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    Driver support for Intel Dual Band AC 7260

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Wireless
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    • A
      alex1992
      last edited by alex1992

      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+Ports

      Im 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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      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        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

        A F 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • A
          alex1992 @stephenw10
          last edited by alex1992

          @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 :)

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            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

            A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • A
              alex1992 @stephenw10
              last edited by

              @stephenw10

              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.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                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

                A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • A
                  alex1992 @stephenw10
                  last edited by alex1992

                  @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 = network

                  So is there a way to enable this card through command so it can be used inside pfsense?

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • stephenw10S
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    It looks like that should be supported:
                    https://github.com/pfsense/FreeBSD-src/blob/RELENG_2_4_5/sys/dev/iwm/if_iwm.c#L5842

                    So check the module did actually load using kldstat. Look for errors in the boot log.

                    Steve

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      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_fw
                      

                      Steve

                      A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • A
                        alex1992 @stephenw10
                        last edited by

                        @stephenw10
                        You are correct it works in version 2.5 but not 2.4.5. Thank you again ☺

                        ce80cf8f-ed74-4d5b-81f4-0a1a4e97d934-image.png

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                        • stephenw10S
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by

                          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

                          T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • T
                            tquade @stephenw10
                            last edited by

                            @stephenw10

                            Seems no support for Access Point mode as of yet.

                            Ted

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • stephenw10S
                              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                              last edited by

                              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

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • F
                                Freedom Network @stephenw10
                                last edited by

                                @stephenw10 Instead of copy kernel module manually, can those things be packaged in pak manager?

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • stephenw10S
                                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                  last edited by

                                  It is possible. This driver is in the kernel now anyway though:
                                  https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/7725

                                  Steve

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