TP-Link T6E (Broadcom BCM4352) Wi-Fi not working on Ubuntu

appsy · March 19, 2026, 12:30pm

Hi there, I am pretty much experiencing the same predicament as jwmullins, I am also a similar age! After many years of getting screwed over by Microsoft, I decided to explore Ubuntu and I am liking it. I started by installing on a laptop and it was trouble free and works perfectly. Late I tried installing it on a PC and it was a challenge! The fun started when I started installing as dual boot with windows (just in case of problems}. It would not install as dual boot so I bit the bullet and installed as a clean install, and it worked eventually. During the install I encountered the issue with the wifi card so used a wired connection. So, now, despite all of the attempted solutions, I am still unable to connect to the TP Link T6E. I can see the Broadcom driver in “Additional Drivers” but it seems like I am the only one! I was receiving advice fro Askubuntu a few days ago but they have lost interest and no advice is forthcoming. Attached is a screen shot showing the latest errors encountered. Please help, I am desperate! Regards

hydn · March 19, 2026, 9:39pm

Welcome to the forum @appsy

TP-Link T6E uses a Broadcom BCM4352 chip, and the broadcom-sta driver has had a rocky history with newer kernels.

The error says broadcom-sta-dkms package failed to build against your running kernel (6.17.0-14-generic), which means the wl module never got installed = modprobe: FATAL: Module wl not found.

The stale crash file tripped up the build. You should be able to clear that and rebuild cleanly:

sudo rm -f /var/crash/broadcom-sta-dkms.0.crash
sudo apt remove --purge bcmwl-kernel-source broadcom-sta-dkms
sudo apt install broadcom-sta-dkms

If the DKMS build fails again, check the actual build log for the real error:

sudo cat /var/lib/dkms/broadcom-sta/6.30.223.271/build/make.log

Once the package installs cleanly load the module:

sudo modprobe wl

Then check if the interface appears:

ip link show

If the DKMS build keeps failing on 6.17, the open-source brcmfmac driver is worth trying as an alternative]). It’s in-kernel and doesn’t need DKMS at all.

Please let us know what the make.log shows if you’re still stuck.

appsy · March 20, 2026, 2:56pm

Hi Hydyn, thank you for the prompt response. I followed your advice and received confusing results. I am trying to include a screen shot of results showing the errors but it doesn’t want let me attach the file!

hydn · March 20, 2026, 2:57pm

Hi @appsy I’ve bumped your trust level up to TL1 so you can upload images/screenshots.

appsy · March 21, 2026, 12:54am

HI Hydyn, thank you for that but, it still won’t let me upload the screenshot.

hydn · March 21, 2026, 1:07am

What’s the file extension that you are trying to upload? .png, .jpg?

appsy · March 21, 2026, 1:23am

Hi, the file I am trying to send is a .jpg

appsy · March 21, 2026, 1:25am

The file is in a Google Drive folder, could that be the cause of problem?

hydn · March 21, 2026, 2:36am

Probably. I tested uploads with a test user and seems to be fine.

appsy · March 21, 2026, 4:21am

Okay, I downloaded to my machine so, I will try again.

Yay!

hydn · March 21, 2026, 3:07pm

Thanks for getting that make.log.

The actual failure is:

src/shared/linux_osl.c:23:10: fatal error: typedefs.h: No such file or directory

The broadcom-sta driver is incompatible with kernel 6.17. It’s a known upstream issue – the driver hasn’t been updated to match changes in recent kernel headers.

At this point I’d skip broadcom-sta entirely and try the in-kernel brcmfmac driver instead:

sudo modprobe -r wl
sudo modprobe brcmfmac

Then check if the interface appears:

ip link show

If brcmfmac loads cleanly, run:

nmcli device status

…and let us know what you see. If it shows your Wi-Fi adapter, you should be able to connect from there through Network Manager.

Edit:

I did some searching. Looks like a fix has been accepted into Ubuntu’s noble-proposed pocket. If you want to try it before it lands in the stable repo:

bashsudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-proposed/noble
sudo apt update
sudo apt install broadcom-sta-dkms

Otherwise, the safer path right now is to use brcmfmac as mentioned earlier because it’s in-kernel, no DKMS required, and works on 6.17.

