broadcom-sta patched for Linux 6.17+

Broadcom STA wireless driver (wl) version 6.30.223.271, patched to compile and run on Linux kernel 6.17+.

Fixes WiFi on MacBook Pro 2015 (and other Macs) running Linux with kernel 6.17+.

Based on broadcom-sta-dkms 6.30.223.271-23ubuntu1.1 from Ubuntu non-free.

Tested On

• MacBook Pro Mid-2015 (MacBookPro11,5) — BCM4360, Ubuntu 24.04, kernel 6.17.0-14-generic

Supported Hardware

Any device supported by the original broadcom-sta driver, including:

Chip	PCI ID	Found in
BCM4360	14e4:43a0	MacBook Pro 2013–2015, iMac 2013–2015
BCM43602	14e4:43ba	MacBook Pro 2015–2016, MacBook Air 2015
BCM4352	14e4:43b1	MacBook Pro 2012–2013
BCM43228	14e4:4359	Various laptops
BCM4331	14e4:4331	MacBook Pro 2011–2012, MacBook Air 2011–2012

Full list in /usr/share/broadcom-sta/broadcom-sta.ids.

Keywords: MacBook Pro WiFi Linux 6.17, MacBook Air WiFi Linux, Apple Mac wireless not working Linux, broadcom-sta DKMS build failed kernel 6.17, BCM4360 Linux driver, wl driver kernel 6.17

Patches Applied

File	Change	Reason
Makefile	EXTRA_CFLAGS → ccflags-y, EXTRA_LDFLAGS → ldflags-y	Removed from kbuild in 6.17
wl_linux.c/h	ndo_do_ioctl → ndo_siocdevprivate	Required since kernel 5.15 for SIOCDEVPRIVATE
wl_linux.c	from_timer → timer_container_of	from_timer removed in 6.17
wl_linux.c	del_timer → timer_delete	del_timer removed in 6.17
wl_linux.c	Added #include <linux/timer.h>	No longer transitively included
linuxver.h	del_timer_sync → timer_delete	Same timer API rename
wl_cfg80211_hybrid.c	Added radio_idx param to set_wiphy_params, set_tx_power, get_tx_power	cfg80211 multi-radio API in 6.17
wl_cfg80211_hybrid.c	/* falls through */ → fallthrough;	-Wimplicit-fallthrough fix

Install

Option 1: Use pre-patched source (recommended)

# Copy source to DKMS location
sudo cp -r . /usr/src/broadcom-sta-6.30.223.271

# Build and install
sudo dkms install broadcom-sta/6.30.223.271

# Blacklist conflicting drivers and load wl
sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-wl.conf <<EOL
blacklist brcmfmac
blacklist bcma
blacklist b43
EOL

sudo modprobe -r brcmfmac bcma
sudo modprobe wl

Option 2: Patch existing broadcom-sta-dkms install

If you already have broadcom-sta-dkms installed from your distro's repos, you can patch it in-place:

sudo apt install broadcom-sta-dkms
sudo bash patch-and-build.sh

The script patches the source at /usr/src/broadcom-sta-6.30.223.271, rebuilds via DKMS, and tells you how to load the driver. All patches are idempotent (safe to run multiple times).

Option 3: Manual build

make KVER=$(uname -r)
sudo insmod wl.ko

License

The open-source wrapper code is licensed under the ISC License by Broadcom Corporation. The binary blobs (lib/wlc_hybrid.o_*) are proprietary. See source file headers for full license text.