Need help finding a suitable WiFi card.

TanneR

Hello everyone,
I've installed NetBSD in a VM and really like it so far. I played around with it a bit and set it up and everything and now want to take the next step: installing on real hardware. The problem is (like with many other operating system that I've been wanting to try out on real hardware), my WiFi card. I have a Dell XPS 15 9560 with an Wireless AC 9260 WiFi card.

As stated before, a lot of other operating system have refused to work due to the lack of an active internet connection on that laptop, and NetBSD seems to be one of them. I've searched for hours but couldn't find a way to get it to work. The iwm driver seems to work for most Intel WiFi cards, except for mine.

Now, I'm kinda tired of trying to get some obscure OpenBSD file or other "fix" on the ISO or system or something and am now at a point where I just want to buy a card that works. So... what cards work? Do you have any recommendations on WiFi cards that I could buy that would work 100%?

Thanks for all responses in advance!

tcmart14

TanneR I've had decent luck with this one I got off Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H28H8DU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You may have to pull down the firmware, but thats about it.

Ive heard about people doing some stuff with pass-throughs through freebsd jails that are running linux as a solution on FreeBSD. As far as I know, this kind of method only work in FreeBSD because of jails.

TanneR I have this, Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 WiFi
Works with the iwn driver.

EDIT: See also, http://man.netbsd.org/pci.4

nia

Some laptops have BIOS whitelists and will refuse to boot with any non-manufacturer PCIe card. Somehow, this is legal.

If you're not sure your laptop doesn't have a whitelist then it's probably safer to get an urtwn (which covers most cheap 802.11b/g/n USB devices). "Pulling down the firmware" is entirely unnecessary because on NetBSD the firmware is built-in. I also do not understand how userspace Linux emulation "through freebsd jails" is supposed to help since WiFi drivers live in the kernel.

tcmart14

nia

nia the FreeBSD jails method I heard on BSDNow. Apparently you can use the kernel emulation layer to run the kernel module and transform it into something the FreeBSd kernel can use. I havnt done it, but they've talked about people doing it to get AC working in FreeBSD. You'll have to look it up. Or it might have been using Bhyve

The urtwn0 needs the firmware on OpenBsD pulled down. Didn't try it on Net, but know that it does work on Net.

TanneR

Thanks for all the replies! I might get an Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 WiFi now (thanks for the recommendation) or just look at the iwn and iwm firmware/driver documentation for other supported cards.

I also found a spare Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160 which seems to be supported, all though I don't know if it actually works anymore so that's just a "Plan B".

20-100

tcmart14 Yes, people who did this passed the WiFi adapter through to a Linux VM (not a jail), which is then used as the default gateway for FreeBSD.

20-100 Technically interesting but, IMHO useless as day-to-day solution.

20-100

pin Yep! Having to use a shoehorn means the shoes are the wrong size. 😉

rvp

Another technique is to just hookup the laptop's wired ethernet to a wireless extender. (Most of 'em have a RJ-45 jack or two for configuration.)

My laptop has an Atheros chip which is not supported by NetBSD, so I use a short ethernet cable to connected it to one of the WiFi extenders we have about the place. And, the extenders all have battery packs attached, so my computing is also "portable"--in a Heath Robinson sort of way.

TanneR

rvp Sadly my laptop doesn't have an ethernet port by default. I had a realtek (I think) adapter that goes into the USB-C port but that didn't work if I remember correctly. Also, I think laptops are good because of their portability. It would make little sense to rely on an ethernet cable then. Thanks for the suggestion though!