On Sat, Apr 03, 2021 at 08:03:23PM +0500, Andrey Rahmatullin wrote:
On Sat, Apr 03, 2021 at 10:37:37AM -0400, Michael Stone wrote:> > > Not sure what hardware you are talking about but the majority of WiFI > > > hardware is supported by the mainline kernels, at least after you load > > > their firmware. > > > > I assume you haven't tried very much wifi hardware. Realistically, the state > > of wifi support is still terrible. The best thing to do is try to buy > > something known to be supported, but that's relatively difficult for most > > people because the name on the box generally has nothing to do with the > > chips inside the box. > Can you please list some unsupported chips in addition to these specific > Realtek ones? It would be easier for you to list ones that you've actually tested and know work.OK, whatever.
It's a serious request. In 20 years of trying different wireless devicesI've had just one that's completely reliable under linux (atheros qca6174 chipset) even if it's a little slow (only 2x2 mimo, and possibly hampered by the laptop's antenna configuration). It's older 802.11ac; I haven't ever seen a working 802.11ax. (Not saying it doesn't exist, just that I haven't seen it--hence the question!) I've seen lots of reports of reliable devices, but they tend to be things that are either ancient, or hard to find, or simply don't work as well for me as for others (apparently). I've personally used a lot of devices that mostly worked, until they hung or started going really slow or in some other way behaved much worse than the phone sitting next to the laptop (ironically running linux). I've heard good things about the intel adapters, but AFAIK they aren't available in USB so if someone didn't happen to get a laptop with that solution integrated it's not a simple end-user addition.
IMO, wifi is the last major pain point to a fully functional linux sytem. Most other things these days you can just buy a something off the shelf at the local electronics store and odds are all the pieces will work out of the box. But wifi still requires a good bit of research, and isn't something a novice will find simple unless they get lucky on their components or bought something from a specialty retailer that focuses on linux systems.