Intel 9260 Wireless Card doesn't play nice with LM

[hglee]

https://termbin.com/mntv
Yes, Bluetooth is confirmed to be working without issues. Connected a couple devices to it and it works flawlessly, so no worries there

If your XPS has Bluetooth with an 8811CU (no BT) dongle, then it's Bluetooth from the Intel 9260 chipset. (An 8821CU has BT.)


Meanwhile that 9260 wifi is so far out into the Twilight Zone that your XPS is unable to assign it an interface name, or even to see the MAC address.

[IonParticles]

https://termbin.com/mntv
Yes, Bluetooth is confirmed to be working without issues. Connected a couple devices to it and it works flawlessly, so no worries there

If your XPS has Bluetooth with an 8811CU (no BT) dongle, then it's Bluetooth from the Intel 9260 chipset. (An 8821CU has BT.)


Meanwhile that 9260 wifi is so far out into the Twilight Zone that your XPS is unable to assign it an interface name, or even to see the MAC address.

Yep I've made sure I removed the 8811cu and double-checked with rfkill... Definitely coming from the 9260.

Also is that true? The XPS has a built in antenna which was originally in place for the Killer Wireless card, and I've reseated it 2 times and ensured the connections were properly in place... Looking at the dmesg logs it's more of a configuration error, as I've looked at the program itself and saw it attempted to look for Regulatory info (NVM file) from the 9260 yet was unable to do so. I've heard of some fixes for other chipsets that addressed this issue, yet nothing for this one...

Also there's the fact that it works perfectly fine on Windows, signal's rated as strong there.

I tried to test something out and tried to see if it worked on my old live 19.3 Linux Mint USB and still nothing was recognized + exact same error. This was on kernel 5.0.0. I've even tried lower kernel versions and nothing. Looks like it's something else.

[IonParticles]

Going to try it out on a live USB for LM 20.1, then reinstall firmware if it's recognized hopefully

[hglee]

Also is that true? The XPS has a built in antenna which was originally in place for the Killer Wireless card, and I've reseated it 2 times and ensured the connections were properly in place... Looking at the dmesg logs it's more of a configuration error, as I've looked at the program itself and saw it attempted to look for Regulatory info (NVM file) from the 9260 yet was unable to do so. I've heard of some fixes for other chipsets that addressed this issue, yet nothing for this one...

Also there's the fact that it works perfectly fine on Windows, signal's rated as strong there.

I tried to test something out and tried to see if it worked on my old live 19.3 Linux Mint USB and still nothing was recognized + exact same error. This was on kernel 5.0.0. I've even tried lower kernel versions and nothing. Looks like it's something else.

Yes, page 28 of the XPS 13 9360 Service Manual shows the two wires from the antenna in the laptop's lid. The leads just snap on/off like metal buttons.


What messages are you seeing about Regulatory issues?

If you suspect that your XPS wireless is set for the wrong region, check it with the following:

Code: Select all

iw reg get

It shows your current setting of two-letter country code and channel frequencies.

You can set your country code, such as for the USA: iw reg set US.


Your country code is also in the file /etc/default/crda. To see it:

Code: Select all

cat /etc/default/crda

[IonParticles]

What messages are you seeing about Regulatory issues?

Not so much messages, but rather found this in Intel's mainline tracking repo that could explain the first error:

https://github.com/intel/mainline-track ... /mvm/nvm.c

Specifically in this section:

Code: Select all

		/* SW and REGULATORY sections are mandatory */
		if (!mvm->nvm_sections[NVM_SECTION_TYPE_SW].data ||
		    !mvm->nvm_sections[regulatory_type].data) {
			IWL_ERR(mvm,
				"Can't parse empty family 8000 OTP/NVM sections\n");
			return NULL;
		}

I honestly do not know what exactly an "NVM_file" means, but from the comments I've seen there I'd assume that it derives from some sort of regulatory read error. I tried to open an issue there but isn't it better to file a bug report? I've tried basically everything and nothing worked. This past day alone I've tried resetting BIOS, trying multiple supported kernel versions such as 4.20 and earlier, reinstalling firmware yet again, even trying other distros (light ones that are capable of running on a USB, such as Lubuntu and Puppy Linux). I really don't know what to do next. I've made an attempt to contact intel support since they provided the software but haven't received a response yet...

On every kernel I've tried, none worked.

If you suspect that your XPS wireless is set for the wrong region, check it with the following:

Code: Select all

iw reg get

Interestingly it was unset at first:

Code: Select all

ion@ion-XPS-13-9360:~$ iw reg get
global
country 00: DFS-UNSET
	(2402 - 2472 @ 40), (6, 20), (N/A)
	(2457 - 2482 @ 20), (6, 20), (N/A), AUTO-BW, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(2474 - 2494 @ 20), (6, 20), (N/A), NO-OFDM, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5170 - 5250 @ 80), (6, 20), (N/A), AUTO-BW, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5250 - 5330 @ 80), (6, 20), (0 ms), DFS, AUTO-BW, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5490 - 5730 @ 160), (6, 20), (0 ms), DFS, PASSIVE-SCAN
	(5735 - 5835 @ 80), (6, 20), (N/A), PASSIVE-SCAN
	(57240 - 63720 @ 2160), (N/A, 0), (N/A)
	

So I set it to US as you described, rebooted, and no effect. Same error.

Your country code is also in the file /etc/default/crda. To see it:

Code: Select all

cat /etc/default/crda

Revealed this: REGDOMAIN= so I set it to REGDOMAIN=US. Still nothing.

At this point, is it best to file a bug report? Where exactly do I file one, and is it for the kernel? I've tried pretty much everything to crack at it, but nothing stuck. I think it's time to call it in unfortunately

[hglee]

What messages are you seeing about Regulatory issues?

Not so much messages, but rather found this in Intel's mainline tracking repo that could explain the first error:

https://github.com/intel/mainline-track ... /mvm/nvm.c

Where, specifically, is that "first error" appearing on your XPS?

Copy-and-paste that output from your display.

[IonParticles]

Where, specifically, is that "first error" appearing on your XPS?

Using the same command for dmesg, here's a shortened version so that it's more clear:

Code: Select all

[    8.188352] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: Can't parse empty family 8000 OTP/NVM sections
[    8.188357] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: Failed to read NVM: -61
[    8.199846] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: Failed to run INIT ucode: -61

It's this first error that indicates that it failed to parse some sort of regulatory issue as described previously:

Code: Select all

[    8.188352] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: Can't parse empty family 8000 OTP/NVM sections
 

[IonParticles]

Received a response from Intel, they are taking a look at it. Hopefully something comes out of it

[FrankJiang]

Hi @IonParticles,

Have you resolved it? I got the same issue, please advise if you have any solutions. Thanks!

[IonParticles]

Hi @IonParticles,

Have you resolved it? I got the same issue, please advise if you have any solutions. Thanks!

Hey! Unfortunately nothing yet . Contacted Intel support and they gave a series of instructions to send over logs but no conclusion has been reached yet... Been waiting for a couple weeks now. I'll need to rebuild and enable the IWLWIFI_DEBUG parameter on iwlwifi within kconfig to send more detailed error info but had no dice on it so far, I'll update if I find something. Even Intel's own wiki doesn't mention anything over enabling this parameter, just other alternatives that don't provide as detailed information.

[IonParticles]

Anyone else find a possible solution? Talked with Intel Support and they couldn't find the problem, so I'm forced to use a USB alternative in order to access WiFi on Linux atm... Am considering returning it but if there's even a workaround I'll definitely use that instead

[sleeper12]

You could try the 5.11 kernel. Also, maybe something here:
https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.c ... -wifi.html