There’s also a community-patched version of the driver on GitHub (GitHub - Nurozen/broadcom-sta-6.17: Broadcom STA wireless driver (wl) patched for Linux kernel 6.17+ — BCM4360, BCM43602, BCM4352, etc. · GitHub) if you specifically need the wl driver for some reason.

appsy · March 22, 2026, 2:12am

Still no joy! Here is the resultant screen shot.

olivia11 · March 22, 2026, 7:10am

Looks frustrating have you tried booting in recovery mode or checking if the display drivers need reinstallation

appsy · March 22, 2026, 7:49am

It sure is. I haven’t performed those checks. Do you think it would help?

appsy · March 24, 2026, 4:08am

Hi People, I attempted Olivia’s suggestions and received this rather lengthy screen.$ sudo apt install linux-modules-extra-$(uname -r)
[sudo] password for appsy:
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree… Done
Reading state information… Done
linux-modules-extra-6.17.0-14-generic is already the newest version (6.17.0-14.14~24.04.1).
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 21 not to upgrade.
6 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Setting up linux-image-6.17.0-19-generic (6.17.0-19.19~24.04.2) …
Setting up broadcom-sta-dkms (6.30.223.271-23ubuntu1.1) …
Removing old broadcom-sta-6.30.223.271 DKMS files…
Deleting module broadcom-sta-6.30.223.271 completely from the DKMS tree.
Loading new broadcom-sta-6.30.223.271 DKMS files…
Building for 6.17.0-14-generic 6.17.0-19-generic
Building initial module for 6.17.0-14-generic
ERROR: Cannot create report: [Errno 17] File exists: ‘/var/crash/broadcom-sta-dkms.0.crash’
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.
dpkg: error processing package broadcom-sta-dkms (–configure):
installed broadcom-sta-dkms package post-installation script subprocess returne
d error exit status 10
Setting up linux-headers-6.17.0-19-generic (6.17.0-19.19~24.04.2) …
/etc/kernel/header_postinst.d/dkms:

dkms: running auto installation service for kernel 6.17.0-19-generic
Sign command: /usr/bin/kmodsign
Signing key: /var/lib/shim-signed/mok/MOK.priv
Public certificate (MOK): /var/lib/shim-signed/mok/MOK.der

Building module:
Cleaning build area…
make -j4 KERNELRELEASE=6.17.0-19-generic KVER=6.17.0-19-generic…(bad exit stat
us: 2)
ERROR: Cannot create report: [Errno 17] File exists: ‘/var/crash/broadcom-sta-dk
ms.0.crash’
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 6.17.0-19-generic (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/broadcom-sta/6.30.223.271/build/make.log for more informat
ion.
dkms autoinstall on 6.17.0-19-generic/x86_64 failed for broadcom-sta(10)
Error! One or more modules failed to install during autoinstall.
Refer to previous errors for more information.

dkms: autoinstall for kernel 6.17.0-19-generic
…fail!
run-parts: /etc/kernel/header_postinst.d/dkms exited with return code 11
dpkg: error processing package linux-headers-6.17.0-19-generic (–configure):
installed linux-headers-6.17.0-19-generic package post-installation script subp
rocess returned error exit status 11
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of bcmwl-kernel-source:
bcmwl-kernel-source depends on broadcom-sta-dkms (= 6.30.223.271-23ubuntu1.1);
however:
Package broadcom-sta-dkms is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package bcmwl-kernel-source (–configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-headers-generic-hwe-24.
04:
linux-headers-generic-hwe-24.04 depends on linux-headers-6.17.0-19-generic; how
ever:
No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup erro
r from a previous failure.
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached
already
Package linux-headers-6.17.0-19-generic is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package linux-headers-generic-hwe-24.04 (–configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of linux-generic-hwe-24.04:
linux-generic-hwe-24.04 depends on linux-headers-generic-hwe-24.04 (= 6.17.0-19
.19~24.04.2); however:
Package linux-headers-generic-hwe-24.04 is not configured yet.

