Re: How to install wifi firmware with no wired connection

On Fri, 23 Oct 2026 at 20:30, Jordan Hubbard <jordan.hubbard@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Is there some particular reason this is a documented work-around rather
> than simply including the wifi firmware in the installer image?
>
> It’s so straight-forward to include the firmware on the installation ISO,
> even with limits on the ISO size (the >2GB ISO images are probably, in
> fact, a little bloated!) that I must be missing something?
>

I was under the impression that the wifi firmware packages /are/ included
in the full ISO images.
They're not included in the smaller ones, and I do hit cases where firmware
just isn't installed
and I have to do it post installation.

If people can share what they have, what they're trying to install
(specifically which installer
image down to its filename), I can go chase it down with release/src
manager teams.

I've poked them recently about including some more wifi/bt firmware in base
so at least /one/ wifi chipset (realtek usb/pcie) works with base only, but
that's ..
a rough argument rn.

-adrian


>
> - Jordan
>
> On Oct 21, 2026, at 5:53 AM, Devin Teske <dteske@freebsd.org> wrote:
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On 21 Oct 2026, at 3:53 AM, Tomek CEDRO <tomek@cedro.info> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Oct 21, 2026 at 10:16 AM Lars Tunkrans <drsnx60@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> hi
>
>   Here is a  one-pager documentation  that  I  feel  is  missing from
>
> the handbook.
>
>   AN often recurring  issue  in  forums and discord  is a  user with a
>
> new laptop without wired Ethernet  connection.
>
>    the  problem  becomes  how  to  install  WIFI-Firmware  when you
>
> cant download anything  to  the  machine.
>
>      There may be  other  ways  to  solve  the  issue , but this is
>
> what I  came up with.
>
>
> Thanks Lars, +1 to add to Handbook, these hints may come handy also in
> other similar situations :-)
>
>
> I filed a bug for this issue back in May, and even included remediation
> steps:
>
> https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=295433
>
> I will have a look at the proposed handbook additions soon
>
> I am curious how close our steps are to each other
>
> Thank you, Lars, for taking this on as well
> —
> Devin
>
>
>