Driver support for Intel Dual Band AC 7260
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Hi all,
I just installed an Intel
Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 on my pfsense machine. both the card and the motherboard that im using support PCIe 2.0 which is required for this card. I had a look at the FreeBSD forums and found out that they have supported drivers for this card on FreeBSD. see link below
https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=iwm&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+12.1-RELEASE+and+PortsIm not very technical with linux/freebsd but i have a basic knowledge and can run through guides. Could someone please tell me how i can add these to the kernel on pfsense?
To compile this driver into the kernel, include the following lines in
your kernel configuration file:device iwm device pci device wlan device firmware You also need to select a firmware for your device. Choose one from: device iwm3160fw device iwm3168fw device iwm7260fw device iwm7265fw device iwm8000Cfw device iwm8265fw Or you can use device iwmfw to include them all. Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at boot time, place the following lines in loader.conf(5): if_iwm_load="YES" iwm3160fw_load="YES" iwm3168fw_load="YES" iwm7260fw_load="YES" iwm7265fw_load="YES" iwm8000Cfw_load="YES" iwm8265fw_load="YES"DESCRIPTION
The iwm driver provides support for:Intel Dual Band Wireless AC 3160 Intel Dual Band Wireless AC 3165 Intel Dual Band Wireless AC 3168 Intel Dual Band Wireless AC 7260 Intel Dual Band Wireless AC 7265 Intel Dual Band Wireless AC 8260
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Copy the the iwm kernel module and firmware from an equivalent FreeBSD install, load it that far far easier than recompiling the pfSense kernel.
Be aware that iwm does not support hostap mode though, you can only use it as client.
Steve
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@stephenw10
Thanks for replying. I'm really keen to get this working. I actually wanna use this adaptor in hostap mode. Is there any other driver that i can use for this adaptor that also supports hostap?are iwn drivers the same as iwm drivers? because when i look at the supported drivers matrix by pfsense, i can see iwn doesn't support hostap. but i see no reference to iwm drivers.
Also when you say copy the kernel file from another build, can this be found over the net? as i have no other pfsense machine that has this adaptor already working on it.
Thanks again :)
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I think iwm probably didn't exist when that wifi document was compiled.
There is no other driver for that card. It can't, yet, work in hostap mode.
You can get the modules from a FreeBSD ISO file. They need to be at least close to what pfSense is running though. I would try a FreeBSD 11.3 ISO first for pfSense 2.4.5
Steve
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Ok sure, I have downloaded a FreeBSD 11.3 ISO, could you please guide me through where I have to look for those modules? and where I have to copy them on my pfsense machine? please let me know of the directories as Im very new to FreeBSD and don't know where i have to look for stuff.
Also, Can you please recommend a Wireless card that supports 802.11ac and is Mini PCIe form factor (supported on PCIe 1/2) and is supported by pfsense? (if you know of any)
Thanks again in advance.
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Put if_iwm.ko in /boot/modules and iwm7260fw in /boot/firmware. You can get them from the ISO file directly.
Try to load it at the command line first.
There is currently no 802.11ac support in FreeBSD and hence pfSense. That should change at some point (hopefully soon) but there is no ETA.
Steve
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@stephenw10
Thanks Steve, I copied across the .KO files you mentioned and added the following lines to the loader.conf(5):if_iwm_load="YES"
iwm3160fw_load="YES"
iwm3168fw_load="YES"
iwm7260fw_load="YES"
iwm7265fw_load="YES"
iwm8000Cfw_load="YES"
iwm8265fw_load="YES"After rebooting pfsense, i can see the kernel shows all the above lines right at the beginning, but still after it's fully loaded, im not able to see the wireless card under the available options for wireless interface in the gui. Any thoughts on that?
EDIT: using this command in shell "pciconf -lv" gives me the below output, which confirms that it sees the card:
none2@pci0:4:0:0: class=0x028000 card=0x40708086 chip=0x08b18086 rev=0x73 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Intel Corporation'
device = 'Wireless 7260'
class = networkSo is there a way to enable this card through command so it can be used inside pfsense?
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It looks like that should be supported:
https://github.com/pfsense/FreeBSD-src/blob/RELENG_2_4_5/sys/dev/iwm/if_iwm.c#L5842So check the module did actually load using
kldstat. Look for errors in the boot log.Steve
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iwm was actually just added to 2.5 recently so if you want to test the card you could upgrade to that. There's no easy way to downgrade though.
It will probably be in 2.4.5p1 also.[2.5.0-DEVELOPMENT][admin@fw321.stevew.lan]/root: kldstat -v | grep iwm 161 pci/iwm 166 iwm7265Dfw_fw 165 iwm7265fw_fw 164 iwm7260fw_fw 163 iwm3168fw_fw 162 iwm3160fw_fw 168 iwm8265fw_fwSteve
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@stephenw10
You are correct it works in version 2.5 but not 2.4.5. Thank you again
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Ah, nice. As I say it's just been added to the 2.4.5p1 build list so it should be supported there too when that is available.
Steve
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Indeed, no hostap mode. I'm not sure that hardware can support it. It's unlikely to in FreeBSD/pfSense anytime soon, in any version.
Steve
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@stephenw10 Instead of copy kernel module manually, can those things be packaged in pak manager?
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It is possible. This driver is in the kernel now anyway though:
https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/7725Steve
