Can't connect to 6GHz networks

Framework Laptop 16 Linux
1

Which Linux distro are you using? Ubuntu

Which release version? 22.04 LTS
(if rolling release without a release version, skip this question)

(If rolling release, last date updated?)

Which kernel are you using? 6.8.0-48-generic #48~22.04.1-Ubuntu

Which BIOS version are you using? 3.03

Which Framework Laptop 16 model are you using? AMD Ryzen™ 7040 Series

I have finally upgraded my network to Wifi7. Every other device in my house that supports 6e or 7 connects to my new TP-Link EAP773’s with no issue on the dedicated 6GHz SSID I created. However, my FW 16 refuses to connect.

I first thought that it was something with WPA3, but even switching to Enhanced Open security resulted in the same failure.

NetworkManager[1245]: <warn> [1733178606.6143] device (wlp1s0): Activation: (wifi) association took too long, failing activation

When I look in Network Manager, it shows this as a 2.4/5GHz network, when it is actually a pure 6GHz network (I separate my SSIDs by frequency):

Screenshot from 2024-12-02 16-45-51
Screenshot from 2024-12-02 16-45-51797×537 77.1 KB

I tried creating a joined 5/6GHz SSID and the FW16 only connects to the 5GHz band and never shows 6GHz as even a supported frequency in NM.

Anybody have any ideas on this? My searches have led mostly to solutions that either don’t apply to Network Manager or didn’t have any effect. The only other posts I found in this community apply to the Intel Wifi, not the MediaTek that ships with the AMD units.

2

This thread may help [RESPONDED] AMD RZ616 wifi card doesn't work with 6GHz on kernel 6.7 - #5 by Thomas_R

3

Well, there’s some progress. Ran:

echo "options cfg80211 ieee80211_regdom=US" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/mt7921-kernel67-fix.conf

Which did get me connecting to the AP, but I couldn’t access anything on the network and then would soon disco with the following in the journal:

kernel: wlp1s0: Connection to AP 2x:xx:xx:xx:xx:x3 lost
kernel: userif-3: sent link down event.
kernel: userif-3: sent link up event.
wpa_supplicant[1298]: wlp1s0: CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=2x:xx:xx:xx:xx:x3 reason=4 locally_generated=1
wpa_supplicant[1298]: BSSID 2x:xx:xx:xx:xx:x3 ignore list count incremented to 2, ignoring for 10 seconds
wpa_supplicant[1298]: wlp1s0: Reject scan trigger since one is already pending
wpa_supplicant[1298]: wlp1s0: Failed to initiate AP scan
wpa_supplicant[1298]: wlp1s0: CTRL-EVENT-REGDOM-CHANGE init=CORE type=WORLD
wpa_supplicant[1298]: wlp1s0: CTRL-EVENT-REGDOM-CHANGE init=USER type=COUNTRY alpha2=US
NetworkManager[1255]: <info>  [1733182589.5353] device (wlp1s0): supplicant interface state: completed -> disconnected
4

Hmm… I’m having the same issue but with the Qualcomm WIFI7 card.

5

Are you also on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS?

I get the feeling that if I try a 24.04 or Fedora Live ISO, it will all work just fine. I’m not ready to move to 24.04 because there is still a lot of stuff that I need that is not available on 24.04 yet.

6

Sorry, I’m on Fedora 41 (kernel 6.11.10).

7

Oh! No need to be sorry! This is good information. It could mean the issue is with the linux driver/kernel, itself, not specifically a distro-related issue.

I wonder if I should just get a Wifi7 card for my FW. Then again, I bet those drivers are even more unstable than the 6e cards are, given how new 7 is.

8

So far the only card known to work-ish is the Qualcomm one that I currently have. The Intel BE200 is known to not even POST with our machines (or most AMD Ryzen machines even). The other WIFI 7 card is the MediaTek, but so far I don’t know if anyone got one yet.

Mediatek Mt7925 in case anyone is looking for it.

