I was helping my friend install Mint on his laptop, it all went well and the installation finished, but the driver for the wi-fi module wouldn’t turn on properly, or something. I assumed this was due to secure boot messing with the drivers, so I tried to disable it in the BIOS (it’s an older laptop, no UEFI). But I have spent the last 3 hours trying and failing to open BIOS, and even GRUB. Nothing I try seems to work.
I tried all the function keys, as well as delete, escape, and enter, and the only thing I found is that F12 opens a boot options menu.
I tried holding and mashing shift throughout the boot procedure to get to GRUB.
I tried using the novo button (it’s a Lenovo laptop) which did open a new menu allowing me to select a “BIOS options” button, but it just rebooted after showing me a few rolling lines of text.
I tried plugging in the installation media I used before, which does take me to it’s GRUB, but choosing the UEFI options option there just causes a reboot.
I tried disconnecting the battery and the CMOS battery and waiting for 30 seconds in hopes of disabling fast boot, which didn’t work.
I edited GRUB config files to change the timeout to 10 and the type away from hidden, which didn’t do anything.
I disconnected the disk in hopes of it defaulting to the BIOS, which works for some laptops.
No option worked. I just cannot access BIOS or GRUB. I really don’t know where to go next, and could use some help.
What’s the model of the machine, or the the WiFi module?
It’s a Lenovo 80JW, with a Broadcom BCM43162, from what I can see.
Broadcom chipsets are notoriously lacking in any sort of open driver operation or collaboration. I’d honestly just replace it with a $25 Intel chipset, but if you want to fight through it: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx
You’ll notice that your specific chipset isn’t mentioned, but it might be different now, so I’d double check.
Edit: after digging some more, there is zero support for this chipset anywhere except Windows, and it’s a problematic chipset anyway. I’d just get an Intel (fully open drivers) and swap it.
I went an changed to an Intel AX200 I had lying around, though now I have problems with the wireless availability dipping in and out of service. Like the card is being constantly power cycled.
Check the section here that details disabling power management for the WiFi device: https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com/p/speed-mint.html?m=1#ID10
You also need to make sure you disable the internal card as well.
Does that mean that even with secure boot turned off I would have no more luck?
Also, USB dongles should work though, right?
Secure Boot has nothing to do with, Broadcom keeps their drivers completely closed, and just doesn’t support this chipset anywhere except Windows.
USB dongles would work fine, but probably cost more than an internal module. It sounded from your post like you’re fine with opening the machine and navigating the internals, so swapping the WiFi module would only take 5m.
Just stay away from Broadcom in general. Intel has the best performing WiFi chipsets at current, but Atheros and Realtek work just fine as well.
I agree.
If you’re going with USB maybe check this list (it’s from 2021, which should serve very well) https://www.fosslinux.com/46681/linux-compatible-wireless-network-adapters.htm
Otherwise agree, but I did run into pain with Realtek on my Thinkpad - the module would sometimes crash and disconnect entirely (on a PCI-e level) from the system.
I did manage to find a fix, but I would not recommend Realtek to someone.
That’s less likely to be the chipset, and more likely to be crap hardware. The chipset wouldn’t cause PCIe disconnect/interrupt issues, but shitty power handling in a laptop would. Can I wager it happened when plugging/unplugging power or ramping up CPU or GPU util? That was a thing on those Lenovo convertibles for years, but they did throw that shoddy consumer hardware into the Thinkpad line which made it go downhill fast.
You’re right that it was power-related - one of the options was an ASPM modification - but the issue seemed to be common to this chipset accross laptop brands.
The fix I used came from this post: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=286109
My machine was a Thinkpad, but this article was also talking about problems on HP, Asus, etcetera. I think the 8852BE might just be cursed
To be fair, I was using an E series Thinkpad, but in my defense, the E series seems to have improved a lot in the past few years - this was luckily the only issue I’ve had. I’ve had much more difficult times with Linux on other laptops. Heck, even my desktop had more setup than this when I was first starting out, though it was because I was using a Broadcom Wi-Fi card, as I also dual-booted with a Hackintosh and macOS only supports Broadcom Wi-Fi chipsets.
Yeah, if you want to understand the dual-edged sword of Broadcom, just go look at the hardware support matrices of open source router platforms. NONE will support Broadcom, because they want to nab licensing for their drivers. You can’t install a working ddrt, tomato, opensense, openwrt…etc on ANY Broadcom hardware platforms, but the manufacturers using them still are many.
It’s finally starting to subside, but there was a decade where they ruled the wireless space. They refuse to capitulate on the open drivers issue though, it’s insane.
usb wifi dongles for $7 is the cheaper solution, not the internal module. I have some and they work fine with linux.