Update new wifi driver

Support
1

while waiting for nethserver 8, i bought a new wifi card AsiaRF’s AW7915-NP1 (2,4ghz & 5ghz contemporary) with mediatek chipset, but i can’t find the way to install the related drivers.


# lspci -k | grep MEDIATEK
03:00.0 Network controller: MEDIATEK Corp. Device 7906
         Subsystem: MEDIATEK Corp. Device 7906

The card is supported by at least linux kernel 5.4 lts.

(only the 7901 ones are shown but from what I read they are also good for the mediatek 7906 chipset)

I install kernel 5.4 with

# yum --enablerepo=elrepo-kernel install kernel-lt

and updating the grub I can boot and run nethserver without problems.

but i still can’t find the new drivers…
locate drivers | wireless grep

# locate driver | wireless grep
/usr/lib/modules/3.10.0-1160.76.1.el7.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless
/usr/lib/modules/3.10.0-1160.76.1.el7.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath
/usr/lib/modules/3.10.0-1160.76.1.el7.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/broadcom
/usr/lib/modules/3.10.0-1160.76.1.el7.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/intel
/usr/lib/modules/3.10.0-1160.76.1.el7.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/mac80211_hwsim.ko.xz
/usr/lib/modules/3.10.0-1160.76.1.el7.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/marvell
/usr/lib/modules/3.10.0-1160.76.1.el7.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ralink
/usr/lib/modules/3.10.0-1160.76.1.el7.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/realtek
...

in the path I find only those kernel 3.10.

Even thrown (should update the driver and exsternal module) there isn’t way

dkms autoinstall
or
dkms autoinstall 5.4.243-1.el7.elrepo.x86_64

It’s been a few days that even looking on the internet I can’t figure out how the heck I can pull down the new 5.4 lts kernel drivers. How can I download the new drivers?

however, I am aware that such a big leap of the linux kernel is risky… but I would like to make a test to make the new wifi card work, with nethserver.

2

Hi @fabgatw

AFAIK, WiFi isn’t supported on NethServer, and there’s never been any form of GUI for WiFi…

It can work, but you’re on your own here…
There’s simply hardly any interest for this, as it’s cheaper and simpler to get a WiFi box…

My 2 cents
Andy

3

Ciao @Andy_Wismer
I have already tried with a wifi card but it is very old (slow) and only supports one band. Either I set 2.5 ghz or 5 ghz.

Installing hostapd works great. If I may suggest nethserver should include hostapd. I’ve researched hostapd.conf and it’s well documented. For raspberry pi there is already a quite detailed open source ui. my2cents

If I can “download” and “install” the new drivers that already exist with the new kernel I don’t think I have any other obstacles.
Forgive me but I still have a lot to study :slight_smile:

4

Hi @fabgatw

If anyone want’s to, they’re free to install whatever they want.

But I don’t think WiFi is needed or will be implemented on NethServer.
I won’t EVER need WiFi on NethServer, it just can’t compete with professional WiFi hardware!

Additionally, you must have two WiFi NICs to support Dualband use, as each NIC will only support either 2.4 or 5 GHz, but not both at the same time. Professional boxes have at least two NICs built in, some more than 4…

Even OpenWRT is much better than NethServer!
(I also use OpenWRT along with Unify…)

My 2 cents
Andy

5

Maybe in the mainline kernel

alias=pci:v000014C3d00007906svsdbcsci*

2 Likes
6

Thanks for replay… From what you suggest maybe I should find an alternative to nethserver.

For a small small (pretty small) office behavior is mandatory have a wifi solution. At the moment in the current version of nethserver the wifi working fine (hostapd + kernel 5.4) but the card is so old (and i don’t have 2.4ghz).

just a bit… according to the card specs → WiFi6 3000 mPCIe Module G-band 2T2R A-band 3T3R 2ss DBDC MT7916
AsiaRF’s AW7915-NP1 can work at 2.4ghz and 5ghz at the same time. G-band 2T2R + A-band 3T3R 2ss Dual Bands Dual Concurrents (DBDC) based on Mediatek MT7916AN.

I’m still looking for a way to download the new drivers with the updated kernel… but I don’t understand how to do it…

7

I don’t even bother, I buy hardware which just works!

I don’t even want a second NIC, let alone WiFi on any server, only my hardware firewall needs more than one NIC…

(Also my Proxmox, usinng a second Backup Network…)

My 2 cents
Andy

8

Did you try the elrepo mainline kernel as @dnutan suggested? It includes the driver for mt7915 which could work too, see also Is MT7916 supported? - Hardware Questions and Recommendations - OpenWrt Forum

To install the mainline kernel:

yum --enablerepo=elrepo-kernel install kernel-ml

Here are the supported devices:

[root@testserver ~]# uname -a
Linux testserver.domain.local 6.3.3-1.el7.elrepo.x86_64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Tue May 16 11:18:45 EDT 2023 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[root@testserver ~]# find / -iname "*mt79*"
/usr/lib/modules/6.3.3-1.el7.elrepo.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/mt7915
/usr/lib/modules/6.3.3-1.el7.elrepo.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/mt7915/mt7915e.ko
/usr/lib/modules/6.3.3-1.el7.elrepo.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/mt7921
/usr/lib/modules/6.3.3-1.el7.elrepo.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/mt7921/mt7921-common.ko
/usr/lib/modules/6.3.3-1.el7.elrepo.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/mt7921/mt7921e.ko
/usr/lib/modules/6.3.3-1.el7.elrepo.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/mt7921/mt7921s.ko
/usr/lib/modules/6.3.3-1.el7.elrepo.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/mt7921/mt7921u.ko
/usr/lib/modules/6.3.3-1.el7.elrepo.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/mt7996
/usr/lib/modules/6.3.3-1.el7.elrepo.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/mt7996/mt7996e.ko
1 Like
9

I may be old but wifi connected servers also no.

Put an access point configured in client mode connected to the server’s network card?

1 Like