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I have troubles on some wifi networks and the users with the same wifi adapter (Intel 8260), different OS (Fedora), higher version of firmware don't have the problem.

So I try to rename firmware from /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-8000C-31.ucode to iwlwifi-8000C-34.ucode

The firmware is available for example in this GitHub repository.

But simply copying it to /lib/firmware doesn't work. Seems that there is set a limit to max. number 33:

$ modinfo iwlwifi | grep firmware | grep 8000C
firmware:       iwlwifi-8000C-33.ucode

The rename of /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-8000C-33.ucode to /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-8000C-33.ucode didn't work, the wifi adapter wasn't able to be used.

Any advice or hints please?

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  • 3
    Possible duplicate of Loading latest firmware iwlwifi-6000
    – Dave Slash Knoll
    Apr 11, 2018 at 16:20
  • Thank you Dave, unfortunatelly the trick doesn't solve the issue. When I rename the file name from version 34 to version 33, the modprobe utility initiates the load of FW, but refuse it during the load with error: Ah, the information on next lines explains the problem probably: Driver unable to support your firmware API. Driver supports v33, firmware is v34.
    – Tomas Lipensky
    Apr 11, 2018 at 19:05
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    Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! Could you please run the network diagnostics and edit your question to include a link to the result? Thanks.
    – David Foerster
    Apr 12, 2018 at 21:25

2 Answers 2

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Please click the Download button here: https://github.com/LibreELEC/iwlwifi-firmware/blob/master/firmware/iwlwifi-8000C-34.ucode

By default, downloads automagically go to the folder Downloads. From the terminal, verify this:

cd ~/Downloads
ls | grep 8000C

Copy it to /lib/firmware:

sudo cp iwlwifi-8000C-34.ucode /lib/firmware

Verify that it is there:

ls /lib/firmware | grep 8000C

In my case, I now see:

iwlwifi-8000C-13.ucode
iwlwifi-8000C-16.ucode
iwlwifi-8000C-21.ucode
iwlwifi-8000C-22.ucode
iwlwifi-8000C-23.ucode
iwlwifi-8000C-24.ucode
iwlwifi-8000C-27.ucode
iwlwifi-8000C-31.ucode
iwlwifi-8000C-34.ucode

Reboot and tell us what firmware loaded:

dmesg | grep iwl

And if it solves your issue.

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6
  • Thank you for your feedback chilli555, this is in fact the procedure which i did initially. The file iwlwifi-8000C-34.ucode is in /lib/firmware, but during reboot the firmware is not loaded, in dmesg i have: iwlwifi 0000:04:00.0: loaded firmware version 31.560484.0 op_mode iwlmvm..... If i rename the file, the modprobe starts to initiate the FW, but it will refuse at the end with the error: Driver unable to support your firmware API. Driver supports v33, firmware is v34. Maybe the move of limit for v 33 would solve the issue. But i don't know how.
    – Tomas Lipensky
    Apr 11, 2018 at 19:07
  • In almost no case I've ever worked on, renaming firmware or importing firmware outside of what is called for in the driver version, does even the slightest good. I recommend that you start a new question and tell us what the underlying problem is.
    – chili555
    Apr 11, 2018 at 19:28
  • In the script github.com/LibreELEC/iwlwifi-firmware/blob/master/synciwl.sh i found the procedure to find maximum version number of firmware for given driver. In linux source code git.kernel.org/torvalds/t/linux-${KERNEL}.tar.gz it is in linux-4.13/drivers/net/wireless/intel/iwlwifi/cfg/8000.c the limit : #define IWL8265_UCODE_API_MAX 33 so i deduce that i would need to recompile the modules, or request to increase this nb in the following kernel relases.
    – Tomas Lipensky
    Apr 11, 2018 at 19:54
  • kernel 4.13 has this level 33, kernel 4.14 has the level 34.
    – Tomas Lipensky
    Apr 11, 2018 at 19:56
  • So you could install 18.04 or just tell us what your wireless device is doing/not doing that you are trying to fix.
    – chili555
    Apr 11, 2018 at 20:54
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Solution is to upgrade kernel to 4.15. Kernel 4.13 and lower has limit for highest version of firmware 33, kernel 4.14 is not capable to load the firmware due a kernel bug. The solution is:

  1. Download the firmware to /lib/firmware:

    wget -O - https://github.com/LibreELEC/iwlwifi-firmware/raw/master/firmware/iwlwifi-8000C-34.ucode |
sudo tee /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-8000C-34.ucode > /dev/null

  2. Download the kernel v4.15 and install it

  3. reboot OS

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1
  • no such firmware files
    – RichieHH
    Jul 25, 2018 at 10:17

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