Low-level rtw890 errors on new laptop with rtw890

[sgharms]

Well my Dell Inspiron was too old. I bought an Asus Zenbook, but its video card was too new. I got a Lenovo V15 Business Laptop | Intel Pentium N6000 4-core Processor. But when I try to install 14.2:

(below is OCR from a picture of the screen, subtle inconsistencies are probably OK)

rtw890: <rtw89_8852be> port 0x4000-0x40ff mem 0x7f600000-0x7f6fffff at device 0.0 on pci1
rtw8852b_fw-1.bin: could not load binary firmware/boot/firmware/rtu8852b_fw-1.bin either
rtw89/rtw8852b_fu-1. bin: could not load binary firmware /boot/firmware/rtw89/rtw8852b_fw-1. bin either
rtw89_rtw8852b_fu-1. bin: could not load binary firmware /boot/firmware/rtw89_rtw8852b_fw-1. bin either
rtw89_rtw8852b_fw-1_bin: could not load binary firmware /boot/firmware/rtw89_rtw8852b_fw-1_bin either
rtw890: successfully loaded firmware image 'rtw89/rtw8852b_fu-1. bin'
rtw890: loaded firmware rtw89/rtw8852b_fu-1. bin
rtw890: Firmware version 0.29.29.5 (da87cccd), cd version 0, type 5
rtw890: Firmware version 0.29.29.5 (da87cccd), cmd version 0, type 3
rtw890: chip rfe_type is 1
rtw890: write rf busy swsi
(repeats)

The installer was able to scan SSIDs in the area, but it was unable to acquire a lease.

kldstat shows that if_rtw89.ko and rtw89_rtw8852b_fw_1_bin,ko are loaded. Checking pciconf -vl i see it's a Realtek RTL8852BE 802.11ax wireless NIC.

Checking the man page for rtw89(4), it lists this model as supported.

So I *think* that means that the device was recognized and ought be supported. I'm testing this on a "Live System" boot. I might be messing things up b/c I haven't set the mentioned tunable when booting into the live system?

compat.linuxkpi.skb.mem_limit

Have I missed a step here. Or, have I gotten another incompatible peripheral?

 

[sgharms]

Update: I rebooted and launched the installer again, but this time I was sure to stop so that I could drop to the loader menu.

I added the compat... tunable and went through the installation. While setting up networking, i appeared to hang with the "write rf busy swsi" error. BUT, absent any positive feedback, i hit enter and was advanced onward to setting up name resolution and ZFS. So I just went with it. As I type, we're downloading base-dbg, (vibe-installing?) so it seems that things must have worked out. Moments later, after the reboot I have a system that can ping out successfully. Leaving for posterity.

 

[T-Daemon]

it seems that things must have worked out.

Don't be surprised if the wifi doesn't work as expected. The rtw89 driver is still not mature. Users have reported it unstable or even not working.

I can confirm instability with the below device on a ThinkPad:

rtw890@pci0:3:0:0:    class=0x028000 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x10ec device=0x8852 subvendor=0x17aa subdevice=0x4852
    vendor     = 'Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.'
    device     = 'RTL8852AE 802.11ax PCIe Wireless Network Adapter'
    class      = network

On 14.2, the device does function, for a while, then regularly xorg freezes, or the kernel panics. I suspect this happens in combination with the drm-61-kmod driver, but haven't tested it extensively (testing on 14-STABLE and CURRENT).

For the moment I am using a USB wifi dongle with a Ralink chipset ((run(4)), the same device I used before the driver was available.

If you like, subscribe to the freebsd-wireless@ mailing list. The driver developer (Bjoen A. Zeeb) has asked explicitly to report failure or success. If you experience problems, he can give precise answers to the issue, or provide a patch to test, if your are willing to apply.

I added the compat... tunable

If you have installed net/wifi-firmware-rtw89-kmod as described in the rtw89(4) manual, then this has been set automatically. The package installs a config file (system reboot required to take effect):

% cat /boot/loader.conf.d/rtw89.conf
compat.linuxkpi.skb.mem_limit=1

News of interest from freebsd-wireless@ :

Outstanding Issues & Update on my TODO: Bjoern A. Zeeb (Mon, 12 May 2025 22:26:01 UTC)

HEADS UP: wireless KPI and KBI and FreeBSD 15: Bjoern A. Zeeb (Wed, 04 Jun 2025 17:51:39 UTC)

 

[sgharms]

Oddly I’ve found WiFi to be pretty stable. But it does spew a lot of noise.

I’m now far enough to have hit another major problem, no discovery of the trackpad (ELAN901C)