DW1820a - the general troubleshooting thread

[Pierre C.]

Hi there,

 I'm also trying to make my DW1820A (model CN-08PKF4) work under Catalina. After following the advices here, my Wifi is working, but can't connect to bluetooth devices. Like many of you it seems. Is there any new advice/solution in Feb 2020?

- My loaded BT firmware version is v7 c44689, although it looks like that BrcmPatchRAM is not able to connect to the device at boot time (see boot log bellow)
- On the kext site, I'm using BrcmPatchRAM-2.5.1-RELEASE in S/L (BrcmBluetoothInjector.kext, BrcmFirmwareRepo.kext and BrcmPatchRAM3.kext). I also tried first the vanilla / boot injection first with clover (swapping BrcmFirmwareRepo.kext with BrcmFirmwareData.kext) but same result.
- My device properties is as follows:

<key>PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1C,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x0)</key>
            <dict>
                <key>AAPL,slot-name</key>
                <string>WLAN</string>
                <key>compatible</key>
                <string>pci14e4,4353</string>
                <key>device_type</key>
                <string>Airport Extreme</string>
                <key>model</key>
                <string>Dell DW1820 (BCM4350) 802.11ac wireless</string>
                <key>name</key>
                <string>Airport</string>
                <key>pci-aspm-default</key>
                <integer>0</integer>
            </dict>

- My boot args are as follows:
 

<key>Arguments</key>
        <string>kext-dev-mode=1 amfi_get_out_of_my_way=1 dart=0 -igfxnohdmi brcmfx-country=#a rtcfx_exclude=56-58 brcmfx-driver=1</string>

- I didn't see any ASPM option to disable in my BIOS, but there is the pci-aspm-default/0 entry in clover. Is that enough?

 

What's less clear to me:
- I saw multiple advices on forums about checking USB? My System Informations says that BCM2045AO is "internal". Is that enough?
- Is there anything else I can try?

- The bluetooth part of the device never worked in Windows 10: it appears as "disconnect" from the system in the Device Explorer. So I was not able to upload the BT firmware via standard windows driver before rebooting in MacOS. Do you have any idea how to solve this under windows and what drivers did you use there?

 

Captures from System Info and IORegistryExplorer:

 

 

 

Boot log from BrcmPatchRAM:

Filtering the log data using "process == "kernel" AND composedMessage CONTAINS[c] "brcm""
Skipping info and debug messages, pass --info and/or --debug to include.
Timestamp                       (process)[PID]
2020-02-04 22:36:05.093980+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (IO80211Family) <IO80211Family`IO80211Controller::init(OSDictionary*)> AirPort_BrcmNIC::init AirPortFamily_kexts-1580.2 "AirPortFamily_kexts-1580.2" Jan  9 2020 21:50:21
2020-02-04 22:36:05.094015+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (AirPortBrcmNIC) <AirPortBrcmNIC`osl_iolog_withtimestamp> ARPT: 1.094012: AirPort_Brcm43XX:probe:, this[0x5726cc79de9f6595]  score[2048]
2020-02-04 22:36:05.094030+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (IO80211Family) <IO80211Family`IO80211Controller::init(OSDictionary*)> AirPort_BrcmNIC::init AirPortFamily_kexts-1580.2 "AirPortFamily_kexts-1580.2" Jan  9 2020 21:50:21
2020-02-04 22:36:05.094048+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (AirPortBrcmNIC) <AirPortBrcmNIC`osl_iolog_withtimestamp> ARPT: 1.094046: AirPort_Brcm43XX:probe:, this[0x5726cc79dfeca595]  score[1400]
2020-02-04 22:36:05.094060+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (IO80211Family) <IO80211Family`IO80211Controller::init(OSDictionary*)> AirPort_Brcm4360::init AirPortFamily_kexts-1580.2 "AirPortFamily_kexts-1580.2" Jan  9 2020 21:50:21
2020-02-04 22:36:05.094076+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (AirPortBrcm4360) <AirPortBrcm4360`osl_iolog_withtimestamp> ARPT: 1.094074: AirPort_Brcm43XX:probe:, this[0x8dfdfc16f0fb27f7]  score[1110]
2020-02-04 22:36:08.302842+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (IO80211Family) <IO80211Family`IO80211Controller::init(OSDictionary*)> AirPort_BrcmNIC::init AirPortFamily_kexts-1580.2 "AirPortFamily_kexts-1580.2" Jan  9 2020 21:50:21
2020-02-04 22:36:08.302895+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (IO80211Family) <IO80211Family`IO80211Controller::init(OSDictionary*)> AirPort_BrcmNIC::init AirPortFamily_kexts-1580.2 "AirPortFamily_kexts-1580.2" Jan  9 2020 21:50:21
2020-02-04 22:36:08.302919+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (IO80211Family) <IO80211Family`IO80211Controller::init(OSDictionary*)> AirPort_Brcm4360::init AirPortFamily_kexts-1580.2 "AirPortFamily_kexts-1580.2" Jan  9 2020 21:50:21
2020-02-04 22:36:08.302990+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (AirPortBrcm4360) <AirPortBrcm4360`osl_iolog_withtimestamp> ARPT: 5.398926: AirPort_Brcm43XX:probe:, this[0x8dfdfc16f0edf7f7]  score[1110]
2020-02-04 22:36:08.320802+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (kernel) BrcmPatchRAM: Version 2.5.1 starting on OS X Darwin 19.3.
2020-02-04 22:36:08.441690+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (AirPortBrcm4360) <AirPortBrcm4360`osl_iolog_withtimestamp> ARPT: 5.537627: BRCM tunables:
2020-02-04 22:36:08.942980+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (BrcmFirmwareRepo) <BrcmFirmwareRepo`BrcmFirmwareStore::loadFirmwareFile(char const*, char const*)> BrcmPatchRAM: Loaded firmware "BCM4350C5_003.006.007.0222.4689_v8785.zhx" from resources.
2020-02-04 22:36:08.943266+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (BrcmFirmwareRepo) <BrcmFirmwareRepo`BrcmFirmwareStore::loadFirmware(unsigned short, unsigned short, OSString*)> BrcmPatchRAM: Decompressed firmware (12582 bytes --> 31740 bytes).
2020-02-04 22:36:08.943524+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (BrcmFirmwareRepo) <BrcmFirmwareRepo`BrcmFirmwareStore::loadFirmware(unsigned short, unsigned short, OSString*)> BrcmPatchRAM: Firmware is valid IntelHex firmware.
2020-02-04 22:36:09.045125+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (kernel) BrcmPatchRAM: uploadFirmware could not open the device!
2020-02-04 22:36:09.045131+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (kernel) BrcmPatchRAM: Processing time 0.101 seconds.
2020-02-04 22:36:09.049014+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (kernel) BrcmPatchRAM: Version 2.5.1 starting on OS X Darwin 19.3.
2020-02-04 22:36:09.149684+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (kernel) BrcmPatchRAM: [0a5c:6412]: USB [F828196A1998 v274] "BCM2045A0" by "Broadcom Corp"
2020-02-04 22:36:09.152125+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (kernel) BrcmPatchRAM: [0a5c:6412]: Firmware upgrade not needed.
2020-02-04 22:36:09.152257+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (kernel) BrcmPatchRAM: Processing time 0.103 seconds.
2020-02-04 22:36:09.668802+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (IO80211Family) <IO80211Family`IO80211Controller::logDebug(char const*, ...)> AirPort_Brcm4360::getSSIDData(): Get failure: APPLE80211_IOC_SSID: 6
2020-02-04 22:36:12.820869+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (IO80211Family) <IO80211Family`IO80211VirtualInterface::init(IO80211Controller*, ether_addr*, unsigned int, char const*)> IO80211VirtualInterface::AirPort_Brcm4360_P2PInterface::init name <p2p0> role 1
2020-02-04 22:36:12.821841+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (IO80211Family) <IO80211Family`IO80211P2PInterface::init(IO80211Controller*, ether_addr*, unsigned int, char const*)> AirPort_Brcm4360_P2PInterface::init <p2p> role 1
2020-02-04 22:36:12.823553+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (IO80211Family) <IO80211Family`IO80211VirtualInterface::init(IO80211Controller*, ether_addr*, unsigned int, char const*)> IO80211VirtualInterface::AirPort_Brcm4360_P2PInterface::init name <awdl0> role 4
2020-02-04 22:36:12.823572+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (IO80211Family) <IO80211Family`IO80211P2PInterface::awdlAttachToBpf()> AirPort_Brcm4360_P2PInterface::awdlAttachToBpf name <awdl0> role 4 successful attach to bpf type 147
2020-02-04 22:36:12.839765+0100  localhost kernel[0]: (IO80211Family) <IO80211Family`IO80211P2PInterface::init(IO80211Controller*, ether_addr*, unsigned int, char const*)> AirPort_Brcm4360_P2PInterface::init <awdl> role 4

 

[Hervé]

 

[Pierre C.]

absolutely wonderful. Thanks for the help @Hervé. Now I need to understand why this particular version of the kexts works 

[The Riddle]

I was able to activate both wifi(096JNT) and bluetooth, but having an interference issue though, can't listen to a music from youtube when connected to a bluetooth speaker/headset. Using wireless connection clogs up bluetooth connection like crazy, can't even hear anything when benchmarking internet speed. What would you guys suggest in this situation? Injected wifi properties and followed Daliansky's tutorial(just bluetooth part). 

[Hervé]

That can happen when you're on a 2.4GHz wifi network. Nothing specific to the DW1820A I'm afraid. Bluetooth also operates on 2.4GHz. You could try and switch wifi to 5GHz or change channel on your router if at all possible.

[The Riddle]

But it doesnt happen on Windows, so it has to be something with mac os. The problem is coexistence if im not wrong, but couldnt find a single fix online. Like you said, switching to 5 ghz has a high chance of fixing the problem but we need to do something about the card.

[Pierre C.]

Maybe it will be relevant to your case, not sure : I noticed on my own setup that depending how the relevant kexts are installed, I'll have spotty bluetooth connection or not. On my end, if kexts are injected by Clover at boot then it works great, but if I install them in L/E then it looks like I have interferences. I haven't been able to find why though

[The Riddle]

 

Ill try clover injecting and report, thank you for helping. 

[The Riddle]

Nope, it doesn't matter where they are installed. Fixing perms and clearing caches make no difference.

[Pierre C.]

No luck then. Sorry  Do you know if it's the same version of the driver used in windows and macos ? In MacOS it's easy enough to know, you just press option-shift and click on the bt icon in your menubar.