Links:
802.11ac support URL:https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/issues/33
LinuxKPI TKIP and GCMP support URL:https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/issues/64
LinuxKPI wireless suspend and resume URL:https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/issues/58
MediaTek mt76 PCI driver support URL:https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/issues/66
802.11ax support URL:https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/issues/34
net80211 updates URL:https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop/issues/79
Tracked wireless PRs URL:https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/showdependencytree.cgi?id=277512&hide_resolved=1

Contact: Bjoern A. Zeeb <bz@FreeBSD.org>
Contact: The FreeBSD wireless mailing list <wireless@FreeBSD.org>

This report focuses on the efforts using permissively licensed Linux wireless drivers, mostly unmodified, on FreeBSD, as well as preparing the native net80211 stack for support of newer standards.

As announced iwlwififw(4) was removed from the source tree in favor of a ports/package based solution. Users are asked to use fwget(8) to automatically install the firmware along with any possible configuration.

Support for wlan_tkip(4) was added to linuxkpi(4) but has to be manually enabled. wlan_gcmp(4) support for linuxkpi(4) followed later and is available from FreeBSD 15 onward.

FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE is the first release with VHT (802.11ac) support available. Modern iwlwifi(4) chipsets are supported. There was some fallout after the release and a few open problems, but also a lot of positive feedback.

rtw88(4) saw a fix for a NULL pointer in the driver and is now starting to be usable. Thanks to everyone who helped track this down and test patches along the way.

Work on suspend and resume for LinuxKPI-based wireless drivers was picked up again, and we are getting closer to a working solution (at least for suspend it now exists).

Work is also ongoing for Mediatek mt76-based PCIe card support.

HE (802.11ax) definitions were migrated from linuxkpi(4) to native net80211 code and corrected. ifconfig(8) was enhanced parsing more information elements to aid debugging. Work is in progress to fix a problem with reporting signal strength and dealing with RSSI.

Further fixes to LinuxKPI and resolving the problems we worked around by improving native net80211 code are in the works.

Lastly, various man pages were improved or written.

Sponsor: The FreeBSD Foundation