Edit: https://lemmy.kde.social/post/1921123

I have this old '13 air. It’s outta support, so I run fedora instead of macos. It has BCM4630 for wireless (🖕 Broadcom), which had me manually install a rather unreliable driver to ever get it working. Yesterday I updated, and it can’t find any networks anymore.

Instead of messing with broadcom drivers anymore, I’d rather replace the hardware with something better. Has anyone here tried this? Know what will work both in linux and macos, if I were to pass this thing to someone else later?

  • LazaroFilm@lemmy.worldEnglish
    31·
    3 months ago

    What year and model is you computer? Have you looked into OpenCore Legacy Patcher?

    • sevon@lemmy.kde.socialOP
      2·
      3 months ago

      2013 Macbook Air as the post says. It’s some i5 board, can’t say anything more specific right now.

      Anyway, I’m also kind of done with software hassles on this one, and I also prefer linux, so I’d rather keep using it.

      • thefool@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        3 months ago

        Might be a bit late of a reply, but I was able to install the Broadcom drivers super easy on my 2013 MBP. I know, different laptop, but same driver.

        After installing Manjaro, KDE Neon, and Kubuntu, here’s what I did:

        I paired it with my phone and shared my internet connection, then downloaded the Broadcom driver in the repo. Done!

        I also installed Aurora (Fedora immutable distro) on it, and the Broadcom drivers were already installed, so it just worked, but every time my laptop went to sleep it crashed and I had to hold the power button to start it, so I gave up on that and installed Neon

        • sevon@lemmy.kde.socialOP
          3·
          3 months ago

          Initially installing them wasn’t a problem anyway, but rather the driver breaking. It feels good to trust the laptop a again.

          • thefool@sh.itjust.works
            2·
            3 months ago

            Huh that’s strange because I’ve never had the driver break on me.

            But I guess it means you’ve successfully installed the new card? Awesome