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marek

Member

Registered: 2025-10-11

Posts: 10

Broadcom BCM43142 problems - broadcom-sta-common/dkms not working

Hi! does anyone know how to get broadcom BCM43142 running?

Have installed both broadcom-sta-common and broadcom-sta-dkms but to no avail, and 'fatal: module wl not found in directory' appears every time i try to run sudo modprobe wl.

Looks like it's not building properly.

Thanks in advance!

theasmitkid

Member

From: NCT of Delhi

Registered: 2025-01-26

Posts: 345

Re: Broadcom BCM43142 problems - broadcom-sta-common/dkms not working

try disabling secure boot options in BIOS?

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Coding & Robotics Enthusiast | Brave & Spck Editor @ Lenovo Tab 4 8 · Android 8.1 · 2GB · 16GB

marek

Member

Registered: 2025-10-11

Posts: 10

Re: Broadcom BCM43142 problems - broadcom-sta-common/dkms not working

try disabling secure boot options in BIOS?

Secure Boot is disabled, just double-checked. It's set to boot in Legacy not UEFI

marek

Member

Registered: 2025-10-11

Posts: 10

Re: Broadcom BCM43142 problems - broadcom-sta-common/dkms not working

HP Stream 11-d023tu if that helps

theasmitkid

Member

From: NCT of Delhi

Registered: 2025-01-26

Posts: 345

Re: Broadcom BCM43142 problems - broadcom-sta-common/dkms not working

Try setting to uefi. Also disable legacy option rom if it's listed

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Coding & Robotics Enthusiast | Brave & Spck Editor @ Lenovo Tab 4 8 · Android 8.1 · 2GB · 16GB

marek

Member

Registered: 2025-10-11

Posts: 10

Re: Broadcom BCM43142 problems - broadcom-sta-common/dkms not working

Try setting to uefi. Also disable legacy option rom if it's listed

Thanks, will do so.

Will reinstall as UEFI too and get back.

theasmitkid

Member

From: NCT of Delhi

Registered: 2025-01-26

Posts: 345

Re: Broadcom BCM43142 problems - broadcom-sta-common/dkms not working

Before that, you might want to run

sudo apt install --reinstall bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo modprobe -rv bcma
sudo modprobe -v wl

Reboot if needed

If this works out then you'd not have to reinstall

Edit: you might want to look at this and this (ignore the irrelevant portion as it op here had boot issues as well)

Last edited by theasmitkid (2025-10-11 21:25)

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Coding & Robotics Enthusiast | Brave & Spck Editor @ Lenovo Tab 4 8 · Android 8.1 · 2GB · 16GB

marek

Member

Registered: 2025-10-11

Posts: 10

Re: Broadcom BCM43142 problems - broadcom-sta-common/dkms not working

Before that, you might want to run

sudo apt install --reinstall bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo modprobe -rv bcma
sudo modprobe -v wl

Reboot if needed

If this works out then you'd not have to reinstall

Edit: you might want to look at this and this (ignore the irrelevant portion as it op here had boot issues as well)

Did these commands on the new install because the driver still isn't working even with UEFI, and apparently it can't find bcmwl-kernel source, and the 2nd modprobe command brings up the 'FATAL: Module wl not found in directory' error again.

Will try the solutions in the posts you linked too thanks

theasmitkid

Member

From: NCT of Delhi

Registered: 2025-01-26

Posts: 345

Re: Broadcom BCM43142 problems - broadcom-sta-common/dkms not working

Seems like this package isn't available in plain debian, hence not in Q4OS either

Try reinstalling broadcom-sta-common and broadcom-sta-dkms

Last edited by theasmitkid (2025-10-12 06:31)

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Coding & Robotics Enthusiast | Brave & Spck Editor @ Lenovo Tab 4 8 · Android 8.1 · 2GB · 16GB

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 6,107

Website

Re: Broadcom BCM43142 problems - broadcom-sta-common/dkms not working

@marek
You only need to install "linux-headers-amd64" package. Now run in terminal:
$ sudo apt --reinstall install linux-headers-amd64 broadcom-sta-common broadcom-sta-dkms
It will build the broadcom kernel modules for you.

We don't recommend to build or install modules from other source than vanilla Debian as suggested above.

See also https://wiki.debian.org/wl

Last edited by q4osteam (2025-10-11 22:37)

marek

Member

Registered: 2025-10-11

Posts: 10

Re: Broadcom BCM43142 problems - broadcom-sta-common/dkms not working

@marek
You only need to install "linux-headers-amd64" package. Now run in terminal:
$ sudo apt --reinstall install linux-headers-amd64 broadcom-sta-common broadcom-sta-dkms
It will build the broadcom kernel modules for you.

We don't recommend to build or install modules from other source than vanilla Debian as suggested above.

See also https://wiki.debian.org/wl

Thank you so much!

Now this is why I use Q4OS

marek

Member

Registered: 2025-10-11

Posts: 10

Re: Broadcom BCM43142 problems - broadcom-sta-common/dkms not working

@marek
You only need to install "linux-headers-amd64" package. Now run in terminal:
$ sudo apt --reinstall install linux-headers-amd64 broadcom-sta-common broadcom-sta-dkms
It will build the broadcom kernel modules for you.

We don't recommend to build or install modules from other source than vanilla Debian as suggested above.

See also https://wiki.debian.org/wl

This fixed it, I'm curious though, why are there only a handful of wireless networks available and all have (RSN) beside the name?

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,560

Re: Broadcom BCM43142 problems - broadcom-sta-common/dkms not working

RSN = Robust Security Network.
About 10 years ago new security standards were introduced to counter the weaknesses in the old WEP key system. The problem with WEP was that it was a non-standard standard - if you get my drift - and had a number of weaknesses.
It took a long time for RSN specification to be agreed by the IEEE group and so in the meantime the Wifi Alliance came up with WPA - which is a bit like RSN but without some of the bells and whistles which caused the delay in the first place.
If you want to know more I suggest you do a bit if digging with your favourite search engine.

marek

Member

Registered: 2025-10-11

Posts: 10

Re: Broadcom BCM43142 problems - broadcom-sta-common/dkms not working

RSN = Robust Security Network.
About 10 years ago new security standards were introduced to counter the weaknesses in the old WEP key system. The problem with WEP was that it was a non-standard standard - if you get my drift - and had a number of weaknesses.
It took a long time for RSN specification to be agreed by the IEEE group and so in the meantime the Wifi Alliance came up with WPA - which is a bit like RSN but without some of the bells and whistles which caused the delay in the first place.
If you want to know more I suggest you do a bit if digging with your favourite search engine.

Ah thanks!