Package: broadcom-sta-dkms Version: 6.30.223.271-20 Severity: important X-Debbugs-Cc: boratanmay00...@gmail.com
-- System Information: Debian Release: bookworm/sid APT prefers unstable APT policy: (500, 'unstable') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Kernel: Linux 5.18.0-3-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU threads; PREEMPT) Kernel taint flags: TAINT_PROPRIETARY_MODULE, TAINT_WARN, TAINT_OOT_MODULE, TAINT_UNSIGNED_MODULE Locale: LANG=en_IN, LC_CTYPE=en_IN (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_IN:en Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system) LSM: AppArmor: enabled Versions of packages broadcom-sta-dkms depends on: ii dkms 3.0.3-4 Versions of packages broadcom-sta-dkms recommends: ii wireless-tools 30~pre9-13.1 broadcom-sta-dkms suggests no packages. -- no debconf information After installing "broadcom-sta-dkms" package and running the modprobe commands provided in the Debian wiki for "wl", the WiFi starts working for that instance but as soon as you reboot(or shutdown and start again) the WiFi stops working(the module is not loaded) and even the modprobe commands have no effect. So after this, I tried doing 'dpkg-reconfigure broadcom-sta-dkms' and running the modprobe commands after that but it had no effect. I removed the package using apt, rebooted my PC, reinstalled the package again and did the modprobe commands and the WiFi started working. But again after a reboot or shutdown the WiFi stopped working. I did the same procedure of reinstalling the package again, but this time I noticed while installing the package that the REMAKE_INITRD was present in the dkms conf but was deprecated and not followed so I regenerated the initrd manually using "update-initramfs -c -k all" and even after a reboot or shutdown the module was loaded and the WiFi was working. -- Solution The initrd should be regenerated automatically somehow after installing the package as it was done before REMAKE_INITRD was deprecated. If this is not possible then a note or something should be added to the Debian wiki page of 'wl'. -- Also I have a question related to this As far as I know the initrd contains the most basic drivers like ext4, etc. to get the root filesystem mounted and once that is done other modules can be loaded dynamically by the kernel from the filesystem. Then why is the 'wl' driver required in the initrd image and why isn't it loaded automatically /dynamically by the kernel when it is installed and available.(I am asking this here because the maintainers of this driver are the ones who would know about this). Thank You!
