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ERROR @wl_cfg80211_get_station : Wrong Mac address

This message continuously prints out on my virtual console. What does it mean, what is its cause and how would one fix it?

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4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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I had the same problem. According to this http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-2082752.html it is caused by a buggy broadcom driver. The suggested solution is to manually upgrade to the lastest driver which you can get here: http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php.

This worked for me.

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As work around, just set fake MAC address in your wifi connection settings, in Ubuntu it's called "cloned MAC address".

I had the same error message on my Ubuntu 14.04 after upgrading from 13.10 with Broadcom BCM4313 wireless card, suggested answers didn't work for me, rolling back driver or changing it with different ones like STA and b43 didn't fix the issue. That work around made the error disappear.

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    This is an awesome answer and works a treat. Just set the cloned address to the real address and the messages stop. thank you!
    – John Lawrence Aspden
    Sep 2, 2014 at 10:29
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    Interesting, I presume apt-get install macchanger to randomize your Mac address fixes this on Debian too.
    – Jeff Burdges
    Jun 4, 2015 at 14:37
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I've also had this problem on my MacBook Pro 13" (mid 2012) running Linux Mint 16 (64-bit) and I found another solution by installing the package linux-firmware-nonfree:

sudo apt-get remove --purge bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo apt-get install linux-firmware-nonfree

Attention: You have to do this while using the ethernet link for internet connection!

Thanks to chili555: Mac Address Error in Console Constantly Repeating AFter Connecting to School Network

EDIT: I've used this solution now for some hours and could observe that my wlan connections collapsed for several times. In all cases pings to the gateway were not or only partly answered and the availability of all wlan networks went down to nearly 0%. For now I will go back to the broadcom drivers from the official ppa.

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I had the same issue on ubuntu 20 and what worked for me was to configure a permanent Mac to BSSID wifi connection. This problem happens if your wifi card is not running on high tech features while your router does. When the router uses mixed wifi mode for 2.5/5 GHz signalling your wifi card gets confused and randomly gets disconnected from the network and so on.

How I fixed it:

  1. Go to wifi settings
  2. Click on the settings (gear icon) of the network you want to connect to
  3. In identity tab choose BSSID and Mac for the network. You can try different combinations until you findout which one is the best.
  4. Set the cloned address field to permanent
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