Wi-Fi 6 AX210 160MHz Speed Discrepancy Under Linux

[russjr08]

Hi! I'm reaching out to Intel, and the Intel community around an issue that I've had zero luck resolving on my own for the last few months.

I recently picked up a WiFi card for my desktop PC based off Intel's AX210 160MHz chipset, I picked it up due to the fact that I've heard Intel's hardware generally is the recommendation for Linux based systems due to their open-source drivers (which is fantastic!) however, I've noticed since I picked up the card that there appears to be a massive speed discrepancy of about ~400Mbps when I'm using the card in Linux vs when I use the card under Windows (with Linux being the worse performing one).

I've attempted to switch to just about every Linux distro under the sun, ranging from more stable distributions (such as Debian and Ubuntu) to more bleeding-edge distributions (such as Arch Linux) just in case there were some potential bugs resolved in newer kernel/firmware versions. I've had no such luck with this though. I have also tried adjusting some of the various settings for the iwlwifi kernel module, disabling fast startup in Windows, etc.

Currently I'm running Kernel version 6.6.7, which is about as new as I can possibly get at the moment. The only thing I can think of might be an issue is the fact that I cannot seem to load newer firmware versions. The module attempts to load "iwlwifi-ty-a0-gf-a0-83.ucode" all the way through version 75, until it finally loads version 74 "loaded firmware version 74.fe17486e.0 ty-a0-gf-a0-74.ucode op_mode iwlmvm". The newer ones fail to load with a "Direct firmware load for iwlwifi-ty-a0-gf-a0-83.ucode failed with error -2" (repeated all the way down to version 75, for the sake of brevity I'll refrain from pasting all of them).

Sadly, I cannot find any information as to what causes the -2 error code, or if it is even a problem at all (such as perhaps the newer versions are built for different cards?) but aside from this issue, I can't think of anything else. Since the card excels without a problem under Windows, I feel that rules out a hardware issue on both the card itself and my router (which is fully capable of handling WiFi 6), along with range issues since the desktop is at the same spot regardless of which operating system I'm booted into.

I've gone ahead and attached the full output of the iwlwifi module from the kernel's startup log along with my post in case it helps. If there's any advice anyone has to offer, I'd appreciate it as I believe I've hit the wall on what I can troubleshoot/do to resolve this issue myself.

[Jose_Intel]

Hello @russjr08

Thank you for posting on the Intel️® communities.

We sincerely regret you are experiencing those issues with the Intel® Wi-Fi 6E AX210 (Gig+) using various Linux distros, we will be more than happy to assist you.

We appreciate the detailed information you have provided, that is enough to create an investigation. Please allow us to research about this internally, we will post back as soon as we have any updates.

Best regards,

Jose B.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Jose_Intel]

Hello russjr08

Thank you for patiently waiting.

After checking the log files and the troubleshooting performed so far, we have some recommendations:

·      Reinstall kernel from mainline kernel.org (6.6.8).

·      Try a newer version of Linux OS (e.g. Ubuntu 22.04)

·      Check with the Linux distro, or seek possible solutions from online resources or Linux communities to fix the loading issue.

·      Work with the system manufacturer as the Linux compatibility (via Intel AX210) and limitation depends on the computer manufacturer's design.

Please keep in mind that this thread will no longer be monitored by Intel. Thank you for understanding.

Best regards,

Jose B.

Intel Customer Support Technician