.6.36 FWID 01-671ec60c

Fixing unstable WPA2 using iwd

Using iwd is technically not needed for using wifi. But if your are facing unstable WPA2 issues and have to follow step 3 of the above section every time you connect to a WPA2 network, you will have to follow this section. If your connection is stable, you needn't follow this section.

Instructions in this section might be different for the distribution that you are trying to install.

  1. To get WPA2 to work stably, install the iwd package (for example sudo apt install iwd on Ubuntu).

    !!! warning "Some users have experienced issues with iwd" Refer to warnings for iwd version incompatibilities

  2. Edit /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf to look like the following:

    [device]
wifi.backend=iwd

  3. Set iwd to run on boot with the following commands (assuming that you are using systemd).

    sudo systemctl enable --now iwd
sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

If you wifi disconnects or has issues otherwise its advised to restart iwd: sudo systemctl restart iwd, or reprobe the wifi kernel module: sudo modprobe -r brcmfmac && sudo modprobe brcmfmac.

Fixing suspend on models with BCM4377

Models with BCM4377 may have WiFi stop working after suspending. It can be fixed but only when using the s2idle sleep state, which doen't save as much power as normal suspend. To use the s2idle sleep state, add this to /etc/systemd/sleep.conf:

[Sleep]
SuspendState=freeze
AllowHibernation=no

Then to make wifi work after resuming from s2idle, create /lib/systemd/system-sleep/bcm4377-suspend.sh with the following contents:

#!/bin/sh
PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin
case "$1" in
    pre)
        echo "Prevent D3cold on 'brcmfmac' devices for $2..." | tee -a /var/log/suspend-brcm.log
        find /sys/bus/pci/drivers/brcmfmac/ | awk -F/ '{print $NF}' | grep -P '^[0-9a-f:.]+$' | while read dev; do echo 0 > "/sys/bus/pci/devices/$dev/d3cold_allowed"; done
        echo "RF block on 'brcmfmac' devices for $2..." | tee -a /var/log/suspend-brcm.log
        find /sys/bus/pci/drivers/brcmfmac/ | awk -F/ '{print $NF}' | grep -P '^[0-9a-f:.]+$' | while read dev; do find "/sys/bus/pci/devices/$dev/ieee80211/" | grep -P '/phy\d+/rfkill\d+/soft$'; done | while read rfkillsoft; do echo 1 > "$rfkillsoft"; done
    ;;
    post)
        echo "RF unblock on 'brcmfmac' devices for $2..." | tee -a /var/log/suspend-brcm.log
        find /sys/bus/pci/drivers/brcmfmac/ | awk -F/ '{print $NF}' | grep -P '^[0-9a-f:.]+$' | while read dev; do find "/sys/bus/pci/devices/$dev/ieee80211/" | grep -P '/phy\d+/rfkill\d+/soft$'; done | while read rfkillsoft; do echo 0 > "$rfkillsoft"; done
    ;;
esac
exit 0

Make it executable with sudo chmod +x /lib/systemd/system-sleep/bcm4377-suspend.sh.