Re: Weird (to me) state of iwlwifi 11a

On Tue, 30 Sep 2025, Goran Mekić wrote:

> On 9/30/25 12:39, Goran Mekić wrote:
>> On 9/30/25 01:05, Bjoern A. Zeeb wrote:
>>> On Mon, 29 Sep 2025, Goran Mekić wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Hello,
>>>> 
>>>> After watching bz@ talk at this years EuroBSDCon, I learned that iwlwifi 
>>>> supports 11a, but only on newer chipsets. My laptop connects only to 
>>>> 11ng, but here's the weird thing: I see at least one WiFi network on 
>>>> channel 36 through "ifconfig wlan0 scan". I thought that 11a is required 
>>>> to see channel 36, but as a total WiFi noob, I might be totally wrong. 
>>>> Anyway, my question is how to check if my iwlwifi is new enough and why 
>>>> do I see network on channel 36? Thank you!
>>> 
>>> s/11a/11n and 11ac/    a != ac
>>> 
>>> /bz
>>> 
>> I used terminology found in ifconfig(8). Search for "mode mode" in that man 
>> page, so I really wasn't trying to be smart. Does it mean that man page 
>> needs an update?
>> 
>> Anyway, I guess being tired from EuroBSDCon trip back home made me forget 
>> post the mandatory data, so I appologize. I run 15.0-RELEASE and the card 
>> is 
> I ment 15.0-ALPHA4, I guess I'm still tired.

if you got your firmware using fwget from packages then you should have a file
/boot/loader.conf.d/ which sets the appropriate tunables for the next boot.

sysctl compat.linuxkpi.80211
sysctl -a compat.linuxkpi | grep iwlifi

Should show 11n and 11ac enabled.

% ifconfig wlan0 | grep media:
         media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet VHT mode 11ac


And yes, the AX210 is generally new enough.

/bz

-- 
Bjoern A. Zeeb                                                     r15:7