Problem Description: I installed 25.10 on a 2015 11” MacBook Air. Initially the wireless adapter didn’t work, but eventually got it working with broadcom-sta-dkms - all good. Then I decided to switch to 24.04.3 LTS. Same steps followed to try and get the wireless to work, but whatever I try it won’t do it! The hardware is identical, so logic would suggest it’s in the OS.
The persistent error message is with the bcmwl-kernel-source and broadcom-sta-dkms with error exit status 10. I followed steps from search results purging, reinstalling and reconfiguring, but the same results. In Software&Updates in the tab Additional Drivers I see that “Using dkms source for the Broadcom STA wireless driver from broadcom-sta-dkms (proprietary)” is selected.
I’m trying to figure out what is going on, but it’s not a real issue (I want to use this machine with Ubuntu to learn, not dependent on it so I can switch over to 25.10 and I have other systems to use).
Also as I’m new to Ubuntu/linux/command line, so apologies in advance for any newbie stupid remarks!
Thank you for taking the time if you got here.
bcmwl-kernel-source is a transitional package that only serves to pull in broadcom-sta-dkms as a dependency. It can be safely uninstalled.
The issue in 24.04.3’s broadcom-sta-dkms package is that the source code fails to compile the kernel module for 6.17.0-14 and that, in turn, causes the kernel package installation to fail, but not completely. It apparently leaves the package in an unpacked, but unconfigured state. Unfortunately, an init image was generated and grub was updated with an entry pointing to the half-installed kernel which caused problems when trying to boot it. At least, that’s my understanding of the issue.
There is an updated broadcom-sta-dkms in the noble-proposed repository (aka proposed-pocket) that was published in early October of last year and has been languishing there ever since. I can confirm that the source code of that package compiles with 6.17.0-14 and with a few warnings. I don’t have the hardware to test the functionality of the built kernel module, though. Hopefully, it won’t take too much longer to move the package from -proposed to -update and get the fix to users.
Heh, I thought encouraging new users to install packages from other Ubuntu releases as workaround solutions was frowned upon. Is this not the case, anymore?
Personally, I’m all for aiding users to get their systems up and running correctly with practical solutions even if they’re not officially recommended. Particularly if no official solution is available yet and with no ETA given for it.
According to the bug report, testing has not been completed for the package in proposed, though. It compiles, but functionality hasn’t been tested yet apparently.
Plus, I think for a new user, enabling proposed would be more dangerous that selectively picking a package from another release and installing it. Particularly, given the fact that questing’s dkms package is virtually identical (save for the package version info) to noble-proposed and given that it’s proven to work on 25.10 with OP’s hardware. I think your initial post was the correct solution. I just asked for clarification because I’d seen that approach discouraged in other posts.
And I guess it’s still discouraged. Just want to be straight on that.
Thank you for your reply! I would be willing to try a possible solution if you could send it to me (plus a little hint on how to apply). As I mentioned, this is a learning experience for me and I know that I can install 25.10 and get the WiFi to work, so no-risk for me…
Also, if this could benefit this community then it would be a nice bonus.
I have exactly the same problem on an iMac 14.1 with a fresh install of Ubuntu 24.04.03. My Broadcom 4360 internal Wifi adapter is not active by default. Trying to add the correct driver with the according app fails with an error code return.
When I try to manually set-up the driver with “sudo apt install broadcom-sta-dkms”, I got another error
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 6.17.0-14-generic (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/broadcom-sta/6.30.223.271/build/make.log for more information.
The content of make.log is the following.
DKMS make.log for broadcom-sta-6.30.223.271 for kernel 6.17.0-14-generic (x86_64)
Thu 8 Feb 19:43:02 GMT 2026
CFG80211 API is prefered for this kernel version
Makefile:91: Neither CFG80211 nor Wireless Extension is enabled in kernel
KBUILD_NOPEDANTIC=1 make -C /lib/modules/6.17.0-14-generic/build M=`pwd`
make[1]: warning: jobserver unavailable: using -j1. Add '+' to parent make rule.
make[1]: Entering directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-6.17.0-14-generic'
make[2]: Entering directory '/var/lib/dkms/broadcom-sta/6.30.223.271/build'
warning: the compiler differs from the one used to build the kernel
The kernel was built by: x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc-13 (Ubuntu 13.3.0-6ubuntu2~24.04) 13.3.0
You are using: gcc-13 (Ubuntu 13.3.0-6ubuntu2~24.04) 13.3.0
CFG80211 API is prefered for this kernel version
Using CFG80211 API
Kernel architecture is X86_64
CC [M] src/shared/linux_osl.o
src/shared/linux_osl.c:23:10: fatal error: typedefs.h: No such file or directory
23 | #include <typedefs.h>
| ^~~~~~~~~~~~
compilation terminated.
make[4]: *** [/usr/src/linux-headers-6.17.0-14-generic/scripts/Makefile.build:287: src/shared/linux_osl.o] Error 1
make[3]: *** [/usr/src/linux-headers-6.17.0-14-generic/Makefile:2016: .] Error 2
make[2]: *** [/usr/src/linux-headers-6.17.0-14-generic/Makefile:248: __sub-make] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory '/var/lib/dkms/broadcom-sta/6.30.223.271/build'
make[1]: *** [Makefile:248: __sub-make] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-6.17.0-14-generic'
make: *** [Makefile:183: all] Error 2
I think I’m experiencing the same problem; would someone be willing to suggest how to set up the package selection such that kernel 6.17.0-14 is not partially installed, until such time as the noble-proposed update to broadcom-sta-dkms is available? Or, to put it another way, can you suggest what to do such that apt will not install a grub entry for 6.17.0-14 until that update is available?
Hello Jeremy31.
Thank you for your answer. I am sorry but I do not understand your reply. Is there aynyway for me as an ubuntu user to “enable proposed in Software and Updates to pull that fix” ?
Or you could search for broadcom-sta-dkms_6.30.223.271-23ubuntu1.2_all.deb as that is the version in noble-proposed repos and builds without error on kernel 6.17.0-14-generic for me
thx, sounds easy, if I check what is installed I get :
apt list | grep broadcom
broadcom-sta-common/noble-updates,noble-updates 6.30.223.271-23ubuntu1.1 all
broadcom-sta-dkms/noble-updates,noble-updates,now 6.30.223.271-23ubuntu1.1 all [geïnstalleerd]
broadcom-sta-source/noble-updates,noble-updates 6.30.223.271-23ubuntu1.1 all
you refer to version xxxubuntu1.2 ; I have 1.1 installed. When I check (after sudo apt update)
apt search broadcom-sta
I get only the version 1.1 available :
broadcom-sta-common/noble-updates,noble-updates 6.30.223.271-23ubuntu1.1 all
Common files for the Broadcom STA Wireless driver
broadcom-sta-dkms/noble-updates,noble-updates,now 6.30.223.271-23ubuntu1.1 all [geïnstalleerd]
dkms source for the Broadcom STA Wireless driver
broadcom-sta-source/noble-updates,noble-updates 6.30.223.271-23ubuntu1.1 all
Source for the Broadcom STA Wireless driver
You should be able to enable proposed repos in Software and Updates, then in terminal sudo apt update && sudo apt install broadcom-sta-dkms=6.30.223.271-23ubuntu1.2 after that I would disable the proposed repos so you don’t get more updates from proposed than needed
Jeremy, thank you very very much, it all works like a charm now. Kernel Linux 6.17.0-14-generic has build without errors now and running Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS, great!
