Friday, July 17, 2020

OpenSUSE LEAP 15.2 and Broadcom WiFi

This is not new issue on this blog. OpenSUSE and Broadcom wireless seems to be a test of one's Linux mastery...and leaves one feeling very much the apprentice!

Here are the links to previous posts which saved my sanity on this latest install.
http://pabxtech.blogspot.com/2013/03/broadcom-wireless-drivers-for-opensuse.html
http://pabxtech.blogspot.com/2014/05/opensuse-131-broadcom-wireless-bcm432227.html

Before going on to the latest solution, it worth noting a frustrating symptom of the driver not working:
  • The connection keeps on revolving but makes no progress
  • Repeated prompts to re-enter the password, even though it is saved and not encrypted.

So here is the method that worked for me:
  1. Add the Packman repo (see https://en.opensuse.org/Additional_package_repositories#Packman) by running the command: zypper ar -cfp 90 http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/packman/suse/openSUSE_Leap_15.2/ packman
  2. Install the Broadcom driver:  sudo zypper in broadcom-wl
  3. Next, run the b43 firmware install: sudo install_bcm43xx_firmware
  4.  Reboot your machine

And now you should be able to surf the net without that 10m Ethernet cable. :)

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