6 ms·

Status quo ~2 years ago before FreeBSD 13 was that many 802.11ac cards worked but the ac features did not yet (and/or you’d have to install wpa_supplicant throu

Status quo ~2 years ago before FreeBSD 13 was that many 802.11ac cards worked but the ac features did not yet (and/or you’d have to install wpa_supplicant through ports to enable certain compilation flags), so you’d get a fraction of possible speeds or have to jump through hoops. Not sure what the more recent developments here are.

oso2k 5y ago
Yeah....sadly WiFi driver development fell behind in *BSD about 8 or 10 years ago. It made firewalls like pfSense and SmallWall less useful if you wanted an all-in-one network solution. You had to start to moving WiFi to APs from various vendors. It's ok when you have a small foot print with few walls (apartment or townhouse or condo). But a larger home, backyard/outdoor space, or garage/network closet spaces might need extra APs or relocation of AP(s). I do otherwise love pfSense and SmallWall despite what my $DAYJOB is. 10GbE NIC is really great too in *BSDs.
- nix23 5y ago
  Having Freebsd on my laptop since 2 years...the only point of critique is wireless, thank you freebsd-foundation for that...you probably don't care since you all use macOS.
  - kevans91 5y ago
    That's an odd and misinformed attack on the foundation. They're actively sponsoring WiFi work, the first half of which recently landed in tree. You can see what they're involved in on on their website: https://freebsdfoundation.org/our-work/projects/ https://freebsdfoundation.org/our-work/projects/
    - nix23 5y ago
      > They're actively sponsoring WiFi work Yes since three years without any outcome....that's why the critique toward the foundation and NOT the project. https://i0.wp.com/itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/freebsd-foundation.jpeg?w=536&ssl=1 https://i0.wp.com/itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/fre...
      - kevans91 5y ago
        As I said in the previous post, the first half of it just landed within the last month. iwlwifi[0] and dozens of linuxkpi commits[1] over the past couple of months by bz@. My frame.work laptop works generally well with -CURRENT (and presumably with stable/13, since iwlwifi's been mfc'd) with some wifi stability issues that have been reported. [0] https://cgit.freebsd.org/src/log/sys/contrib/dev/iwlwifi https://cgit.freebsd.org/src/log/sys/contrib/dev/iwlwifi [1] https://cgit.freebsd.org/src/log/sys/compat/linuxkpi https://cgit.freebsd.org/src/log/sys/compat/linuxkpi
        nix23 5y ago
        And as i wrote, wireless is criminally underdeveloped on freebsd, not just a problem for laptops but firewalls/access-points too. 802.11n came out 12! years ago...and no i don't even talk about ac here.

oso2k 5y ago

Yeah....sadly WiFi driver development fell behind in *BSD about 8 or 10 years ago. It made firewalls like pfSense and SmallWall less useful if you wanted an all-in-one network solution. You had to start to moving WiFi to APs from various vendors. It's ok when you have a small foot print with few walls (apartment or townhouse or condo). But a larger home, backyard/outdoor space, or garage/network closet spaces might need extra APs or relocation of AP(s). I do otherwise love pfSense and SmallWall despite what my $DAYJOB is. 10GbE NIC is really great too in *BSDs.

nix23 5y ago
Having Freebsd on my laptop since 2 years...the only point of critique is wireless, thank you freebsd-foundation for that...you probably don't care since you all use macOS.
- kevans91 5y ago
  That's an odd and misinformed attack on the foundation. They're actively sponsoring WiFi work, the first half of which recently landed in tree. You can see what they're involved in on on their website: https://freebsdfoundation.org/our-work/projects/ https://freebsdfoundation.org/our-work/projects/
  - nix23 5y ago
    > They're actively sponsoring WiFi work Yes since three years without any outcome....that's why the critique toward the foundation and NOT the project. https://i0.wp.com/itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/freebsd-foundation.jpeg?w=536&ssl=1 https://i0.wp.com/itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/fre...
    - kevans91 5y ago
      As I said in the previous post, the first half of it just landed within the last month. iwlwifi[0] and dozens of linuxkpi commits[1] over the past couple of months by bz@. My frame.work laptop works generally well with -CURRENT (and presumably with stable/13, since iwlwifi's been mfc'd) with some wifi stability issues that have been reported. [0] https://cgit.freebsd.org/src/log/sys/contrib/dev/iwlwifi https://cgit.freebsd.org/src/log/sys/contrib/dev/iwlwifi [1] https://cgit.freebsd.org/src/log/sys/compat/linuxkpi https://cgit.freebsd.org/src/log/sys/compat/linuxkpi
      - nix23 5y ago
        And as i wrote, wireless is criminally underdeveloped on freebsd, not just a problem for laptops but firewalls/access-points too. 802.11n came out 12! years ago...and no i don't even talk about ac here.