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Use BCMDHD SDIO for Orange Pi 5 Pro AP6256 Wi-Fi#1343

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Use BCMDHD SDIO for Orange Pi 5 Pro AP6256 Wi-Fi#1343
cagedbird043 wants to merge 1 commit into
Joshua-Riek:mainfrom
cagedbird043:fix-orangepi5pro-ap6256-bcmdhd

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@cagedbird043 cagedbird043 commented Apr 11, 2026

Summary

  • install bcmdhd-sdio-dkms for the Orange Pi 5 Pro AP6256 Wi-Fi module
  • blacklist the brcmfmac / brcmutil path for this board and set the BCMDHD firmware / NVRAM / config paths explicitly
  • replace the reboot-only brcmfmac unbind helper with a shutdown/reboot poweroff helper that cleanly powers down the SDIO Wi-Fi device

Why

On a real Orange Pi 5 Pro (AP6256 / BCM43456) running Ubuntu 24.04.1 with 6.1.0-1025-rockchip, the default brcmfmac path was unstable:

  • sometimes brcmf_attach failed during boot
  • sometimes 5 GHz came up briefly and then disappeared after boot
  • the regression consistently reproduced on the same board / AP / image family

Switching the board to the BCMDHD SDIO path fixed the issue in repeated live tests.

Validation on hardware

Validated on an Orange Pi 5 Pro connected to an 80 MHz / channel 36 5 GHz AP:

  • connected successfully to CMCC-201-5G on 5180 MHz
  • remained connected past the previous failure window after cold boot
  • remained connected past the previous failure window after warm reboot
  • bcmdhd_sdio + dhd_static_buf_sdio were loaded instead of brcmfmac

One representative boot sequence from the fixed system:

  • wl_android_wifi_on : Success
  • Link UP with 48:81:d4:89:db:3f
  • stable 5 GHz connection beyond 120 seconds (where the old path had already failed)

If you want, I can also open a follow-up issue with the full before/after logs and exact local reproduction details.

Fixes #1344
Related to #841

Install the BCMDHD SDIO DKMS package for the Orange Pi 5 Pro, blacklist the brcmfmac path for AP6256, and replace the reboot-only brcmfmac unbind helper with a shutdown/reboot poweroff helper that cleanly powers the SDIO device down.

This matches the real-world fix verified on an Orange Pi 5 Pro that was repeatedly losing 5 GHz after boot on the brcmfmac path while the BCMDHD SDIO path remained stable across cold boots and warm reboots.
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Additional field result after the change landed on the test board:

  • after switching the board from the unstable brcmfmac path to bcmdhd_sdio, the same system stayed connected even after the AP was later switched back from 80 MHz to 160 MHz operation on the 5 GHz radio
  • that strongly suggests the root problem here is the board-side driver path, not just the AP channel-width configuration

To be precise: the original 80 MHz validation in the PR body was directly observed by command-line checks on the board, while this later 160 MHz result was reported by the board owner after applying the same fix on the same hardware.

If maintainers want, I can also add a compact before/after command log excerpt here for the failing brcmfmac path versus the working bcmdhd_sdio path.

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Orange Pi 5 Pro AP6256 Wi-Fi is unstable on brcmfmac but stable on bcmdhd-sdio

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