<< Solved >> I'm struggling with detecting my Fenvi T919 on my BigSur X299

[zabalex]

I just installed my Fenvi t919 on my newly built BigSur - X299-Designare EX.
Started BigSur - no internet. Started investigating, first thing I did was to disable PCH as it was instructed in some other forum post over here. No effect, the wifi is not working.
I'm attaching a screenshot

The Broadcom from the image above BCM43xx represents my Fenvi t919.

My Motherboard originally had an internal Intel Wifi card, I tried working around it, installing itlwm and heliport, it worked for a little bit, but then stopped.
This motherboard does not have an option in Bios to disable the internal wifi card, so I had to physically remove it.

I have a feeling that something is conflicting with my network, either there are some remains of itlwm.kext with HeliPort, or intelmauri or something else, and I don't know how to clean this up.

I tried using AirportBrcmFixup, with and without AirPortBrcm4360_Injector, no difference.
I tried moving the Fenvi card to a different PCI slot, same thing.

If anyone has experience resolving this network issue, please share.

 

[Edhawk]

Try adding AirportBrcmFixup.kext to your /OC/Kexts folder and config.plist.

I use ProperTree's Clean Snapshot feature when adding or removing a kext to my OC setup.

Then add this boot argument - brcmfx-driver=2 to your config.plist, to force Big Sur to load AirPortBrcmNIC.kext.

Link to kext here - https://github.com/acidanthera/AirportBrcmFixup

There is a really important section at the bottom of the page linked above, specifically related to Big Sur. Make sure you read it.

 

[zabalex]

Hello Edhawk,
Thank you so much for your recommendations and description.
I did the Clean Snapshot, for the first time actually, was afraid and all changes I was making were manual. Now I see the benefit, so thanks for that!
Now, I added the kext to the folder and generated the config.plist file, added the boot parameter.

Loaded my machine from this updated USB, still no internet. But, I did notice a few changes since the last time I did a screenshot:
PCI-entry disappeared (was there on the screenshot above):

and a few changes under a Wi-Fi:

I don't really know if it means anything (I highlighted what's changed from the first screenshot).

Let me ask you, in your comments you mention that it has a very important section specifically for BigSur users, I've read it, but I don't understand most of it. What does it mean removed/added/vendor-id:device-id/class-removed/main-info.plist??(what is main info.plist? I thought it was config.plist that is main)/2-injectors-deployed (names of kexts on those injectors don't match the file in the release download), etc-etc.
After re-reading the description trying to make sense of it, the main point is not to have AirPortBrcm4360_Injector.kext and I don't have this kext at all, so I should be all set. That's how I understood the message. But if I got it wrong, please help me with this config.

With your permission I'll share my private EFI file. If I need anything, please help me to patch it. I have a feeling I've messed something up before, and that killed my formally working intel/itlwm-heliport setup. I've spent time fixing that, and gave up. That's why I bought this Fenvi just to avoid further headache, and here I'm sadly sharing my headache with others, hopefully you could help to solve it ...

Thank you in advance for any assistance you could give.
Regards,

 

[Edhawk]

There used to be four Broadcom kexts that could be used with macOS. The lists on the page I linked refer to these kexts as they are available for each version of macOS. Big Sur only has one kext, Catalina had two and Mojave four. What happens each time a kext is removed is more Broadcom WiFi cards are losing native support.

AirPortBrcm4360_Injetor.kext is a sub-kext within AirportBrcmFixup.kext, which can be found within the /Contents/Plugin folder, as shown below:


Right-Click on the kext and select Show Contents from the menu displayed to reach the Contents folder.

So that paragraph was saying the Plugin kext needs to be removed from within AiportBrcmFixup.kext to work with macOS Big Sur.

I have attached a copy of the kext with the AirPortBrcm360_Injector.kext removed. Try booting with this in your /OC/Kexts folder. You should still use the boot argument.

