Mediatek network cards: problems with multicast on Linux [FIXED]

Framework Laptop 16 Linux
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I have Debian installed on a Framework 16, and am having some problems with networking software that relies on multicast packets. Specifically, the laptop cannot be discovered by SMB shares (Windows 10 or samba on Ubuntu), and more worryingly, the laptop cannot connect to Wifi range extenders - it never seems to receive a DHCP response from the main router.

I don’t want to get derailed into a long tech-support investigation here. I’ve spent a bit of time on it, and in a nutshell the Ubuntu box (a Framework 13) works just fine with the range extender and the windows 10 box, the Windows 10 and Ubuntu box can see each other’s SMB shares, all three machines can SSH to each other and can ICMP-ping each other, the NetworkManager/nsswitch/smb.conf settings on the Debian Framework 16 and the Ubuntu Framework 13 box are identical except for specifics such as hostname, and for the purposes of testing there is no firewall software running on the Debian Framework 16 (or, indeed, the other two). It’s pretty much narrowed down to the card or the driver/firmware, though I’d have to use a USB WiFi card to know for sure.

I am curious if this is a problem others have experienced with the network cards in the Framework 16. It might be a bad card, though it seems like a very unusual failure mode. More likely it is the driver (kernel 6.7.12+bpo-amd64). Anyone else encountered this?

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Is your F13 an Intel model?

If so, you could take the wifi card from it, put it in the F16, and test.

For me, I had lag spikes using the default card, had an old Wifi 6 intel card that I put in instead. So far, performance has been much better.

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It is, but I have been relying on it more than the 16 mainly because of the networking, so I’m a bit reluctant to power it down just for debugging. I was considering buying an Intel Wifi card for the 16 anyways, I might as well just do that.

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I put an AX210 in my FW16 day 1 and it’s been flawless, I never even tried the AMD/Mediatek card because of all the issues I read about.

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I had to install upgraded firmware for the MT WiFi card in order to get IPv6 to work on mine (because otherwise the RA messages, which are multicast, could not be seen). If you’re using Debian Bookworm you’ll probably have to do the same.

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I am on testing (trixie?) and had upgraded the firmware via the kernel.org tarball to no avail.

Yesterday when looking at why PPD wasn’t working right, I found that a bunch of packages got held back in my upgrade to testing. The ones that apt reported as unable-to-upgrade were unimportant, so I just ignored it, but it turns out that glibc was the core component that got held back and there were a lot more packages held back than apt had reported (on the command line - the log had the full list). Anyways this morning, the laptop connected to the wifi repeater automatically, which is a first - so yeah something in testing fixes this.