# Intel wireless hardware support



## joplass (Apr 21, 2020)

Good afternoon clan,

I want to install FreeBSD on a newly acquired laptop.  The wireless hardware is listed as Intel Wireless-AC 9462.  Is there a way to find out if the hardware is support by FreeBSD?  I found this list here but that hardware is not listed in there.

If not supported is there a generic way to make such hardware work.

Some info will be appreciated.


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## joplass (Apr 22, 2020)

Phew...nobody?


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## msplsh (Apr 22, 2020)

LMGTFY....









						Driver for Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless AC 9560
					

Hi there!  Does anybody knows what driver or commands should I do to have support for a WLAN card  Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless AC 9560.   Ethernet (LAN) card is detected and works fine so I can do any upgrade or download any package, the problem is only with the WiFi card.  Thanks in advance!




					forums.freebsd.org


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## tingo (Apr 23, 2020)

joplass said:


> If not supported is there a generic way to make such hardware work.


No - there isn't. The "generic way" is to replace non-supported hardware with supported hardware, which cost more (extra hardware), is more "hassle" to use (usb wireless dongles) and can be difficult to source (whitelisted mini PCIe wireless cards).

Experimental way - you could try to run a virtual machine with linux on it inside your machine (assuming Linux has support for your wireless) and use that as network gateway for your machine. Also a bit cumbersome, but it has been reported to work.


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## Emrion (Apr 23, 2020)

tingo said:


> Experimental way - you could try to run a virtual machine with linux on it inside your machine (assuming Linux has support for your wireless) and use that as network gateway for your machine. Also a bit cumbersome, but it has been reported to work.


My home made router works that way (concerning wifi access point) with a debian VM using bhyve since one year.


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## msplsh (Apr 23, 2020)

Or, per the forum link, could run FreeBSD-CURRENT and see how that goes.


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## aponomarenko (Jun 23, 2020)

Missed here too.

I found this WiFi-to-Ethernet device as a good alternative for all non-working WiFi cards dealing with various FreeBSD notebooks:






The problem is that newest laptops don't have an Ethernet port(


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## Mjölnir (Jun 23, 2020)

aponomarenko said:


> The problem is that newest laptops don't have an Ethernet port(


WHAT???  What's going on?  Are you serious?  Did I miss s/th?  Can you explain that?  What do they have instead?


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## shkhln (Jun 23, 2020)

mjollnir said:


> What do they have instead?



Wi-Fi, obviously. (One can also buy a USB to Ethernet adapter.)


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## Mjölnir (Jun 23, 2020)

...yes.  What's obvious, too, is that I have to quit and get some sleep 
Of course for laptops that makes sense.  I can have an ethernet port in a docking station, else it's a mobile device so no ethernet port.


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## aponomarenko (Jun 24, 2020)

mjollnir said:


> WHAT???  What's going on?  Are you serious?  Did I miss s/th?  Can you explain that?  What do they have instead?



The trend of this can be seen on this page. Notebooks with NICs=1 (green color on the charts below) are notebooks with the only WiFi card w/o the Ethernet card and port. Started to grow in 2018, the part of such notebooks increases by 5-7 percents yearly:








W/o the good support of WiFi cards we'll loose the desktop market in 5 years. People will not be able to install/play with BSD at home on their laptops.


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## shkhln (Jun 24, 2020)

aponomarenko said:


> The trend of this can be seen on this page. Notebooks with NICs=1 (green color on the charts below) are notebooks with the only WiFi card w/o the Ethernet card and port. Started to grow in 2018, the part of such notebooks increases by 5-7 percents yearly:



The trend started with Macbook Air, which, as Wikipedia tells me, was in 2008.



aponomarenko said:


> W/o the good support of WiFi cards we'll loose the desktop market in 5 years. People will not be able to install/play with BSD at home on their laptops.



That's overly dramatic.


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## aponomarenko (Jun 24, 2020)

shkhln said:


> One can also buy a USB to Ethernet adapter



Do you know FreeBSD-compatible example of such device?


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## 6502 (Jun 24, 2020)

mjollnir said:


> WHAT???  What's going on?  Are you serious?  Did I miss s/th?  Can you explain that?  What do they have instead?


This is true for thin cases (ultrabook) - the ethernet socket need space. Maybe Ethernet needs new standard for "micro"/flattened connectors (like mini/micro USB).


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## SirDice (Jun 24, 2020)

Not exactly the same but I remember when laptops started not having a serial port any more. Try accessing a serial console on a switch or router without a serial port. That was super annoying. I now have a whole collection of USB-serial  adapters just for this. Luckily most modern equipment comes with a USB console port nowadays.


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## aponomarenko (Jun 25, 2020)

Found a lot of USB Ethernet adapters supported: https://www.freebsd.org/releases/12.1R/hardware.html

USB Ethernet adapter + WiFi to Ethernet adapter is the solution.

Is this combo already implemented in a small form-factor? Some kind of USB WiFi stick, but doesn't require a driver and configured in your smartphone's browser.


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## shkhln (Jun 25, 2020)

I don't know what you are talking about. There are no driverless devices.


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## SirDice (Jun 25, 2020)

aponomarenko said:


> Is this combo already implemented in a small form-factor?


You mean something like this? 





						Amazon.com: Wired LAN to Wireless Wi-Fi Adapter for Game Console Smart TV Computer Printer: Computers & Accessories
					

Amazon.com: Wired LAN to Wireless Wi-Fi Adapter for Game Console Smart TV Computer Printer: Computers & Accessories



					www.amazon.com


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## aponomarenko (Jun 25, 2020)

Nope, this is just a first part of the device - WiFi to Ethernet adapter.


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## aponomarenko (Jun 25, 2020)

shkhln said:


> I don't know what you are talking about. There are no driverless devices.



I mean any USB Ethernet adapter with internal WiFi module, that is configured like EDUP EP-2911 from your smartphone and don't require a FreeBSD driver. Of course, USB Ethernet will require a driver.


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## joplass (Aug 15, 2020)

For a while now I meant to come back here and provide an update.  I don't know what happened but, my wireless speed is now consitent with what I get throughout the house using other systems.  This is nothing but strange.  When I opened this thread, hitting FreeBSD servers while updating and running other tests was giving me between 50kb/s - 300kb/s.  Now I am into 2000kb/s - 3000kb/s.  

Maybe someone can sort this one out.


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## Mjölnir (Aug 15, 2020)

You did `freebsd-update`?  Or updated wpa_supplicant(8) -- a newer version than the one in base is in the ports.


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## a6h (Aug 15, 2020)

A factor of 10, looks like a  802.11g to 802.11n auto/switch. Check your wifi/router settings.


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