u/spletharg

I wanted to share some of my process as a lifelong Mac User in setting up My Mac after a Linux install. I'm currently using Fedora KDE, so some of this applies specifically to that case, but stuff like the keyboard setup and other stuff might still be useful.

I'm not technically inclined, so if you read this and you see things that are wrong and need correcting, let me know and I'll try to correct them.

Intel Mac setup suggestions (using a Fedora KDE distro)

In my case it was an intel based MacBook Pro 11,2 Mid 2014 with a Broadcom BCM4360

BCM4360 802.11ac Dual Band Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:43a0] (rev 03) which uses a proprietary driver and doesn’t play well with most distros.

Step 1:

If your computer lacks an ethernet port and it has a Broadcom WiFi card, buy a cheap USB to ethernet connector and probably make sure you have an ethernet cable that can reach from your computer to your modem/ switch whatever.

Another alternative is to get a compatible wifi card or usb wifi dongle. Personally, I don’t like managing dongles or opening up the computer.

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Setting up a Modem Driver Blacklist

The following is for a Fedora KDE distro and is copied from an AI generated guide that worked for me:

If your computer has a Broadcom BCM4360 wifi card before you install the modem software, you will need to set up this Modem Blacklist to prevent other software from being installed that may interfere with the BCM4360 driver’s operation.

MacBook Pro (Late 2013) – Wi-Fi Driver Install Loop (BCM4360) & Tethering Issues

Broadcom BCM4360 on Linux

I tried adding them to a blacklist config file, since you can’t run blacklist as a command in the terminal.

blacklist is a kernel configuration setting, not a command. Your response doesn’t tell me much about what you are using. It is best if you provide the actual text – from long experience, new users often make spelling or permission mistakes so I have posted what has been working for me ever since my wife bought a new Apple Silicon system and gave me her old Intel iMac.

Here, with WiFI using broadcom-wl from rpmfusion:

% ls -l /lib/modules/*/extra/wl

/lib/modules/6.17.12-300.fc43.x86_64/extra/wl:

total 1464

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 1497200 Sep 17 21:00 wl.ko.xz

/lib/modules/6.18.3-200.fc43.x86_64/extra/wl:

total 1464

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 1498196 Sep 17 21:00 wl.ko.xz

and:

% ls -l /etc/modprobe.d/50-broadcom-wl-blacklist.conf

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 249 Jan 4 10:43 /etc/modprobe.d/50-broadcom-wl-blacklist.conf

% cat /etc/modprobe.d/50-broadcom-wl-blacklist.conf

# wireless drivers that conflict with Broadcom hybrid wireless driver 'wl'

# from: https://github.com/Vanco/broadcom-wl-aerynos

blacklist bcm43xx

blacklist ssb

blacklist b43

blacklist ndiswrapper

blacklist brcm80211

blacklist bcma

blacklist brcmsmac

Once everything is in place, reboot and check that the wl module is being loaded:

% lsmod | grep wl

wl 6524928 0

cfg80211 1544192 1 wl

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The following is for a Fedora KDE distro and is copied from an AI generated guide that worked for me:

Fedora: setting up the BCM4360 Driver

https://www.thetestspecimen.com/posts/broadcom-wifi-modules-fedora/

You should first make sure you are up to date

sudo dnf update

Then add the rpmfusion repositories

sudo dnf install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm https://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm

Get the broadcom drivers:

sudo dnf install kmod-wl akmods akmod-wl

sudo dnf kernel-devel akmod-wl kmod-wl broadcom-wl?

Check if you have kernel-devel installed. It should be, but if not this will install it for you.

sudo dnf install kernel-devel

Now reboot / restart your system

Once the system has booted and you have logged in again we need to check if the driver "broadcom-wl" has installed. Obviously the the actual driver version might be slightly different to the output below, but you should get a similar response

[testspecimen@localhost ~]$ rpm -qa | grep broadcom-wl

broadcom-wl-6.30.223.271-1.fc22.noarch

Run modprobe

sudo modprobe wl

Check that akmods can be run

[testspecimen@localhost ~]$ sudo akmods

Checking kmods exist for 4.17.19-200.fc28.x86_64 [ OK ]

There is a chance that you will get a warning that "files needed for building modules against kernel could not be found" and "Is the correct kernel devel package installed?". If that is the case don't worry, just continue.

We then need to check that the kernel-devel package in the system is the same as the kernel-devel package installed with the $(uname -r) kernel of your system. First check the system:

[testspecimen@localhost ~]$ ls /usr/src/kernels/

4.17.19-200.fc28.x86_64

then the $(uname -r)

[testspecimen@localhost ~]$ uname -r

4.17.19-200.fc28.x86_64

If they are the same you can skip to the "Load the "wl" module" part just after the system restart in red below, otherwise you need to do the following

You now need to install the correct kernel devel for your system. This is the version that was output when you ran the "uname -r" command. Go to the following website:

Kernel Devel RPM files

You then need to find the correct rpm file for your system for example in my case it would be:

kernel-devel-4.17.19-200.fc28.x86_64.rpm

...and download the file.

