Wireless interface iwm0 not showing in GUI?

[stephenw10]

Yeah just check that it appears and is seen as a wireless device.
So sysctl net.wlan.devices

Check the boot log for something like the line shown in that bug report:

iwm0: hw rev 0x200, fw ver 22.361476.0, address  b8:8a:60:xx:xx:xx

Which I assume shows if you don't get that error.

You may need to kldload the driver and/or firmware. pfSense has it all in-kernel but FreeBSD usually doesn't.

Steve

[mmiller7]

@stephenw10 Gave it a few tries during lunch and got consistent results this time multiple boots in a row.

FreeBSD 11.3/11.4 do the exact same thing pfSense 2.4.5-p1 is doing.
FreeBSD 12.1 appears to work properly.

I did not attempt to "sideload" anything, just booted up livecd, got to a root shell, and typed the commands. I think my prior inconsistency was some glitch with the USB CD-ROM I was using to boot from or cycling power too fast.

I've attempted to attach photos of the terminal for each (with my finger pointing at the uname line showing which version is booted)
11.3:

11.4:

12.1:

[stephenw10]

Huh, well that's interesting. Still shows those errors even when it works.

Try a pfSense 2.5 snapshot then, that should also work.

https://www.pfsense.org/snapshots/

Hmm, that page needs updating, snapshots are built on 12.1-stable now.

Steve

[mmiller7]

Good catch - I'm glad I posted the pictures (was debating) because I missed that the suspect error message showed even on 12.1 where it appears to work properly.

I'll have to read a bit on the snapshots and pfSense 2.5, see how hard it would be to "roll back" if needed and what potential issues I may run into unless there's a way to do a "live boot" test that I am unaware of without affecting the installed version. Or maybe I can try to do the install on a USB thumbdrive and change the boot order so if it goes badly I can just yank the thumbdrive and reboot to get online.

[stephenw10]

Yup you would need to reinstall to go back to 2.4.5.

Yes, you can install from one usb drive to another one and boot from that. Boot time will be less that stellar but it will work as test. You might want to enable ram disks after boot to cut down writes to the drive.

Steve

[mmiller7]

@stephenw10 Is there any way to get an ISO for the 2.5.0 builds?

I've tried a few times to use the memstick install but it keeps hanging when it tries to load the installer...I know I've had a lot of issues in general with USB booting. Somehow even a USB DVD-ROM is far more reliable.

[viktor_g]

@mmiller7 https://snapshots.pfsense.org/amd64/pfSense_master/installer/

[mmiller7]

Ah, ok - got that to work, and after installing on a USB drive it's seeing the wireless card on the GUI.

And after it finished setting up the new install, I added the new interface, set up the WiFi options, and it worked. Only "gotya" is I forgot to tick the box for enabling WPA so it wasn't connecting...but once I corrected my mistake it came right up with 2.5.0-Development snapshot.

And without going to the trouble of reconfiguring everything, here's a quicky test from command line showing the interface status and PING over the pfSense WLAN interface to my cellular data card...

Still no idea why 2.4.5-p1 doesn't behave with my Intel 8000 Wireless card with the drivers built into it but it's good to know it will likely work fine on 2.5.0 unless something changes. Now I guess I'll have to think long and hard if I want to risk moving the whole home network up to development/experimental builds or accept that my redundant WiFi WAN probably can't work until 2.5.0 comes out stable.

[wrobelda]

Can the https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/7725 please be re-opened? Alternatively, @kiokoman, can you please file a new bug-report?

I have the same 8260 card and seeing same issue here. Nothing helps and it seems that without re-compiling the driver and/or firmware into external module it won't work with 2.4.5

Obviously only if there's a 2.4.5-p2 planned before the 2.5 gets released.