How to Set Up brcm rev 3 4364 t2 linux Easily for Beginners?

Today, I messed around with my old MacBook Pro again. It’s the 2019 16-inch model. I wanted to get Wi-Fi working on it under Linux, specifically with the Broadcom BCM4364 chip, which is a bit of a pain, to be honest.

First, I had to figure out what I was even dealing with. I remember this from back in May 2013 when I first messed with this thing. There was some kind of code to select, like “00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series SoC Transaction Register (rev 36)” or something. I think I saw this on a forum, maybe some T2 Linux place. I just need to get wireless up and running.

So, I started by getting the right firmware. Apparently, the usual Linux firmware packages don’t have what I need for this particular device. There was something mentioned about a “brcmfmac” driver, which is supposed to be the free and open-source one for this chip. I found some commands, something like “wget” followed by some address that looks like a bunch of random words, I think it was “**” but I can’t recall. It was on some forum, anyway.

Next, I had to copy the firmware files to the right place. This involved using the terminal, which, you know, isn’t too bad once you get used to it. There was a command to copy files from “/usr/lib” to “/lib/firmware/brcm” – or something like that. I remember seeing something similar on a Debian help page. It was about enabling support for these Broadcom chips.

• First, run some command in the terminal to get the files.
• Second, copy them over to “/lib/firmware/brcm.”
• Third, make sure the wireless SSID broadcast is enabled.

The whole process was a bit of a mess.

I was just copying and pasting commands, hoping for the best, you know? It felt like back in the day, just trial and error. But it worked! I got the Wi-Fi working. Now, every time I boot into Linux on this MacBook, the Wi-Fi is up and running, no problem.

I found that learning Linux isn’t that hard. I mean, if you’ve been around tech for a while, it’s pretty straightforward. Just takes a bit of time. It’s funny, though, all this messing around reminded me of a job I had years ago, but that’s a story for another time.