# Does it mean that FreeBSD supports my NIC if wifi works while running in VMware as Guest?



## Daemonwarez (May 30, 2021)

First of all Hello everybody, I am new to the forum and FreeBSD, I am also posting this in general because it didn't feel like it belonged in a more specific category.

Apologies if my question is stupid, but I understand very little of how virtualization treats hardware components,

My question basically is this, Is wifi working when I run FreeBSD in VMware proof that my laptop's NIC is supported by FreeBSD?
meaning that wifi will work if I install FreeBSD as my Host OS.

I tried to look for an answer online but no one seems to have addressed that, which makes me believe it might be a stupid question, but what the hell I wanna be sure.

Thanks.


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## Geezer (May 31, 2021)

No.


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## mer (May 31, 2021)

Geezer gave you the short and sweet answer.
Most, if not all, Virtualization the host controls the hardware.  Network interfaces in particular packets are received by the host and then forwarded to the VM.  Similar to having your computer behind a firewall/NAT device.

If you posted the make and model of your laptop and what type of wireless hardware the host says it has, someone may be able to say it works or it doesn't.

Or if you googled up about freebsd and wireless or looked at the release notes for 13.0 or 12.2 you could get an idea on if it may work.


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## kpedersen (May 31, 2021)

Some virtualization systems allow you to pass through an entire bus so you can directly access the hardware on it. These are usually server grade virtualization solutions rather than VMware Workstation.

However, with VMware, you can pass through USB directly. So perhaps if you have a USB wifi dongle, you can test it. That way you have a backup if you do wipe your laptop and the inbuilt NIC is no good with FreeBSD.


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## Daemonwarez (May 31, 2021)

I have a Lenovo ideapad 3, the adapter product name is intel(R) wifi 6 ax201 160mhz.

So VMware creates a virtual adapter, to represent the guest network interface and forwards the network traffic through that to the guest? or something along those lines I guess.

I can't find this adapter in the supported devices so I guess it's not supported.


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## mer (May 31, 2021)

Daemonwarez said:


> So VMware creates a virtual adapter, to represent the guest network interface and forwards the network traffic through that to the guest? or something along those lines I guess.


Yep pretty much.

Lenovo ideapad 3, I don't know the support for that wifi device.


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## SirDice (May 31, 2021)

Daemonwarez said:


> So VMware creates a virtual adapter, to represent the guest network interface and forwards the network traffic through that to the guest? or something along those lines I guess.


If you have a look in your VM you'll see a _wired_ interface, depending on the VM layer you might see em(4) or vtnet(4).


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## Geezer (May 31, 2021)

I have got a Lenovo z51-70, which is much the same as the ideapad 500. The wifi works with `iwm`. It makes a very good laptop workstation with a DE.

Don't know what the ideapad 3 is, but most likely it will make a great machine if you put a bit of time in.


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