9

Some sources say the Mediatek Mt7925 doesn’t work with AMD (but does work with Linux, go figure). :man_shrugging:

It’s a $30 module that I can use elsewhere, should it not work in my FW. So, I went ahead and ordered one to test. :upside_down_face: We’ll see how it goes when it arrives in a few weeks.

That said, I would still love to get to the bottom of the current woes with the included module, for the greater good of the FW community. :sunglasses:

10

More for the WIFI 7 thread - no one has that module yet, just the Qualcomm. It works great in Windows, but meh in Linux. Hopefully the driver will get better.

So far no one is talking about the Mediatek wifi 7 card at all. At least none I ran into.

11

Well, my MT7925 finally arrived.

Good News: My FW 16 did not explode upon installation (joke about the supposed lack of AMD support)!

Bad News: While I could connect to my 5GHz and 2GHz networks, I got the EXACT same results on my 6GHz network as I do with the MT7921 that came from the factory in my FW16. In fact, despite using the same exact kernel module, the MT7925 performed nearly 40% on the 5GHz band in my tests. This was in both Ubuntu 22.04 and Fedora 41.

It would seem that the linux kernel module for the entire MediaTek MT7xxx series (the mt79xx and mt76xx modules appear to be linked) could be borked for 6GHz connectivity.

I guess we shall just wait…

12

Are you able to see how well it performs (both BT audio and Wi-Fi speeds/bands) in Windows as well?

How is BT audio in Linux?

13

I…didn’t get that far. lol I don’t use Windows at all and almost never use BT on the FW, spare perhaps for a mouse on rare occasion. I’ve yet to connect BT audio on my FW to anything. :man_shrugging:

I’ll see about throwing it in again later this week and do at least some BT audio testing in linux, but only if I can reasonably load a newer kernel in Ubuntu 22.04. I’m curious if a newer kernel will perhaps at least match up wifi perf across the two chips.

I’m not setting up a windows install, though. I have zero use for it. :upside_down_face:

2 Likes
14

I don’t expect you to install windows if you don’t already dual boot, so no worries, lol.

I ask about BT audio because the Qualcomm NCM865 is fine in Windows (as long as you disable AMD BT Audio in Device Manager), but slow in Linux (6.12.6) and BT audio just doesn’t work at all.

So figured to ask about these two things across the different OSes for the Mediatek card.

Very disappointed that there aren’t any good WIFI7 cards for AMD. Also we’re dealing with Linux and USB4 issues with docks and multiple displays.

15

My gripe isn’t so much with AMD or Linux as it is with Intel…the fact that they preclude their wifi chipsets from working with AMD CPUs irks me to no end. It’s an Apple-esque move.

Sadly, consolidation in the market surrounding commodity components like Wifi and BT have resulted in only a few chipset makers remaining and no incentive to make high performance chipsets or compete. Market penetration of 6GHz is still pretty slim in the normal consumer segment - most folks seem content with their craptastic ISP-provided routers and don’t even notice that their new “WiFi7-Enabled” device can’t even connect to a 6GHz network. :face_vomiting:

16

For the most part, I cannot connect to 6 GHz either the AX210 nor the NCM865 reliably. Sometimes it sees the 6 GHz SSID, and sometimes not. It won’t connect to it (yes, passphrase is correct). When set to MLO on both 5 and 6 GHz, it connects to 5 GHz only. On the rare times it connects to 6 GHz (prior to 24H2), the speeds are slightly faster BUT signal strength is lower than 5 GHz (even when next to the AP). After 24H2, it shows it’s connected to both bands via MLO but speeds are slower than when I was just on 5 GHz (prior to 24H2 update).

I have better luck with the Intel, but for now either it’s software driver issues (that’s what I’m hoping), my AP’s firmware, or (worse) a fundamental issue with the 6 GHz radio on my TP-Link EAP773 AP.

FYI, this isn’t just on my laptop, but my 6E phone and tablet just have spotty 6 GHz use (most of the time, connected to 5 GHz, 6 GHz sometimes don’t get seen, and only rarely does it connect at 6, but then drops abck to 5).

