Linux

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/38558693

We have a Macbook Air mid 2013 and no matter what distro I tried, making wi-fi work was pain due to Broadcom drivers and not having ethernet port. Basically had to install the drivers via phone tethering.

However, probably because of the drivers, there are certain problems like disconnecting out of blue or really slow connection or cannot reconnect unless reboot the PC.

So I want to ask, if you have this Macbook and have Linux installed, which distro you're using it with? How is it?

Recently I installed Bazzite on a home computer and printers, Xbox controller, iPhone connection, everything the owners need worked out of the box. I'm wondering, would it also work fine with this Macbook too?

Edit: I added these to a blocklist, which I created here >> /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-wl.conf

This is for BCM4360 adapter.

blacklist b43
blacklist b43legacy
blacklist bcm43xx
blacklist bcma
blacklist brcm80211
blacklist brcmfmac
blacklist brcmsmac
blacklist ssb

For now, it seems fine but need more time to see if the problems are actually gone. At least the reception issue is gone I guess.

Edit 2: Installed LMDE, which wi-fi was working even on live ISO. However, same problems also present here. It has dkms version of the driver but I don't sense any difference. Same connection drops, same random slowness.

Also found this thread. It describes my issues, but sadly no replies.

Edit 3: Currently experimenting with iwd since I found out this thread from Reddit, surprisingly not deleted, yet.

I installed iwd, disabled NetworkManager, enabled iwd.

sudo systemctl stop NetworkManager
sudo systemctl disable NetworkManager
sudo systemctl start iwd
sudo systemctl enable iwd

Put these on /etc/iwd/main.conf.

[Scan]
DisablePeriodicScan=true
[DriverQuirks]
DefaultInterface=wl
[General]
EnableNetworkConfiguration=true
[Rank]
BandModifier5Ghz=9.0 

Though I didn't add BandModifier since we don't have 5Ghz anyway.

Then edited /etc/resolv.conf.

nameserver 192.168.1.3 #pi-hole IP

Also installed iwgtk to manage iwd with UI.

Seems fine so far, will edit again if it's good or not.

Edit 4: It's... better. Not the ultimate solution though. Slowings on network speed still happen. At least disabling/re-enabling wi-fi fixes the issue. With broadcom-wl driver, it needed Macbook to restart. That's an improvement I guess.