Re: Open source Atheros wifi? (ath10k)
Hi.
On Sat, Jan 16, 2021 at 12:25:10PM -0500, Steven Mainor wrote:
> I have a laptop with a QCA9377 Atheros AC wifi card. When I install
> debian 10.7 amd64 I get a warning about missing non-free firmware and
> the wifi doesn't work. It was my understanding that ath10k was open
> source and included in linux. Is this not the case?
The driver is free software. The firmware it requires is not.
Thank US FCC for that - [1].
> If not is there any wireless AC card that doesn't require binary
> drivers?
To the best of my knowledge - there are none. Again, [1].
> And barring that, what is the best wifi(N?) card I can buy
> that doesn't require closed source drivers/firmware?
Anything that's ath9k supports does not require any firmware at all.
Ath9k is limited to 802.1n though. See [2] for an example list.
Reco
[1] https://hackaday.com/2016/02/26/fcc-locks-down-router-firmware
[2] https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/drivers/ath9k/products/external
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