can't find Intel wifi firmware files

[hammondo]

Context: running Debian 12.4 on brand new ASUS Zenbook 14. My error log says I need to install a file with name iwlwifi-ma-a0-gf-a0-NN.ucode where NN can be from 39 through 72. I have non-free-firmware in sources.list. Suggestions on how to find these files? It looks like they go in /lib/firmware....

Suggestions on where I might find these files?

[bbbhltz]

Hi. You could take a look here

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... eless.html
and here too
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/ke ... .git/tree/

Can you give us the model of the network adapter in your computer? There might be another thread about that model with a solution that doesn't involve copying microcode off the web.

[Aki]

Help @hammondo,

Can you give us the model of the network adapter in your computer? There might be another thread about that model with a solution that doesn't involve copying microcode off the web.

If it can help, this is the terminal command to acquire informations about your network adapter:

Code: Select all

lspci -vnn -d ::02xx

Any way, you can get Intel iwlwifi firmware files package from here (for Debian Bookworm):

• Package: firmware-iwlwifi (20230210-5) [non-free-firmware]

If you have a working wired NIC, you can use the following commands (as root user):

Code: Select all

wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/non-free-firmware/f/firmware-nonfree/firmware-iwlwifi_20230210-5_all.deb
dpkg -i firmware-iwlwifi_20230210-5_all.deb

[hammondo]

Hi. You could take a look here

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... eless.html
and here too
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/ke ... .git/tree/

Can you give us the model of the network adapter in your computer? There might be another thread about that model with a solution that doesn't involve copying microcode off the web.

The adapter model as shown in the UEFI diagnostic test is “Intel® Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz”. This matches info from Intel website so must be right.

I should probably add that the adapter fails the UEFI diagnostic test for Tx/Rx. This is a concern, although I think separate from the issue of the firmware file.

[hammondo]

Help @hammondo,

Can you give us the model of the network adapter in your computer? There might be another thread about that model with a solution that doesn't involve copying microcode off the web.

If it can help, this is the terminal command to acquire informations about your network adapter:

Code: Select all

lspci -vnn -d ::02xx

Any way, you can get Intel iwlwifi firmware files package from here (for Debian Bookworm):

• Package: firmware-iwlwifi (20230210-5) [non-free-firmware]

If you have a working wired NIC, you can use the following commands (as root user):

Code: Select all

wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/non-free-firmware/f/firmware-nonfree/firmware-iwlwifi_20230210-5_all.deb
dpkg -i firmware-iwlwifi_20230210-5_all.deb

Output from lspci cmd is:

Code: Select all

0000:00:14.3 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:7e40] (rev 20)
	DeviceName: WLAN
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device [8086:0094]
	Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 18, IOMMU group 12
	Memory at 50232d4000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel modules: iwlwifi

6E AX211 in UEFI diagnostics page.

[hammondo]

(non-free-firmware pkg already installed)

[hammondo]

Hi. You could take a look here

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... eless.html
and here too
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/ke ... .git/tree/

Would these two links be going to files that are necessarily part of bookworm non-free-firmware? I have looked a bit without finding any matches and I do have bookwowrm non-free-firmware included in sources.list. None of the usable files are in the /lib/firmware tree. I suppose they must be around somewhere if they have names... TIA

[bbbhltz]

Hi @hammondo

I also looked as best I could. The Kernel supports your adapter but the iwlwifi firmware package does not include the microcode (I may be reading the file contents incorrectly). I personally prefer solutions where I can apt install a package, or tweak an existing setting. You could always try copying one of those files to the directory as a test?

The other place has some things to try

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Networ ... ss#iwlwifi

[Aki]

Hello @hammondo,

May you report the full message log from the kernel about missing firmware ? You can use the command (root password required):

Code: Select all

su -l -c "journalctl -b --no-pager -g iwlwifi"

Does the WiFi network adapter regularly works ?
Thanks.

[wizard10000]

The firmware you need hasn't been backported yet but is in Testing.

firmware-iwlwifi has no dependencies so I'd suggest downloading it from Testing repos and manually installing it. You can grab it from here - https://packages.debian.org/trixie/all/ ... i/download

cd to where you downloaded the firmware and as root:

Code: Select all

apt install ./irmware-iwlwifi_20230625-2_all.deb

Reboot and your wireless should work just fine.

