Solved AX201 NGW Wifi/Bluetooth M.2 card in a Minisofurm HX90?

neogeo

neogeo

I recently purchased a Minisforum HX90. The CPU in this machine is a AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX, Radeon Graphics.

I've installed FreeBSD 13.1 to this machine. It wasn't able to boot from an SSD that I'd used from another machine (GPT) and it would not boot from my usual MBR-friendly boot disk on USB. I think it's using secureboot, even when seemingly configured otherwise - it was persistently booting to the Windows 11 installer, out of the box.

Not to get side tracked, after make -C release memstick under a local 13.1 build, then writing the memstick image from under /usr/obj to a USB thumb drive, I was able to install FreeBSD then. The box shipped with an NVMe card, providing the primary storage.

uname from the build:

Code: 
FreeBSD xmin.cloud.thinkum.space 13.1-STABLE FreeBSD 13.1-STABLE #0 build/stable/13-n252436-b63021e001d: Sun Sep 18 22:01:30 PDT 2022     gimbal@sol.cloud.thinkum.space:/usr/obj/sol_FreeBSD-13.1-STABLE_amd64/usr/src/amd64.amd64/sys/RIPARIAN amd64

I'd read that the stock M.2 wifi/bluetooth card in the Minisforum box might not be well supported on FreeBSD. So, I've replaced this with an AX201NGW M.2 wifi/bluetooth card from MQUPIN. I'm not sure if this may be well supported, either. There's nothing listed for it under pciconf -lv. I've also checked usbconfig. Although I'm seeing one unrecognized device in the list, I don't know if it's showing up there

Code: 
$ usbconfig

ugen1.1: <AMD XHCI root HUB> at usbus1, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=SUPER (5.0Gbps) pwr=SAVE (0mA)
ugen0.1: <AMD XHCI root HUB> at usbus0, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=SUPER (5.0Gbps) pwr=SAVE (0mA)
ugen1.2: <VIA Labs, Inc. USB2.0 Hub> at usbus1, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=SAVE (0mA)
ugen0.2: <C-Media Electronics Inc. USB Audio Device> at usbus0, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=FULL (12Mbps) pwr=ON (100mA)
ugen0.3: <VIA Labs, Inc. USB2.0 Hub> at usbus0, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=SAVE (0mA)
ugen1.3: <VIA Labs, Inc. USB3.0 Hub> at usbus1, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=SUPER (5.0Gbps) pwr=SAVE (0mA)
ugen0.4: <vendor 0x058f product 0x6254> at usbus0, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=SAVE (100mA)
ugen0.5: <VIA Labs, Inc. USB2.0 Hub> at usbus0, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=SAVE (0mA)
ugen0.6: <Newmen Tech.,LTD 2.4GHz 2way RF Receiver> at usbus0, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=FULL (12Mbps) pwr=ON (46mA)
ugen0.7: <Keychron K8 Keychron K8> at usbus0, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=FULL (12Mbps) pwr=ON (100mA)
ugen0.8: <VIA Labs, Inc. USB3.0 Hub> at usbus0, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=SUPER (5.0Gbps) pwr=SAVE (0mA)
ugen0.9: <VIA Labs, Inc. USB3.0 Hub> at usbus0, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=SUPER (5.0Gbps) pwr=SAVE (0mA)
ugen0.10: <ELAN Touchscreen> at usbus0, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=FULL (12Mbps) pwr=ON (100mA)

The unrecognized device:
Code: 
ugen0.4: <vendor 0x058f product 0x6254> at usbus0, cfg=0 md=HOST spd=HIGH (480Mbps) pwr=SAVE (100mA)

I've booted the machine with devmatch_enable="YES" in rc.conf.

I've not been able to configure a wlan adapter with iwlwifi. I'm not sure where the M.2 wifi/bt card might be listed, if it's supported.

Would it be listed under pciconf?

I guess I should probably check the BIOS screen, to see if there's any place where it might show up there, if the wifi/bt card is recognized by the BIOS. I'd thought that the card was using the appropriate card interface. At the product page, it's listed as an AX201NGW card. It's not a CNVi card, in this AMD machine.

The Minisforum documentation may be fairly limited, as far as what's supported on the motherboard - it doesn't have many places to plug things in. I don't think they list anything about the M.2 wifi/bt card. I was kind of guessing in the dark that the AX201 card I'd selected might work. If it's not supported, I'll try switching back to the stock wifi/bt card, at least it might be a place to start.

My first idea was to check where it would be listed, if it's recognized by FreeBSD
 
neogeo said:
I'm not sure where the M.2 wifi/bt card might be listed, if it's supported.

Would it be listed under pciconf?
Click to expand...
If it's recognized (Not necessarily if it's supported. It can be unsupported but identified by vendor and device ID), it would be listed by the pciconf(8) diagnostic utility.

Run pciconf -lv | grep -B3 network.

To quote from the manual:
Rich (BB code): 
     The first column gives the driver name, unit number, and selector.  If
     there is no driver attached to the PCI device in question, the driver
     name will be “none”.
 
If anyone may happen to find this page through a search, from a thread at the minisforum forums it looks like the HX90 might need an AX200 card (not AX201). Earlier HX90 models have shipped with an AX200 card installed. Newer models are shipping with an MT7921K card. I haven't tested whether these can be swapped out - I'm guessing it may have been a production change, not any change with the interface on the motherboard.

The MT7921K card may be supported under wifibox on FreeBSD. As this uses bhyve, it may not be compatible with VirtualBox while the bhyve parts are running, should work out otherwise?

The AX200 card might not be supported, at this time.

The AX201 card isn't showing up anywhere in the bios here. So, wifibox
 
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