No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
dpkg: error proces
sing package linux-generic-hwe-24.04 (–configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for linux-image-6.17.0-19-generic (6.17.0-19.19~24.04.2) …
/etc/kernel/postinst.d/dkms:

dkms: running auto installation service for kernel 6.17.0-19-generic
Sign command: /usr/bin/kmodsign
Signing key: /var/lib/shim-signed/mok/MOK.priv
Public certificate (MOK): /var/lib/shim-signed/mok/MOK.der

Building module:
Cleaning build area…
make -j4 KERNELRELEASE=6.17.0-19-generic KVER=6.17.0-19-generic…(bad exit stat
us: 2)
ERROR: Cannot create report: [Errno 17] File exists: ‘/var/crash/broadcom-sta-dk
ms.0.crash’
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 6.17.0-19-generic (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/broadcom-sta/6.30.223.271/build/make.log for more informat
ion.
dkms autoinstall on 6.17.0-19-generic/x86_64 failed for broadcom-sta(10)
Error! One or more modules failed to install during autoinstall.
Refer to previous errors for more information.

dkms: autoinstall for kernel 6.17.0-19-generic
…fail!
run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/dkms exited with return code 11
dpkg: error processing package linux-image-6.17.0-19-generic (–configure):
installed linux-image-6.17.0-19-generic package post-installation script subpro
cess returned error exit status 11
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
Errors were encoun
tered while processing:
broadcom-sta-dkms
linux-headers-6.17.0-19-generic
bcmwl-kernel-source
linux-headers-generic-hwe-24.04
linux-generic-hwe-24.04
linux-image-6.17.0-19-generic
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

hydn · March 24, 2026, 7:23am

Hey @appsy just to steer things back on track. This issue is not related to display drivers or recovery mode.

Every error in your output is about broadcom-sta-dkms, which is the wireless (Wi-Fi) driver for your TP-Link T6E. None of it touches display/graphics.

The packages failing (broadcom-sta-dkms, bcmwl-kernel-source, linux-headers, linux-image) are all cascading from the broadcom-sta DKMS build being broken on kernel 6.17, which is the known bug I linked earlier.

First you should clean up dpkg so your system isn’t stuck:

sudo rm -f /var/crash/broadcom-sta-dkms.0.crash
sudo apt remove --purge broadcom-sta-dkms bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt install -f

The first command just removes a stale crash report file that’s getting in the way, nothing dangerous. Avoid typos.

Then try the in-kernel driver:

sudo modprobe brcmfmac
ip link show
nmcli device status

Post that output.

appsy · March 24, 2026, 8:02am

Hey Hayden, here you go: appsy@appsys-ubuntu:~$ sudo dpkg --configure -a
[sudo] password for appsy:
appsy@appsys-ubuntu:~$ sudo apt install -f
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree… Done
Reading state information… Done
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 21 not to upgrade.
appsy@appsys-ubuntu:~$ sudo modprobe brcmfmac
appsy@appsys-ubuntu:~$ ip link show
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: enp3s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
link/ether 30:85:a9:ed:f3:08 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
appsy@appsys-ubuntu:~$ nmcli device status
DEVICE TYPE STATE CONNECTION
enp3s0 ethernet connected netplan-enp3s0
lo loopback connected (externally) lo
appsy@appsys-ubuntu:~$

hydn · March 24, 2026, 10:22am

If broadcom-sta is now purged, follow Option 1 from this community-patched driver that builds on kernel 6.17.l:

…your BCM4352 is listed as supported.

After you’re done, run nmcli device status and you should see a wireless interface.

If no luck you will have to build it manually.

appsy · March 26, 2026, 7:12am

Hi Hayden, I attempted option 1 and this is the result: ppsy@appsys-ubuntu:~$ sudo cp -r . /usr/src/broadcom-sta-6.30.223.271
[sudo] password for appsy:
appsy@appsys-ubuntu:~$ sudo dkms install broadcom-sta/6.30.223.271
sudo: dkms: command not found

hydn · March 26, 2026, 8:45am

Almost there! Just need to install dkms first:

sudo apt install dkms

Then run the install again:

sudo dkms install broadcom-sta/6.30.223.271

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TP-Link T6E (Broadcom BCM4352) Wi-Fi not working on Ubuntu

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