IF you are not based in the US, you may need to use another boot argument brcmfx-country=XX where XX needs to be replaced by the two character code for the county you live in, e.g. US, GB, FR, DE, IT etc. I believe this boot argument makes the card more compliant with the WiFi Regulations for the country you live in.

 

[zabalex]

Thank you so much for your explanation, wow, I didn't realize that 1 kext can load others inside plugin. Anyway, I see what you mean now.
So I followed, replaced my kext with the updated one (with removed reference to airportbrcm360_injector...)
I keep the country as the US, which is correct for me.
Started the system from the USB with my recently patched EFI, and same result. This time no difference at all.

I did verify that the as.lvs1974.airportbrcmfixup (2.1.2) is loaded when I run kextstat | grep -i "name" here from the terminal. and no *360_injector is there in the output list.
Also double checked that I have the boot parameter from your message above.

What else could I check? Any other logs I could share with you or some debug dump file?

Please advise,

Thank you so much.

 

[Edhawk]

Did you also check that the AirPortBrcmNIC_Injector.kext was loaded.

 

[zabalex]

AirPortBrcmNIC_Injector.kext was loaded

No, it is not loaded, what is happening? based on my understanding it also suppose to be on the list sub-loaded as an independent plugin, right?

I've tried to optimize how to display or share the log file with you, in case you could spot something obvious, there's a service I found on the web that creates a log viewer:

CloudVyzor LogPad

cloudvyzor.com

I don't know if you'd be able to access it as well, or I need to have an account with them.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

No, it is not loaded, what is happening? based on my understanding it also suppose to be on the list sub-loaded as an independent plugin, right?

I've tried to optimize how to display or share the log file with you, in case you could spot something obvious, there's a service I found on the web that creates a log viewer:

CloudVyzor LogPad

cloudvyzor.com

I don't know if you'd be able to access it as well, or I need to have an account with them.

Hi there,

1) What happens when you try to turn-on Wi-Fi either from the menu-bar or System Prefs?

2) Vendor ID 0x14e4 is Broadcom's but if you use a Broadcom firmware kext the Device ID will change. As will the Locale, which as I understood it was the main reason for using them.

3) I assume Bluetooth is working Okay?

 

[zabalex]

Thank you UtterDisbelief for your message!
I'll start with #3, yes, it is working Okay I wish it was the other way around haha
I'll address #1 in more details. I see the icon on the top bar flicking 3 times, trying to turn on wifi, and failing, going into an icon of a wifi with a horizontal line across, then trying again, and failing again.
When I enter the system prefs and click on Turn-Wi-Fi-On, the Wi-Fi which is off with a little red dot next to it, jumps above other icons (all of which are with red dots btw), goes into yellow mode for about a second, then back to red. This repeats 3 times until it fails.

#2 I understood, makes sense. I've also read that the BCM43... is the Fenvi chip which is the one I'm trying to enable.

In any case, if there's anything else I could provide to ease with this debugging, please let me know.

Thank you to both of you guys!

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Thank you UtterDisbelief for your message!
I'll start with #3, yes, it is working Okay I wish it was the other way around haha
I'll address #1 in more details. I see the icon on the top bar flicking 3 times, trying to turn on wifi, and failing, going into an icon of a wifi with a horizontal line across, then trying again, and failing again.
When I enter the system prefs and click on Turn-Wi-Fi-On, the Wi-Fi which is off with a little red dot next to it, jumps above other icons (all of which are with red dots btw), goes into yellow mode for about a second, then back to red. This repeats 3 times until it fails.

#2 I understood, makes sense. I've also read that the BCM43... is the Fenvi chip which is the one I'm trying to enable.

In any case, if there's anything else I could provide to ease with this debugging, please let me know.

Thank you to both of you guys!

Okay. What type of PCIe slot is the Fenvi card in?

As the card is being recognised by the OS a hardware issue is a possibilty, or ...

Do you dual-boot?