Once downloaded (I am assuming you will download the file to the Downloads folder) run the following commands replacing the rpm file name with the correct one for your system that you just downloaded

[testspecimen@localhost ~]$ cd ~/Downloads

[testspecimen@localhost Downloads]$ sudo rpm -Uvh --force kernel-devel-4.17.19-200.fc28.x86_64.rpm

Preparing... ################################# [100%]

Updating / installing...

1:kernel-devel-4.17.19-200.fc28 ################################# [50%]

Cleaning up / removing...

2:kernel-devel-4.17.19-200.fc28 ################################# [100%]

Run akmods again

[testspecimen@localhost ~]$ sudo akmods

Checking kmods exist for 4.17.19-200.fc28.x86_64 [ OK ]

Building and installing wl-kmod [ OK ]

Reboot / restart the system

Load the "wl" module

sudo modprobe wl

Check "wl" is loaded

[testspecimen@localhost ~]$ lsmod | grep wl

wl 6463488 0

cfg80211 770048 3 wl,rtlwifi,mac80211

Check that module "wl" is used as a wifi adapter. Please note that the terminal will output a lot of different components like the one below, so you will have to search for the wireless controller specifically.

[testspecimen@localhost ~]$ lspci -v

05:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries BCM4352 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 03)

Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 855c

Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16

Memory at dfa00000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32K]

Memory at df800000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2M]

Capabilities: <access denied>

Kernel driver in use: wl

Kernel modules: bcma, wl

At this point unplug the temporary wifi card you are using or unplug the hardwired connection you are using. Then we can get a list of networks up

[testspecimen@localhost ~]$ nmcli dev wifi list

IN-USE SSID MODE CHAN RATE SIGNAL BARS SECURITY

OnePlus5 Infra 11 130 Mbit/s 95 ▂▄▆█ WPA2

COSMOTE-F0CEBB Infra 6 270 Mbit/s 57 ▂▄▆_ WPA1 WPA2

COSMOTE-0EF1CE Infra 11 270 Mbit/s 35 ▂▄__ WPA1 WPA2

conn-x71aa38 Infra 4 135 Mbit/s 34 ▂▄__ WPA1

Then you can connect to the wifi network of your choice

[testspecimen@localhost ~]$ nmcli dev wifi con "your_ssid" password "your_ssid_password"

That should be it!

Let me know if it worked for you, and if so which driver it worked for so I can create a working list for other people to reference.

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Installing the Broadcom 4360 Driver on Fedora 44 (from DuckDuckGo AI)

Note: for Ubuntu - based distros, you might benefit from reading

https://github.com/hsnuc09/bcm4360-fix

To successfully install the Broadcom 4360 driver on Fedora 44, follow these steps:

Step 1: Add RPM Fusion Repositories

You need to enable the RPM Fusion repositories, which provide the necessary drivers. Run the following commands in your terminal:

Enable Free Repository:

bash

sudo dnf install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm

Enable Non-Free Repository:

bash

sudo dnf install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm

Step 2: Install the Broadcom Driver

After adding the repositories, install the Broadcom driver using the following command:

bash

sudo dnf install kmod-wl akmod-wl broadcom-wl

Step 3: Reboot Your System

Once the installation is complete, reboot your system to apply the changes:

bash

Wait a few minutes

sudo reboot

Additional Notes

Ensure you have an active internet connection during the installation process, as it may require downloading additional packages.

If you encounter issues, check that the kernel-devel package matches your current kernel version.

Following these steps will help you set up the Broadcom 4360 driver on Fedora 44 effectively.

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Mac-like Keyboard setup

System settings: Keyboard:

Keyboard Model: Apple Aluminium (ISO) (you’re welcome to try others though)

System settings: Key Bindings:

Ctrl Position: Swap Left Win with Left Ctrl

Shortcuts: setup Cut, copy, paste, close, quit

To set up the keyboard shortcut for switching open apps, search for “Walk through Windows Alternative” and customise them once you find them. You might have to disable some of the other “Walk through Windows” shortcuts.

To set up the keyboard shortcut for switching through the windows of the current app you are using, search for “Walk through Windows of current Application” and customise them once you find them.

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Macifying Konsole Keyboard Shortcuts

Launch Konsole: go into Menu: Settings: Configure Keyboard Shortcuts

Customise shortcuts for copy, paste, Close session, Close window.