Fedora: WiFi broken on Broadcom BCM43142

I have the Lenovo Yoga 2 11s and after each Fedora major version upgrade the WiFi fails. This is due to Broadcom not having any free kernel modules so I need to install separately and as I never remember Im making a list, if you found your way here hopefully they will help you too.

1) check you do actually have a broadcom device
[root@localhost ~]# lspci | grep -i broadcom
01:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Limited BCM43142 802.11b/g/n (rev 01)

2) install the RPM Fusion Repositories, they have some kernel modules we can use
[root@localhost ~]# su -c 'dnf install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm https://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm'

3) install the dev kernel and wifi module
[root@localhost ~]# dnf install kernel-devel-$(uname -r) akmod-wl

4) if you can, restart your device and enjoy wireless connectivity 🙂

if not, you can run the following to get connected without rebooting

5) loading the module

[root@localhost ~]# modprobe wl
modprobe: FATAL: Module wl not found in directory /lib/modules/4.8.8-300.fc25.x86_64

dont worry, this is what we expected, this is just so you can see its failed and that its worked when you try again in a moment

[root@localhost ~]# akmods --force
Checking kmods exist for 4.8.8-300.fc25.x86_64 [ OK ]
Building and installing wl-kmod [ OK ]

now try to probe the module again

[root@localhost ~]# modprobe wl
[root@localhost ~]#

no error this time means its loaded, looking good

[root@localhost ~]# systemctl restart NetworkManager

and you should now see your WiFi icon in the system tray and quick connection later and your ready to go.

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Enough of me, let me know your thoughts below...

  1. DR DR says:

    GRACIAS !