iwm9000fw: could not load firmware image, error 8

I

iskhakov-r

Sorry if this was answered in one way or another many times, but I'm really stuck here.

Booting with Thinkpad X390 into the LiveCD mode on FreeBSD 15.0 (for the first time!). After successful boot and inspecting the system message buffer, I stumble upon a firmware problem:

Code: 
# dmesg | grep iwm
iwm0: <Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless AC 9560> mem 0xc3d38000-0xc3d3bfff at device 20.3 on pci0
iwm9000fw: could not load firmware image, error 8
iwm0: hw rev 0x310, fw ver 34.3125811985.0, address 58:96:1d:59:d4:db

Looking at what the error code of 8 actually means:
Code: 
# perror 8
Exec format error

Looking up online, the "Exec format error" apparently means that a kernel cannot execute a file because it is not in a recognized or compatible format. But how can it be? I'm confused.

Tried to load the iwm9000fw module manually: # kldload iwm9000fw...
...but no luck, kldload: an error occurred while loading module iwm9000fw. Please check dmesg(8) for more details.

Finally, I thought maybe the WiFi card is not supported by FreeBSD yet. So I consulted # man 4 iwm manpage, and as of November 10, 2024 my WiFi card is supported.

Maybe I miss something?
 
paul_j said:
Good morning iskhakov-r - did you resolve this problem? I have also hit this snag with a Lenovo X390, with the same wifi card.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Hello paul_j. I couldn't resolve the issue in a Live System. I decided to proceed with the installation. Lo and behold, the problem resolved itself somehow. During the Network configuration stage of the bsdinstall script I was able to connect to the internet. I'm not sure why.

After the system was installed, the problem remains, BUT the wireless internet connection is still here.

My guess is that the issue is due to the fact that the iwlwifi driver is loaded before (or with) the iwm driver, but I can't confirm that.

What may help: make sure that the iwlwifi driver is not autoloaded.
 
Also I want to mention that the wlan0 init process at boot stage is very unstable. It always jumps between being UP to being DOWN. Also sometimes it loads just fine but sometimes it fails to load, being stuck at DHCPREQUEST and DHCPDISCOVER stages of dhclient.

Making wlan work on FreeBSD and Linux is always such a pain for me..
 
I still get the error message, but the wifi is working anyway. iwlwifi is loaded - did you have to do anything to stop it loading, or did you modify /boot/loading.conf to get the iwm9000fw loaded first?

I do see the slow negotiation with the IP address during boot sometimes, but it always succeeds in the end. This is not something I experienced with Linux on the same laptop, but until the drivers are all loaded correctly, I have no judgement! I also get quite a slow connection through the docking station through the USB-C connection.

I am happy with progress so far though.

Thanks!
 
paul_j said:
iwlwifi is loaded - did you have to do anything to stop it loading, or did you modify /boot/loading.conf to get the iwm9000fw loaded first?
Click to expand...
During the boot stage, you will see the similar line: "Autoloading module if_iwlwifi". First you want to make sure it is not autoloaded. Sorry I can't give you exact instructions, since I don't know how to do it myself nor did I try yet.
 
Ok, so it's straight forward: put the following line in /boot/loader.conf:
Code: 
iwm9000fw_load="YES"
I didn't need to do anything with if_iwlwifi. It still loads, but as it loads after the firmware module, there seem to be no issues.
 
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