Good luck -

[hammondo]

Hello @hammondo,

May you report the full message log from the kernel about missing firmware ? You can use the command (root password required):

Code: Select all

su -l -c "journalctl -b --no-pager -g iwlwifi"

Does the WiFi network adapter regularly works ?
Thanks.

Here goes: (the adapter did work at time of purchase of machine)

Code: Select all

Feb 12 11:39:44 deb-zen kernel: iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
Feb 12 11:39:44 deb-zen kernel: iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: firmware: failed to load iwlwifi-ma-a0-gf-a0-72.ucode (-2)
Feb 12 11:39:44 deb-zen kernel: iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: firmware: failed to load iwlwifi-ma-a0-gf-a0-72.ucode (-2)
Feb 12 11:39:44 deb-zen kernel: iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-ma-a0-gf-a0-72.ucode failed with error -2

[last 3 lines repeated for 71, 70, ... , 39]

Feb 12 11:39:44 deb-zen kernel: iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: minimum version required: iwlwifi-ma-a0-gf-a0-39
Feb 12 11:39:44 deb-zen kernel: iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: maximum version supported: iwlwifi-ma-a0-gf-a0-72
Feb 12 11:39:44 deb-zen kernel: iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: check git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git

Thanks

[hammondo]

The firmware you need hasn't been backported yet but is in Testing.

firmware-iwlwifi has no dependencies so I'd suggest downloading it from Testing repos and manually installing it. You can grab it from here - https://packages.debian.org/trixie/all/ ... i/download

cd to where you downloaded the firmware and as root:

Code: Select all

apt install ./irmware-iwlwifi_20230625-2_all.deb

Reboot and your wireless should work just fine.

Good luck -

Thanks, this looks like a promising approach but I am not there yet.

The page for download is for 25 June 2023. I installed the .deb but still got the errors on reboot; none of the needed files was installed in /lib/firmware tree. The page also suggests putting trixie non-free-firmware in sources.list and this did not help either. I seem to be going in circles! The set of .ucode files that would solve the problem, according to the error log, all have names beginning with "iwlwifi-ma-a0-gf-a0-NN" where NN goes from 39 to 72 inclusive. If you have a suggestion as to where I can go in the Testing area to find these files that would be terrific. Thanks-

[Aki]

Hello,

Here goes: (the adapter did work at time of purchase of machine)

Code: Select all

Feb 12 11:39:44 deb-zen kernel: iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
Feb 12 11:39:44 deb-zen kernel: iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: firmware: failed to load iwlwifi-ma-a0-gf-a0-72.ucode (-2)
Feb 12 11:39:44 deb-zen kernel: iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: firmware: failed to load iwlwifi-ma-a0-gf-a0-72.ucode (-2)
Feb 12 11:39:44 deb-zen kernel: iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-ma-a0-gf-a0-72.ucode failed with error -2

[last 3 lines repeated for 71, 70, ... , 39]

Feb 12 11:39:44 deb-zen kernel: iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: minimum version required: iwlwifi-ma-a0-gf-a0-39
Feb 12 11:39:44 deb-zen kernel: iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: maximum version supported: iwlwifi-ma-a0-gf-a0-72
Feb 12 11:39:44 deb-zen kernel: iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3: check git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git

Unfortunately, firmware files starting with "iwlwifi-ma-a0*" do not actually exist, neither in [1] nor in the Debian repositories as far I know.

I suppose these kernel messages can be ignored if the WiFi adapter is regularly working.

Please add in the subject of the first post the "iwlwifi-ma-a0-gf-a0-*" string to make it more informative to other users/readers with the same question; for example:

Can't find Intel wifi firmware files named "iwlwifi-ma-a0-gf-a0-*.ucode"

note: please, use code tags to include commands and/or their logs in the body of a message. I did it for you in previous posts.

--
[1] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/

[wizard10000]

Unfortunately, firmware files starting with "iwlwifi-ma-a0*" do not actually exist, neither in [1] nor in the Debian repositories as far I know.

I couldn't find AX211 firmware on Intel's site either.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... eless.html