Wifi device disappear after upgrading linux-firmware-raspi2 with 18.04.3 preinstalled server image

[Gavin Lin]

[Impact]

Wifi device disappear after upgrading linux-firmware-raspi2.
Can reproduce on rpi3b, rpi3b+, and rpi3a+.
This only happens on 18.04.3 preinstalled server image, with 4.15 kernel.

[Test Case]

1. dd the image in an SD card:
   http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/bionic/ubuntu-18.04.3-preinstalled-server-arm64+raspi3.img.xz
2. Boot rpi device with the sd card
3. Upgrade the linux-firmware-raspi2 package using following command:
   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install linux-firmware-raspi2
4. Reboot:
   sudo reboot
5. Check with command:
   ip a

Expected Result
wlan0 is still there and workable.

Actual Result
wlan0 device disappeared.

[Additional Info]

Command output:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt update
Hit:1 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic InRelease
Get:2 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-updates InRelease [88.7 kB]
Get:3 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-backports InRelease [74.6 kB]
Get:4 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-security InRelease [88.7 kB]
Get:5 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-updates/main arm64 Packages [1,096 kB]
Get:6 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-updates/main Translation-en [360 kB]
Get:7 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-updates/restricted arm64 Packages [2,084 B]
Get:8 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-updates/restricted Translation-en [23.0 kB]
Get:9 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-updates/universe arm64 Packages [1,471 kB]
Get:10 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-updates/universe Translation-en [351 kB]
Get:11 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-updates/multiverse arm64 Packages [5,068 B]
Get:12 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-updates/multiverse Translation-en [6,920 B]
Get:13 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-backports/main arm64 Packages [9,992 B]
Get:14 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-backports/main Translation-en [4,764 B]
Get:15 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-backports/universe arm64 Packages [9,932 B]
Get:16 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-backports/universe Translation-en [4,588 B]
Get:17 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-security/main arm64 Packages [803 kB]
Get:18 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-security/main Translation-en [269 kB]
Get:19 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-security/restricted arm64 Packages [1,172 B]
Get:20 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-security/restricted Translation-en [20.4 kB]
Get:21 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-security/universe arm64 Packages [933 kB]
Get:22 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-security/universe Translation-en [239 kB]
Get:23 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-security/multiverse arm64 Packages [2,360 B]
Get:24 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-security/multiverse Translation-en [2,908 B]
Fetched 5,867 kB in 6s (962 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
178 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt install linux-firmware-raspi2
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
  linux-firmware-raspi2
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 177 not upgraded.
Need to get 5,200 kB of archives.
After this operation, 11.4 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports bionic-updates/multiverse arm64 linux-firmware-raspi2 arm64 1.20200601+arm64-0ubuntu2~18.04.1 [5,200 kB]
Fetched 5,200 kB in 3s (1,944 kB/s)
(Reading database ... 62519 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../linux-firmware-raspi2_1.20200601+arm64-0ubuntu2~18.04.1_arm64.deb ...
Adding 'diversion of /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43455-sdio.bin to /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43455-sdio.bin.distrib by linux-firmware-raspi2'
Adding 'diversion of /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43455-sdio.raspberrypi,3-model-b-plus.txt to /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43455-sdio.raspberrypi,3-model-b-plus.txt.distrib by linux-firmware-raspi2'
Adding 'diversion of /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43455-sdio.raspberrypi,4-model-b.txt to /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43455-sdio.raspberrypi,4-model-b.txt.distrib by linux-firmware-raspi2'
Adding 'diversion of /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43430-sdio.bin to /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43430-sdio.bin.distrib by linux-firmware-raspi2'
Adding 'diversion of /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43430-sdio.raspberrypi,3-model-b.txt to /lib/firmware/brcm/brcmfmac43430-sdio.raspberrypi,3-model-b.txt.distrib by linux-firmware-raspi2'
Unpacking linux-firmware-raspi2 (1.20200601+arm64-0ubuntu2~18.04.1) over (1.20190215-0ubuntu0.18.04.1) ...
Setting up linux-firmware-raspi2 (1.20200601+arm64-0ubuntu2~18.04.1) ...
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo reboot
Connection to 10.101.50.63 closed by remote host.
Connection to 10.101.50.63 closed.
$ ssh ubuntu@10.101.50.63
Warning: Permanently added '10.101.50.63' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
ubuntu@10.101.50.63's password:
Welcome to Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.15.0-1041-raspi2 aarch64)

 * Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com
 * Management: https://landscape.canonical.com
 * Support: https://ubuntu.com/advantage

  System information as of Wed Oct 7 03:59:47 UTC 2020

  System load: 1.45 Processes: 118
  Usage of /: 10.5% of 14.30GB Users logged in: 0
  Memory usage: 44% IP address for eth0: 10.101.50.63
  Swap usage: 0%

 * Kubernetes 1.19 is out! Get it in one command with:

     sudo snap install microk8s --channel=1.19 --classic

   https://microk8s.io/ has docs and details.

177 packages can be updated.
133 updates are security updates.

New release '20.04.1 LTS' available.
Run 'do-release-upgrade' to upgrade to it.

Last login: Wed Oct 7 03:55:55 2020 from 10.101.51.155
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:e0:4c:68:e0:d1 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 10.101.50.63/22 brd 10.101.51.255 scope global dynamic eth0
       valid_lft 7123sec preferred_lft 7123sec
    inet6 fe80::2e0:4cff:fe68:e0d1/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

The plan was to move kernel to v5.4 kernel in bionic. and the firmware was already matching that.

You could enable focal repository and install linux-raspi kernel v5.4 from there?

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

wait, raspi images must already be using v5.4 kernel on bionic

See https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-raspi-5.4

Why are you upgrading firmware, without upgrading the kernel to v5.4?

Why are you using obsolete images, from the archived location, instead of the most recent ones?

v4.15 kernel; raspi flavour; on bionic is not supported anymore. It has rolled over to the v5.4 kernel to ensure adequate support for all the pi board variants.