Maybe we’re still too early for 6GHz, let alone WIFI7. I’d be happy if 6E on 6GHz even works!

17

OoOoOo fancy that! I have the EAP773, as well. I use two of them across my property. All of my 6E devices (Z Fold6 and Ayaneo Slide, being two such examples) connect to 6GHz and easily get over 1Gbps…usually 1.2-1.4Gbps on the Fold6. So, I don’t think the EAP773 is to blame here. All of my tests in the month I’ve had them show them to be quite standards-compliant and pretty evenly meet up with TP-Link’s stated specs. I do have mine plugged into a 2.5Gbit network on a 2.5Gbit fiber internet connection, so no bottlenecks along the way there. I also get precisely what I expect to get on a 5GHz band in my crowded neighborhood on all devices (550-700Mbps).

That said, there could be an issue with their WiFi7 implementation. I haven’t been able to test that at all because, well…I don’t have any WiFi7 devices to test with. I was hopeful my FW16 was going to be the first. :face_exhaling:

I am using 4 SSIDs on my APs; separate SSIDs for 2.4, 5, and 6GHz bands and a combo SSID with band-steering across all 3. I’ve never much trusted band-steering in WiFi5, as it too heavily favors 2.4GHz over 5GHz even when signal is great. So, I prefer to put most devices on the highest band/SSID they support and keep them there, with no band-steering at all.

Have you tested with a 6GHz-only SSID to see how things behave when they don’t have 5GHz to fallback to?

Also, to confirm before I make any suggestions for your EAP773, are you in the USA? (just confirming since channels, etc differ from country to country)

If you are in the US, here is what I have mine set to for the 6GHz radio (I use a different channel on the second AP, but irrelevant for my example):

Screenshot_20250101_145900_Omada
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I think when I first setup the EAP773, the 6GHz band was only set to 160MHz width out of the box. I had to widen it to get peak performance.

Also, I’ve seen mentioned other places that you may need to take steps on any given OS (including Windows) to ensure the WiFi adapter is specifically set for your region so channel specs line up. Depending on where you buy your adapters from (or where seller sources from), the firmware may be set to a different region by default.

18

Thanks for the detailed info!

My AP is connected to a 2.5 Gbe switch, but my internet is only 1Gbps (fiber). To test max throughput, I would have to do an internet speed test while copying a large from from my NAS (also 1 Gbe). Off the wire that’s connected to the AP (if I connect it directly to my laptop), I can max out the 2.5 Gbe connection, but going through the AP, I can only hit about 800-900 Mbps on a good day.

Mine is set similar to yours. I don’t recall the channel, but it’s a 320 MHz channel width.

I have 4 SSIDs - 1 is 2.4 GHz only (for IOT devices), and the other 3 are on different VLANs (Guest, My main, and management). These 3 are on MLO between 5 and 6 GHz. 5 GHz band is using 160 MHz channel width.

I just created a dedicated 6 GHz SSID and my tablet and phone can connect to it (signal strength is meh - only standing next to the AP do I get good signal) - performance is in the 800 Mbps range. My FW laptop using the Qualcomm WIFI7 and my work laptop (AX210) sometimes sees the 6 GHz SSID, sometimes it doesn’t even show up in the list. When they show up and I try to connect, it fails.

FYI, this is in Windows though. In Linux (Fedora 41), the 6 GHz SSID doesn’t even show up, despite it showing that the supported frequencies are 2.4, 5, and 6 GHz on the MLO SSIDs.

I wonder if it just means the adapter supports those frequencies because the MLO SSID only binds 5 and 6 GHz, not 2.4 GHz.

Do you sometimes see a TP_TX_VAP SSID at 6 GHz that you cannot connect to?

19

I had the same question. It’s a compatibility thing (and poses no security threat):

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I read that many times and still doesn’t make sense to me. Still wondering how it helps with compatibility?