interesting… I was not aware of that. good to know; thank you!

yeah, ubuntu’s good for that. annual LTS cycles (used by distros like ubuntu and debian) are exactly how to sidestep the issue I’m referring to

True. but you have to keep a much closer eye on when it’s safe to update. that was my solution while running Debian Sid (unstable) on my other MacBook for awhile (I really wanted KDE 6 before Trixie was officially released), but believe me this approach gets old. I eventually relented and set it to Debian Stable once Trixie was official. I’m looking for a more stable approach to a rolling release cycle that allows the kernel to upgrade when it’s available, without also breaking the wifi. another commenter suggested the broadcom module might be replaced by the intel iwd driver, which I definitely need to try.

Please do! For stability’s sake, I recommend installing a distro that follows an annual, stable release cycle such as Debian or Linux Mint. Mint famously has the required support for most hardware right out of the box, allowing for a easy experience.

very possibly! I’m not 100% certain what is actually breaking there that seemingly gets solved after “some time” has passed. you might be on to something!

Sorry, I think you misunderstood me. My point is that holding back the kernel indefinitely is an issue, especially in a rolling release distro. the broadcom module is always significantly behind the kernel, so allowing the kernel to upgrade in a rolling release cycle will frequently break wifi that relies on that module. However, another commenter has suggested that broadcom module might be replaced by the intel iwd driver, which I’m definitely going to try.

you certainly make a good point, and replacing the hardware has definitely been a popular suggestion. fwiw, this MB Air was just a free hand-me-down, so I’m specifically using it to distro hop and fart around with different Linux distros on old Mac hardware that I have no attachment to

Interesting. I actually tested Endeavour OS on this MB Air specifically (as well as my main MB Pro, but several years back) and the wifi was not natively supported out of the box. I was able to get it working by installing the broadcom module, but it still broke with the next kernel update. Another commenter has suggested replacing the broadcom driver with Intel iwd; I need to give that a shot. Endeavour seems a very approachable way to run Arch on MacBook hardware if I can solve this wifi problem more permanently.

I was not even aware there was an alternate driver option. I definitely need to look into that; thanks!

indeed, distros that follow an annual LTS cycle definitely avoid the issue

yeah, a common suggestion has been to just replace the hardware.

Yeah, Mint is based on Ubuntu LTS, which follows an annual release cycle. That’s precisely how to avoid this issue.

a common suggestion has been to replace the hardware. my intent here was just to shed some light on the fact that kernel updates frequently break modules like this one, which I suspect folks with more compatible hardware may not be as aware of. if you buy Linux-friendly hardware to begin with, Linux life is super chill. That’s not always the case with old, hand-me-down hardware though.

that’s a fair point I hadn’t really considered. it’s a kinda dumb reason to roll dual wifi hardware and I’d hate to give up one of only two usb ports, but that would technically solve my complaint. def worth considering!

yeah, distros with LTS release cycles are exactly how to address this issue. I just wanna play more with rolling releases and atomic distros, lol

good to hear! my interest in Fedora was largely aimed at Bazzite, so I didn’t really test vanilla Fedora

I don’t see much love for Debian Stable + KDE in this thread, but that’s what I installed for my wife and she absolutely loves it. Don’t underestimate the power of a “boring” but rock solid foundation specifically designed not to break. Users new to Linux migrating away from Windows often really appreciate that.

FWIW I’ve got the wife happily running Debian + KDE on her (formerly win10) laptop and she absolutely loves it. I just helped her upgrade from bookworm 12 to trixie 13 and all went smoothly, solidifying her approval.

I intend to get a Fairphone 5 or 6 and test-drive Ubuntu Touch on it, hoping to daily drive it… but it’s all theoretical at this point. If I can’t get a real Linux distro to do everything I want reliably, Lineage OS is my fallback plan. I believe in the Fairphone mission, so that’ll be my next hardware purchase either way