Lenovo X220 and WiFi Centrino Advanced-N 6205 failed to work

[jfoucry]

Hello Friends,

I own (and I'm almost happy with it) a Lenovo X220. As every body who own this machine, I must says Whaouu!

Well, I ran FreeBSD 14.0-STABLE (ghostBSD)

The wifi card id a Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205:

iwn0@pci0:3:0:0:    class=0x028000 rev=0x34 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x8086 device=0x0085 subvendor=0x8086 subdevice=0x1311
    vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'
    device     = 'Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [Taylor Peak]'
    class      = network

And… It did not work. I read many docs, many thread here and the conclusion is almost "Buy an USB dongle". I think it will works, but is not a complete satisfying answer. Is it still the case with FreeBSD 14?

I tried to change the WiFi card, but I can't remove the existing one.

So, what's your thinking or advises? Did I am a perfect dumb who don't know where to search? Did FreeBSD14 does not deal with this even iwn(4) man page says this card is manage?

My configuration is really classical:

wlans_iwn0="wlan0"
create_args_wlan0="country FR regdomain ETSI"
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA DHCP"

I will check with my wifi dongle.

Thanks for reading me and give me some advises.

 

[ivosevb]

Hi, for the start try with

ifconfig_wlan0="WPA mode 11g DHCP"

 

[ChubaDuba]

iwn0@pci0:3:0:0:    class=0x028000 rev=0x34 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x8086 device=0x0085 subvendor=0x8086 subdevice=0x1311
    vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'
    device     = 'Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [Taylor Peak]'
    class      = network

Everything works fine for me on Lenovo ThinkPad x220 Tablet.
My config:

wlans_iwn0="wlan0"
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA DHCP powersave"
create_args_wlan0="country RU regdomain NONE"

 

[jfoucry]

Hello ivosevb,

Unfortunately, no chance even after a reboot.

ifconfig_wlan0="WPA mode 11g DHCP"

wlan0: flags=8802<BROADCAST,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
    options=0
    ether 08:11:96:3f:c2:d0
    groups: wlan
    ssid "" channel 1 (2412 MHz 11b)
    regdomain ETSI country FR authmode OPEN privacy OFF txpower 30
    bmiss 10 scanvalid 60 wme bintval 0
    parent interface: iwn0
    media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect (autoselect)
    status: no carrier
    nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>

 

[jfoucry]

Everything works fine for me on Lenovo ThinkPad x220 Tablet.
My config:

wlans_iwn0="wlan0"
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA DHCP powersave"
create_args_wlan0="country RU regdomain NONE"

Hi ChubaDuba,

I tried your config (only the Country ream different) and… No chance too :-(

Could it be the kernel? GhostBSD use STABLE instead of RELEASE?

Thanks for your time.

 

[ChapinTokyo]

Hi, last weekend I installed GhostBSD to my Lenovo X230 Core i7 laptop which has a a Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 wifi card the same as you. In my case, I found that GhostBSD would recognise the 2.4GHz access point provided by my Linksys wifi router, but not the 5GHz access point. In addition, I found that it would not recognise the pocket wifi modem's 2.4GHz or 5GHz access points provided by my HUAWEI E5785 mobile wifi modem or the 5GHz or 2.4GHz wifi tethering access point provided by my iPhone.

When I am running Ubuntu Linux based FerenOS on the same laptop I am able to connect to both 2.4GHz and 5GHz access points at home, on my mobile wifi modem, and the 2.4GHz tethering access point on my iPhone, so I am looking for a way to get GhostBSD to work with either my mobile wifi or my iPhone, so I can take the laptop out and about.

Any pointers you might be able to give me would be much appreciated.

 

[scottro]

In theory, threads about GhostBSD shouldn't be here, they should stick to GhostBSD forums

Topics about unsupported FreeBSD versions

The FreeBSD Forums cater primarily to end-users and systems administrators. As such, the Forums focus almost exclusively on FreeBSD versions that are officially supported according to the official FreeBSD website. Since resources are scarce, the FreeBSD Forums strongly suggest that anyone asking...

forums.freebsd.org

However, we have several page threads about Linux, mostly to say how bad it is, while Linux forums don't think about us at all, and threads like this one often get answers, and this thread is more a question about FreeBSD and wireless, even if it is the GhostBSD version.
FreeBSD's wireless support is lagging behind Linux, regardless of card. As an anecdotal example, on my local LAN, I get about 6 Mbs with FreeBSD vs. 40 Mbs with Linux. I also found (some years ago, though), that at my local library, FreeBSD would not see the 5G wireless.

HOWEVER--I have found, that practically speaking FreeBSD's wireless speed is quite sufficient for things like youtube videos and other video content I've come across. This is my experience, yours may be different.
If your wireless is not recognized at all, a wireless USB dongle is usually sufficient, but ChapinTokyo it seems that yours works, it just doesn't get 5G, which is probably normal at this time. (The OP's last post was in May, so I assume they either solved their problem, or decided to live with it)

 

[ChapinTokyo]

In theory, threads about GhostBSD shouldn't be here, they should stick to GhostBSD forums

Topics about unsupported FreeBSD versions

The FreeBSD Forums cater primarily to end-users and systems administrators. As such, the Forums focus almost exclusively on FreeBSD versions that are officially supported according to the official FreeBSD website. Since resources are scarce, the FreeBSD Forums strongly suggest that anyone asking...

forums.freebsd.org

However, we have several page threads about Linux, mostly to say how bad it is, while Linux forums don't think about us at all, and threads like this one often get answers, and this thread is more a question about FreeBSD and wireless, even if it is the GhostBSD version.
FreeBSD's wireless support is lagging behind Linux, regardless of card. As an anecdotal example, on my local LAN, I get about 6 Mbs with FreeBSD vs. 40 Mbs with Linux. I also found (some years ago, though), that at my local library, FreeBSD would not see the 5G wireless.

HOWEVER--I have found, that practically speaking FreeBSD's wireless speed is quite sufficient for things like youtube videos and other video content I've come across. This is my experience, yours may be different.
If your wireless is not recognized at all, a wireless USB dongle is usually sufficient, but ChapinTokyo it seems that yours works, it just doesn't get 5G, which is probably normal at this time. (The OP's last post was in May, so I assume they either solved their problem, or decided to live with it)

My apologies for posting here. I am new to GhostBSD but have been trying to use FreeBSD for a long time but not being able to install a GUI desktop to it （I was doing all this in VM Virtualbox so I did not need to worry about wifi then).

The wifi speed on 2.4GHz is sufficient for my needs too, but unfortunately it only works when I'm connecting to my home wifi router. When I'm away and about, with my iPhone tethering or mobile wifi modem, the Thinkpad X230 running GhostBSD stops working. I will try to ask for help over at the GhostBSD forum.