What is the (technical) reason FreeBSD wifi is subpar?

W

wtrys

Hey all! My name is Wyatt and I've used FreeBSD a little, though I am primarily a Linux user. While I love using FreeBSD and prefer its more drawn-together philosophy of systems, I have never been able to use it at scale or for long. This is because of one reason: wifi. I have only used laptops that use iwlwifi, so I suppose there's a chance that my specific driver has been left in the dust. As for the problems, it is slow and just about half of the time it doesn't connect at all. I know there are efforts to improve this, and I would like to see if I can one day be able to, when my C is up to snuff, but I would like your inputs as to why it is this way technically, especially compared to something like Linux. Thanks!
 
It's less of a technical reason and more a matter of resources. Some individual is working on incorporating faster wifi devices and is likely a unpaid contributor. FreeBSD's networking stack is one of the fastest on the planet and it shines as a server OS. Not too many commercial servers run on a wireless connection.

iwlwifi(4) connects to different wavelengths. 2.4Ghz has more range than 5.0Ghz but is slower. If a 5.0Ghz signal is weak it will throttle down to the point that it is slower than 2.4Ghz.
 
wtrys said:
Hey all! My name is Wyatt and I've used FreeBSD a little, though I am primarily a Linux user. While I love using FreeBSD and prefer its more drawn-together philosophy of systems, I have never been able to use it at scale or for long. This is because of one reason: wifi. I have only used laptops that use iwlwifi, so I suppose there's a chance that my specific driver has been left in the dust. As for the problems, it is slow and just about half of the time it doesn't connect at all. I know there are efforts to improve this, and I would like to see if I can one day be able to, when my C is up to snuff, but I would like your inputs as to why it is this way technically, especially compared to something like Linux. Thanks!
Click to expand...
How old is your Experience ?
iwlwifi with AX200 - AX210 chipsets are better today than say 18 months ago , as the Laptop&Desktop project is improving the performance of wifi.

If you post your ' ifconfig -a' output that may show some interesting data for your case.
Which FreeBSD version are you using ?

Regards.
 
technical reasons? Well, two come to mind and they are related

1) much open-source WIFI is the result of reverse engineering closed source systems without complete technical support from the chip manufacturers. If they dont provide a well documented API for the HAL (hardware abstraction layer) then all bets are off.

2) you don't want to hear it, but MANY chips are released with bugs in them and to make them work the manufacturers publish an errata sheet to their preferred vendors so those integrators can fix the problems in software. It's cheaper than throwing out a whole run of an ASIC.

and dont think it is just freeBSD that WIFI is weak on. The whole open-source WIFI stack is a hack job, whether it be BSD or Linux. Also, whether it be PCI or USB, the WIFI device has a vendor/product specific ID that must exist in the driver for the device to be recognized...that means all possible versions of the chip must be "registered" in the driver.
 
cracauer@ said:
The primary technical reason for this difficulty is that the required software stack of layers and protocols needed for wifi is very big.
Click to expand...
It is, although at least these days you can usually find a USB wifi adapter that will do the job. It's just more work than is ideal sometimes thanks to the way that manufacturers issue revisions sometimes without clearly indicating it.
 
The hardware/driver part is just one of the layers. A bigger issue is the enormous amount of code that's required to support the various IEEEE 802.11 protocols. Those are common for all wifi networking, regardless of the "hardware" driver for the card.

README.md « net80211 « sys - src - FreeBSD source tree

cgit.freebsd.org cgit.freebsd.org

PROTOCOL.md « net80211 « sys - src - FreeBSD source tree

cgit.freebsd.org cgit.freebsd.org

Even if you got the physical card recognised and working you still won't be able to use 802.11eb (Wifi 7) for example.
 
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