[GUIDE] Successful Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) on Framework 13 AMD with Qualcomm QCNCM865 and Arch Linux

Framework Laptop 13 Linux
22

I go ahold of some of these yesterday and all I can say is, they’re just barely functional on Linux right now.

On kernel 6.8.2 on Arch, you need to do what @GreyXor says in the original post just to get the card to function, however I ran into several issues:

  1. Large loads, like a speed test, will cause the card to crash and become unavailable until the machine is completely powered off. Whatever happens to the card also causes the machine to be unable to reboot (i.e. Linux will do its reboot procedure and appear to reboot the machine, but then it just hangs with a blank screen, similarly to what happens when you try to power on the laptop with the BE200 installed).
  2. Bluetooth worked until something disconnects or you try to turn off bluetooth, at which point Bluetooth becomes non-functional until powered off.
  3. 6ghz networks can be seen but will not connect.

I tried using Kvalo’s ath kernel by modifying the linux-git aur package, and while it compiled just fine I was greeted with a blank screen upon reboot. I didn’t spend any more time looking into using that kernel.

Then I tried linux-mainline from the aur, which I believe has most of the patches already from Kvalo, and it worked better, but still had some problems:

  1. While more stable, speed tests were only around 200Mbit on 5ghz when I can get 800+ with an AX210.
  2. 6ghz WPA3 networks can be seen but disconnect pretty much immediately after connecting.
  3. 6ghz WPA3 Enterprise networks cannot be seen at all and will not connect even if trying to connect to a “hidden” network.

So, as of right now my AX210 wifi cards are going back in my machines until either these become more stable, a workaround for getting the BE200 to work on AMD is discovered (though I hear it’s still lacking proper Linux support, so there’s that), the BE202 variant becomes available (It’s supposed to be A+E keyed which will likely solve the problem), or some other viable alternative comes around for Linux that doesn’t require an out-of-tree driver (so, no Broadcom and likely no Realtek adapters).

Edit: Forgot to mention: on linux-mainline 6.9-rc1, it’s no longer necessary to pull down the regdb.bin and boards.bin files from git.

4 Likes
23

Bravo! Exactly what I needed. Worked for me with the same Wi-Fi card on a fresh install of Endeavour OS. Thank you.

24

Hello,
yes you can use the aur package linux-mainline and changing the source to:
“$_srcname::git+https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/kvalo/ath.git#branch=master-pending”

25

After 2 weeks of use on my framework and a couple weeks on my Alienware I can confirm it works great and has none of the issues I had seen with previous Qualcomm cars I have used. (I have yet to use the included card) note I run win 11 pro

1 Like
26

Does this card work on Fedora 40 (newer kernels) out of the box now? Or do we still have to do stuff to make it work?

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I didn’t try it in Fedora 40 exactly. But I try this WiFi card on 39 with 6.9 kernel preview.

It was a little better, but still unusable. WiFi dies on hard load, Bluetooth can’t connect to my headphones.

28

Does it need an adapter for Ryzen 7 5700U and currently has a WiFi6 card right now. I know with computers with Intel processors would just use an E key adapter. Not exactly positive if I need anything else for my mini PC other than the QCNCM865

29

Crap, it sounds like the experience I currently have with the Mediatek RZ616.

I guess I’ll just get the AX210 for now. It’s a out $20 on Amazon. A reliable connection for $20 is better than a flakey connection with the other WIFI cards (Qualcomm, Mediatek, and the BE200 won’t even work…). It’s like we don’t really have a choice but to get the AX210.