# Trouble loading iwm module with ac9260 card on Thinkpad



## kat (Jun 11, 2020)

Hi everyone,
I am very excited about Freebsd, but a first time poster on these forums. I have tried to follow all the rules, but my apologies if I get something wrong.

I have just finished following this guide on modifying the iwm module to work with ac9260 wifi cards. I believe that I have successfully build the module, and I have followed the steps in the OP almost exactly to set up wifi, but the wlan0 interface is still not appearing under ifconfig. I have added some stuff below, but I am re-typing everything from my Thinkpad with FreeBSD onto the computer that I use to browse forums, so I haven't included quite as much as I normally would. If anyone needs for info I am happy to provide it!

As I said, I have followed all instructions in the above-linked guide, so all my config documents look as that guide instructs.

Here is my /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf:

```
network={
    ssid="(my ssid)"
    bssid=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
    proto=RSN
    psk="(my password)"
}
```

My added lines in /etc/rc.conf:

```
wpa_supplicant_program="/usr/local/sbin/wpa_supplicant"
wlans_iwm0="wlan0"
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA DHCP"
```

And my added lines in /boot/loader.conf:

```
if_iwm_load="YES"
iwm9260fw_load="YES"  ### for ac9260
iwm9000fw_load="YES" ### for ac9560
legal.intel_iwi.license_ack=1
wlan_wep_load="YES"
wlan_ccmp_load="YES"
wlan_tkip_load="YES"
```

Currently, `dmesg | grep iwm` turns up nothing at all after boot, and ifconfig shows no wlan0 interface at all.
However, `kldstat | grep iwm` shows the following two results, indicating that the module is indeed being loaded!

```
2    1 [some long hash here]    2bc70 if_iwm.ko
5    1 [another long hash]    ee0      iwm9260fw.ko
```

Finally, perhaps the most import piece of information(?), when I run `service netif restart` I get an error along with the info about my other interfaces. The error is:

```
ifconfig: SIOCIFCREATE2: Device not configured
```

Can anyone offer some help with this? I have read the full manual page on networking, but I seem to have done everything that I need to do. I am really stuck!


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## George (Jun 11, 2020)

Your iwm module loads, but does not attach to the network card. Otherwise, `dmesg` would show a line containing "iwm0". Probably your card shows up in `pciconf -lv` as "none*".


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## Phishfry (Jun 11, 2020)

kat said:


> wpa_supplicant_program="/usr/local/sbin/wpa_supplicant"


You are using the ports version of wpa_supplicant with this command.
Make sure you have wpa_supplicant port/pkg installed.
security/wpa_supplicant
Post your relevant lines from /etc/rc.conf as well as pciconf output for us.

I also feel it is wise to manually load each of the iwm drivers with kldload.
There may be some driver output you are not seeing.
Manually load the driver and firmware and see what it says.


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## kat (Jun 11, 2020)

Hey guys, thanks very much for trying to help. 



Phishfry said:


> Make sure you have wpa_supplicant port/pkg installed.


I have installed wpa_supplicant from ports, so this should be ok.

Here is the relevant pciconf output:

```
none7@pci0:5:0:0:       class=0x010802 card=0x00148086 chip=0x25268086 rev=0x29 hdr=0x00
    vendor    = 'Intel Corporation'
    device     = 'Wireless-AC 9260'
    class       = network
```

Here are the lines from /etc/rc.conf:

```
wpa_supplicant_program="/usr/local/sbin/wpa_supplicant"
wlans_iwm0="wlan0"
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA DHCP"
```

but wait! here is the most important part! You are completely right, it was quite silly of me to skip a manual load with `kldload`. 
When loading /boot/modules/iwm9260fw.ko I have no issues, but when I run `kldload /boot/modules/if_iwm.ko` I get the following very useful output:

```
iwm0: <Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless AC 9260> mem 0xa1200000-0xa1203fff at device 0.0 on pci3
iwm0: invalid firmware iwm9260fw
device_attach: iwm0 attach returned 6
```

I am fairly uneducated about this stuff, but I'm pretty positive this means something went wrong when I was following the guide to build the iwm firmware for ac-9260, so I suppose the best next step would be doing all that over to make sure there aren't mistakes? To be honest, I found the guide a bit hard to follow and times, so if anyone has suggestions of a different guide to get this card working that might be helpful. Otherwise, I will give it another shot  Thanks again for your suggestions!


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## George (Jun 12, 2020)

Yaah, maybe something went wrong during the build of the firmware module. Maybe the tutorial is wrong.
iwm successfully probed the device, but device_attach() failed. That's unfortunate.


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