# Yet another Intel 7260 problem

## Martux

Hi folks!

Just installed Gentoo on this CLEVO/KAPOK Computer Device 2300 laptop. 

The systems' arch is ~amd64, the kernel version is gentoo-sources-4.0.2.

So far, so good, but the Intel 7260 WIFI/Bluetooth device is giving me headaches. 

```

03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 (rev bb)

        Subsystem: Intel Corporation Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260

        Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi

```

I learned that I can get it working either through linux-firmware or through sys-firmware/iwl7260-ucode.

The linux-firmware version seems to work better in general, but my main problem now is, that when it gets loaded through NetworkManager,, the WIFI connection needs 2 minutes to come up. I think this is because several firmwares are tried to be loaded, until finally one is successful.

Here's the output of /var/log/messages:

```

May 10 18:00:22 xmg-laptop kernel: iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-7260-11.ucode failed with error -2

May 10 18:00:22 xmg-laptop kernel: iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Falling back to user helper

May 10 18:01:22 xmg-laptop kernel: iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: loaded firmware version 23.15.10.0 op_mode iwlmvm

May 10 18:01:22 xmg-laptop kernel: iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: Detected Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless AC 7260, REV=0x144

May 10 18:01:22 xmg-laptop kernel: iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: L1 Disabled - LTR Enabled

May 10 18:01:22 xmg-laptop kernel: iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: L1 Disabled - LTR Enabled

May 10 18:01:22 xmg-laptop kernel: ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'iwl-mvm-rs'

May 10 18:01:22 xmg-laptop NetworkManager[2240]: <info>  rfkill1: found WiFi radio killswitch (at /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.2/0000:03:00.0/ieee80211/phy0/rfkill1) (driver iwlwifi)

May 10 18:01:22 xmg-laptop kernel: iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0 wlp3s0: renamed from wlan0

May 10 18:01:22 xmg-laptop NetworkManager[2240]: <info>  (wlp3s0): new 802.11 WiFi device (driver: 'iwlwifi' ifindex: 4)

May 10 18:01:22 xmg-laptop kernel: iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: L1 Disabled - LTR Enabled

May 10 18:01:22 xmg-laptop kernel: iwlwifi 0000:03:00.0: L1 Disabled - LTR Enabled

```

I tried now to recompile linux-firmware with USE="savedconfig" and remove everything but this...

```

ls -la /lib/firmware/

insgesamt 688

drwxr-xr-x  3 root root  16384 10. Mai 18:16 .

drwxr-xr-x 15 root root   4096 10. Mai 16:58 ..

-rw-r--r--  1 root root 672352 10. Mai 17:47 iwlwifi-7260-10.ucode

-rw-r--r--  1 root root   1040 10. Mai 18:16 rtl8411-2.fw

drwxr-xr-x  2 root root   4096 10. Mai 17:47 rtl_nic

```

...but it is still looking for the .11 version of that firmware. Before using USE="savedconfig", all available firmwares were in that folder...

Another super-weird but toally unrelated issue is that the rtl8169  network chip desperately wants to load a file called "rtl8411-2.fw", which seems to be for a totally different NIC? Although the file is there, it's still not being used.

```

May 10 16:34:01 xmg-laptop NetworkManager[2240]: <info>  (enp4s0f1): new Ethernet device (driver: 'r8169' ifindex: 2)

May 10 16:34:01 xmg-laptop kernel: r8169 0000:04:00.1: Direct firmware load for rtl_nic/rtl8411-2.fw failed with error -2

May 10 16:34:01 xmg-laptop kernel: r8169 0000:04:00.1: Falling back to user helper

May 10 16:35:01 xmg-laptop kernel: r8169 0000:04:00.1 enp4s0f1: unable to load firmware patch rtl_nic/rtl8411-2.fw (-11)

May 10 16:35:01 xmg-laptop kernel: r8169 0000:04:00.1 enp4s0f1: link down

```

But that's another issue and not so important, because the device is at least working.

I would be very thankful if someone could shed some light onto my issues with the 7260, thanks!

----------

## xaviermiller

Hey,

The bug is known : https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=95941

But there is no fix at the moment  :Sad: 

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## Martux

As I understand that bug report, it seems to be a different problem.

I have a Kubuntu-15.04 installed in parallel, which doesn't have this issue.

I think it's really basically just because the firmware loader probes different firmwares, before it uses the deprecated fallback mechanism to load the right one.

----------

## Martux

I found the error: it's simply not working with gentoo-sources-4.0.2. With 3.19.7 I have absolutely no problem and can even use the latest firmware sys-firmware/iwl7260-ucode-0.12.16.25.

Now I guess, I can prepare for woes with any new kernel version and any new firmware version as well.   :Evil or Very Mad: 

----------

## xaviermiller

Indeed, the problem is with kenel >= 3.19 and the "recommanded" firmwares, version 12 and 10.

There is for now no fix, and the issue is very annoying for months now  :Sad: 

Can you also file a bug to the kernel firmware developers ?

----------

## Martux

According to Linux Wireless, there's a 13 firmware supposed to work with kernels >4.1. So it seems that it's just not working  with 4.0 kernel line?

https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/iwlwifi

----------

## xaviermiller

No idea...

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## Barbieken

I don't have any problems with 7260 on 4.0 kernel wpa-supplicant and default firmware from linux-firmware. Au contraire, it works much better than kernel 3.19, where it has long startup times just as you say.

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## Martux

Wow, that's actually really weird. What firmware-version are you using (linux-firmware has several)?

I just "make oldconfig" on the 4.0.2-kernel on the 3.19.7, so it's really even same settings in use...

----------

## Barbieken

sys-kernel/linux-firmware-20150320

# lspci | grep 7260

04:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 (rev 6b)

----------

