Re: Network issue
Reply #87 –
Last year my internal Intel 5300 started going very slowly, about 1mb d/l. I bought a replacement, when I fitted it, the first boot was fine, then it went slow again. That was why I wondered if the firmware was cached in the card somehow, plus I read some stuff online, but I don't think it is in fact. Having recently swapped the mobo this seemed to rule out the hw, so prompted by this thread I gave it another go:
You can see what firmware is loaded with this, I had to install the lshw package first:
sudo lshw -C network
sudo mv /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-* (to some other empty dir)
Download the firmware for your card direct from Intel here:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005511/wireless.html
tar -xvzf iwlwifi-5000-ucode-8.24.2.12.tgz
cd iwlwifi-5000-ucode-8.24.2.12/
sudo cp iwlwifi-5000-2.ucode /lib/firmware/
Reboot & try it, try another version if it doesn't work and there are other versions available.
*-network
description: Wireless interface
product: Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:0c:00.0
logical name: wlp12s0
version: 00
serial: 00:21:6a:ac:b7:0a
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=5.10.16-1-lts firmware=8.24.2.12 5000-2.ucode ip=192.168.1.125 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802
.11
resources: irq:34 memory:f1ffe000-f1ffffff
With the newest version my card was still slow, but trying the one before it is working normally again - at least on this boot, hopefully it will last
Now the next bit is write a Pacman hook or something that puts the right firmware in place on updates of the firmware package which is needed for other bits of hw, or just remember to do it manually.
Also the sha256sum of the package firmware and the Intel firmware was different, despite the same file name, so it's worth a try even if it seems to be the same version that you already have.
I should add I can easily play with the iwlwifi stuff, because I also have another non-Intel wireless adapter plugged in which uses a different driver and firmware.
Well that seems to have fixed my Intel wifi, perhaps the same idea will help with yours?
As for BIOS updates, the methods vary with what make and model you are updating, there are often ways to do it in Linux but not always. You have to look it up online. Sometimes you can put the BIOS update on a disk or USB or something, and it's loaded when you start the computer, so it makes no difference what OS you use.