Support for Intel Corporation Wireless 8260 (rev 3a) on ThinkPad T470
Hello Trisquel community!
I've recently acquired a ThinkPad T470 and I'm interested in installing Trisquel on it. However, I'm unsure about the compatibility of the Intel Corporation Wireless 8260 (rev 3a) network card with Trisquel. Can anyone confirm if Trisquel provides support for this network card out of the box or if there are specific drivers I need to install?
I'm eager to make the switch to Trisquel for its commitment to free and open-source software, but having a functional wireless connection is crucial for my daily use. Any guidance or experiences with this particular hardware on Trisquel would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance for your help!
There is only proprietary firmware for your chipset. You can try to replace the internal card. Nevertheless, when Chris Waid (ThinkPenguin's CEO and founder) was an active user of this forum, he was including Lenovo in his list of companies plaguing their hardware with DRM.
What will give you Wi-Fi for sure is a Wi-Fi dongle with an AR9271 chipset. You can go for https://ryf.fsf.org/categories/wireless-adapters or search "AR9271" on a site such as ebay (that would be cheaper, but you would not support vendors dedicated to respecting your freedom). I bought a few such dongles some twelve years ago and I am still using them.
Thanks for the quick response ^^