Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2025 13:10:28 +0000 (UTC) From: "Bjoern A. Zeeb" <bz@FreeBSD.org> To: Andrea Venturoli <ml@netfence.it> Cc: freebsd-wireless@freebsd.org Subject: Re: AC 9461 support Message-ID: <os4q01q6-346p-p1p5-8950-s6q7pr713p2o@SerrOFQ.bet> In-Reply-To: <90ab1fd7-cda8-4f90-8bc9-c93566c387a2@netfence.it>
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On Wed, 9 Jul 2025, Andrea Venturoli wrote:
Hi,
> I've got a laptop with the above WiFi card.
> I just upgraded to 14.3 in order to see if stability and/or speed could
> improve.
>
> For stability, time will tell.
>
> For speed, I'm still see:
>> media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet OFDM/36Mbps mode 11g
>
> (BTW, I'm quite sure it was 54Mbps (on the same network) with 14.2).
That's dynamic.
> iwlwifi(4) says "802.11n/ac is only available on the 22000 and later chipset
> generations".
> I guess this excludes my card...
It's one of these "in the middle" chipsets.
Would need the PCI IDs and the output when iwlwifi loaded its firmware.
But if the firmware package did not enable it then it likely is not
supported. I'll still check if you send the details; just in case we
missed some.
There are 9461 and 9461 using different firmware
(iwlwifi-9000* vs. iwlwifi-Qu*)
> So should I try harder or am I just wasting time?
Trying harder won't help much. Sorry.
> Is support for 11n on this card expected to be available in the future?
> Is there anything I can do to help?
The problem with the older cards is that there's
% wc -l drivers/net/wireless/intel/iwlwifi/mvm/rs.[ch]
4344 drivers/net/wireless/intel/iwlwifi/mvm/rs.c
457 drivers/net/wireless/intel/iwlwifi/mvm/rs.h
4801 total
lines of GPL-only code, which we never imported and where the firmware
does not do the job as it does for modern chipsets utilizing BSD
licensed code to drive it:
% wc -l sys/contrib/dev/iwlwifi/mvm/rs-fw.c
758 sys/contrib/dev/iwlwifi/mvm/rs-fw.c
While it is possible to fill the gaps that the 4.8 kloc leave (and I thought
for a longer while we should do it) and integrate the KPIs natively with
net80211 it's questinable how much sense it makes to spend the time on
that. We have so much other fish to fry still.
A user made the experiment to make the GPL code compile and hook it up
but not "drive" the Linux KPI bits for rate control. It compiled but
wasn't any gain.
If someone wants to do it I won't say "no" and will be willing to help.
The alternative likely is to swap the card for a, say, AX210 which sells
for less than 10 EUR (or 12-15 from a decent retailer) and be good for
the next year(s).
> P.S.
> As a side question, more out of curiosity than need, I read this card should
> also implement BlueTooth, but I see no trace of it.
> Is there anything I should do to enable it?
Most likely it is supported and you will need to install the
iwmbt-firmware packages.
Example here with an AX210:
# usbconfig | grep -i blueto
ugen0.4: <AX210 Bluetooth Intel Corp.> at usbus0, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=FULL (12Mbps) pwr=ON (100mA)
Then do a (the 0.4 from the ugen):
# usbconfig -d 0.4 dump_device_desc
and let us know idProduct if it doesn't work after installing the
firmware.
You could also try and see after installing the firmware and a reboot:
% grep ubt /var/run/dmesg.boot
[254.710465] ubt0 on uhub0
[254.710479] ubt0: <vendor 0x8087 product 0x0032, class 224/1, rev 2.01/0.00, addr 2> on usbus0
--
Bjoern A. Zeeb r15:7
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