Which Linux distro are you using? Fedora Workstation GNOME
Which release version? 42
Which kernel are you using? 6.15.6-200.fc42.x86_64
Which BIOS version are you using? 3.05
Which Framework Laptop 16 model are you using? AMD Ryzen 7040 Series
I recently upgraded my Framework 16 with the Mediatek Z717 WiFi card which has support for WiFi 7. My router is a TP-Link BE9700 tri-band router that is also WiFi 7-capable. I am having regular wifi dropouts with the wifi icon in the upper right corner of the screen changing to a question mark. I have set wifi powersave to “2” using a conf file and am still getting dropouts. I also had Windows installed on this laptop and the WiFi card was flawless. My uneducated guess at this time is that this may be a Linux or Fedora issue.
I have browsed this and other forums about this issue and it appears to be a known problem, however the drivers for the mt7925 chipset this card uses have been in the kernel since v6.7, I believe so I’m not sure that this is the result of using “bleeding edge” technology.
The dropouts occur on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks that I have set up. I have not tried the 6GHz band yet.
Interestingly, I can still connect to my local NAS box and watch streaming media when the dropouts occur. The video continues to download and play flawlessly. I just can’t connect to outside websites on the world wide web.
I also have a Raspberry Pi 5 running Pihole but I don’t think DNS issues would cause a connection to register as offline, would it?
I am very knew to Linux–I’ve only been using it for a couple days–so please bare with me if I struggle to follow any suggestions given.
Thanks in advance for any assistance/suggestions you may have.
I messed around a lot with the Mediatek card that came with my FW16 trying to get it to work, and just gave up and ordered an Intel AX210 which has been working fine.
No idea why they ship the Mediatek cards when they more or less don’t work with Linux, but the Intel ones seem okay.
The original MediaTek card worked on Windows for me on my home Wi-Fi, but added a few ms to all ping times compared with the AX210 I have now replaced it with. But I heard rumours that some people have a much worse experience even on Windows.
I wish I could return the Z717 card which I purchased from Framework. I didn’t even consider using an Intel wifi card as info I’ve read suggests that the Intel wifi cards aren’t compatible with AMD processors–something having to do with a necessary part that is embedded into Intel CPUs that the Intel wifi cards require to work properly is missing in the AMD CPUs. I’m glad to hear you guys have reported success with them.
I’m also looking at the Qualcomm QCNCM865 since some Linux users have reported success with that card for WiFi 7. I’ll also take a look at Intel’s offerings and see what’s available. For now, I’ve put the stock WiFi 6E card back in the laptop and it has worked flawlessly. It may just be that WiFi 7 drivers within the Linux kernel just aren’t mature enough, yet. I guess I’ll keep the Z717 and try installing it in another six months or so to see if things have improved.
Yeah, turning off power saving definitely made it better for me, but just not really fixed. I still got multi-second ping spikes regularly, sometimes it would fail to connect a couple times before it figured it out, it just was kind of crappy although not totally unusable because of dropouts like it was with power saving enabled.
With the AX210 it actually just works like a normal laptop experience, it connects to the wireless and you get to do stuff without having any frustration involved in the process.
Just installed a RZ717 MT7925 card in my FW16. Using Ubuntu 25.04 it partially works. Bluetooth works. It will connect to 5GHz channels just fine. It can see 6GHz channels in the SSID list but won’t connect. MLO works but it will only connect at the lower speed. Hopefully this is just a driver issue.