Manjaro ARM: enabling external monitors & fixing Broadcom WiFi after updating
#1
Hey all! First post here.

I'll keep it quick, but before I start I want to say that I have a workaround and I'm OK with it, although I'd like to have a "cleaner" solution in place if possible.

Long and short of it: Just received my Pinebook Pro a few days ago with Manjaro ARM. All was well until I found out that the version Manjaro I had didn't support external monitors at all, due to patch not being in mainline. Tried different monitors, different cables, rotating cables, etc. No dice.

So I switched to a custom kernel to fix that problem, however that knocked out my WiFi. OS wouldn't even acknowledge that hardware was there. I thought it may have been hardware failure until I starting finding errors about loading Broadcom firmware in dmesg.

I tried the usual suspects such as ensuring /boot was properly mounted, cold booting, privacy switch, etc. Nothing. Reverting back to the original kernel made no difference either.

After many hours of trial & error and searching for answers, I found a set of firmware files which worked when placed in the proper location, but it wasn't "plug-and-play" so to speak. Every time now when I want to use WiFi after booting, I have to use that "(un)bind" trick:

Code:
sudo tee /sys/bus/platform/drivers/dwmmc_rockchip/{un,}bind <<< 'fe310000.mmc'


I never touched the Broadcom firmware files before my kernel update and later before my reversion. Thought maybe something was compiled into the stock kernel to enable WiFi, so I can't explain why WiFi still didn't work when I reverted. So I could be missing something there.

I can have that command line above automatically run on boot, no problem.

Wanted to share my experience, help others out if they run into this, and also ask if there is anything I can do to not have to run that command on every boot.

I'm in a Good Place now, and still enjoying PBPro. Look forward to testing as my daily driver!
  Reply
#2
(11-01-2023, 09:05 AM)trifleneurotic Wrote: Hey all! First post here.

I'll keep it quick, but before I start I want to say that I have a workaround and I'm OK with it, although I'd like to have a "cleaner" solution in place if possible.

Long and short of it: Just received my Pinebook Pro a few days ago with Manjaro ARM. All was well until I found out that the version Manjaro I had didn't support external monitors at all, due to patch not being in mainline. Tried different monitors, different cables, rotating cables, etc. No dice.

So I switched to a custom kernel to fix that problem, however that knocked out my WiFi. OS wouldn't even acknowledge that hardware was there. I thought it may have been hardware failure until I starting finding errors about loading Broadcom firmware in dmesg.

I tried the usual suspects such as ensuring /boot was properly mounted, cold booting, privacy switch, etc. Nothing. Reverting back to the original kernel made no difference either.

After many hours of trial & error and searching for answers, I found a set of firmware files which worked when placed in the proper location, but it wasn't "plug-and-play" so to speak. Every time now when I want to use WiFi after booting, I have to use that "(un)bind" trick:

Code:
sudo tee /sys/bus/platform/drivers/dwmmc_rockchip/{un,}bind <<< 'fe310000.mmc'


I never touched the Broadcom firmware files before my kernel update and later before my reversion. Thought maybe something was compiled into the stock kernel to enable WiFi, so I can't explain why WiFi still didn't work when I reverted. So I could be missing something there.

I can have that command line above automatically run on boot, no problem.

Wanted to share my experience, help others out if they run into this, and also ask if there is anything I can do to not have to run that command on every boot.

I'm in a Good Place now, and still enjoying PBPro. Look forward to testing as my daily driver!

Thank you for posting this! I also have a PBPro and have been loving it!

I am on latest Manjaro Arm KDE - generic image.  WiFi and Bluetooth work great as long as I shutdown and then power on. It won't work if I reboot.
Unfortunately, I have been unable to hook up an external display via the usb-c output.

I'm wondering what you did to enable output to an external display.

What image are you using and what kernel are you using? 

Thanks again!
  Reply
#3
(11-05-2023, 01:25 PM)marty-mcfly Wrote: Thank you for posting this! I also have a PBPro and have been loving it!

I am on latest Manjaro Arm KDE - generic image.  WiFi and Bluetooth work great as long as I shutdown and then power on. It won't work if I reboot.
Unfortunately, I have been unable to hook up an external display via the usb-c output.

I'm wondering what you did to enable output to an external display.

What image are you using and what kernel are you using? 

Thanks again!

Hello!

Sorry for the late response.
I used this procedure to enable an external display, but just bear in mind my above experience Smile 

I think the answers to the other two questions you had are answered there as well, but I'm using Megi's kernel/image located here (using pbpro.tar.gz). but the version I'm using right now is 6.5.7-00508-gb1f5e9cc01a2.
  Reply


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