iwlwifi driver with an Intel AX210 wifi card fails to download the sets in installer

K

Kyle77

Wanting to give FreeBSD a try, I downloaded the installer and burned it to USB after verifying the sha256 checksum, booted the installer, entered my hostname, selected all sets to be installed, partitioned the disks, either before or after partitioning the disks it asked me to configure my wifi card. I had the iwlwifi card and a physical re0. I selected the iwlwifi and it showed the networks in my area and I selected the right one and provided the password. I then setup DHCP with IPv4 only, (I did three other installs selecting combos of IPv4 and IPv6 and just IPv6). I next selected the top mirror on the list the global one where it pairs you with the best server for you. It failed to search for the server. At different times during the install attempts I would get an error in a thin line across the screen, no I don't remember what it was it went by too fast. I had a hunch that errors would be on the second or third TTY so I did ctrl alt f2 and did see debug info but the wifi card wasn't listed there and I didn't know how to scroll up in the terminal.

I don't think it is hardware because this same card was working great in OpenBSD with their iwx driver. I posted my problems on Reddit and it was suggested I try GhostBSD. I did and it wouldn't even connect to the router/AP combo.

I used to use FreeBSD on a wired workstation in the 11.0 to 12.2 days but this is my first install with a laptop and since the git conversion.

Any help would be appreciated!

Also, kudos to the dev team for the awesome interface to setup your wifi in the installer, that is very nice! Just wish it worked in my case!

Thanks again!
 
Kyle77 said:
I next selected the top mirror on the list the global one where it pairs you with the best server for you. It failed to search for the server.
Click to expand...
This sounds like a bootonly installation media. There seems to be a problem with the installer fetching the distribution sets of the kernel, base and other packages.

Others have complained about it in the past, most recent: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/network-issue-trying-to-install-from-boot-only-iso.92742/

Just download a memstick image (not mini-memstick, best suited for USB sticks), which contains all distribution sets, no need to download them during installation. The distribution sets on the installer media and those fetched during installation are the same, released on the release date of the version, there are no updated packages.

FreeBSD-13.3: https://download.freebsd.org/releases/ISO-IMAGES/13.3/
FreeBSD-14.0: https://download.freebsd.org/releases/ISO-IMAGES/14.0/

Uncompressed, larger in size: FreeBSD-*-amd64-memstick.img
xz(1) compressed, lesser in size: FreeBSD-*-amd64-memstick.img.xz

Choose the version and architecture. A normal Intel, AMD platform would be amd64.
 
Hi T-Daemon, I tested your hypothesis today. When running Linux I tried to install in Virtual Box, using the boot only image and it failed at fetching the sets. I can conclude then that there must be something wrong with the installer.
 
I was able to get FreeBSD 14.0 installed on the laptop tonight on the spare SSD. It let me setup the wifi card and it got a DHCP lease but when the system rebooted it complained about no firmware for the card and never got a lease from the router that time around despite me having set it up in the installer already.
 
Kyle77 said:
when the system rebooted it complained about no firmware for the card
Click to expand...
What is the exact error message?

Show us please
grep wlan /etc/rc.conf

pciconf -lv | grep -B3 network

Preferably in text form. It it's to much trouble take a picture.
 
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