ThinkPad W510 Wifi - Whitelist, Replacement Cards..

2 respuestas [Último envío]
Redfox
Desconectado/a
se unió: 02/07/2019

Hey there,

i am planing to switch to trisquel because i want to support free software and have a possibly nsa-free system. I tried trisquel a couple of minutes ago and sadly my wifi doesn't work.
To be honest, that's what i anticipated because it is always the same when i try to use completely free operating Systems.

I think i may have to relpace my PCIE Wifi Card with something more compatible, like a:
RealTek RTL8188EE Wifi Card

But i have read that there is a "whitelist" in my bios which tries to keep me from replacing this wifi card. Sadly, there is no libreboot/ custom-bios at the moment to remove that nasty "defective by desgin"-piece-of-garbage..

Any suggestions?
Maybe buy a USB-Wifi-Adapter like this:
Realtek RTL8188cus ?

I found this list very helpful:
https://h-node.org/wifi/catalogue/en

This is my current WiFi-PCIE:

sudo lshw -C network

*-network
Beschreibung: Ethernet interface
Produkt: 82577LM Gigabit Network Connection
Hersteller: Intel Corporation
Physische ID: 19
Bus-Informationen: pci@0000:00:19.0
Logischer Name: enp0s25
Version: 06
Seriennummer:
Kapazität: 1Gbit/s
Breite: 32 bits
Takt: 33MHz
Fähigkeiten: pm msi bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
Konfiguration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e1000e driverversion=3.2.6-k firmware=0.12-1 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair
Ressourcen: irq:37 memory:f2600000-f261ffff memory:f2625000-f2625fff ioport:1820(Größe=32)
*-network
Beschreibung: Kabellose Verbindung
Produkt: Centrino Advanced-N 6200
Hersteller: Intel Corporation
Physische ID: 0
Bus-Informationen: pci@0000:03:00.0
Logischer Name: wlp3s0
Version: 3e
Seriennummer:
Breite: 64 bits
Takt: 33MHz
Fähigkeiten: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
Konfiguration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=4.15.0-43-generic firmware=9.221.4.1 build 25532 ip=192.168.178.45 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11
Ressourcen: irq:41 memory:f2000000-f2001fff

Is there any chance to make it work?

nadebula.1984
Desconectado/a
se unió: 05/01/2018

For W510 and other Nehalem-based ThinkPads, there is no Atheros WLAN card authorized by Lenovo's original BIOS. So if you want to install Atheros cards, you have to remove the BIOS's whitelist restriction.

If you don't wish to purchase another laptop, consider purchasing an ath9k-htc USB card. You can pick one from wikidevi.com. Search for AR7010 or AR9271. Beware the hardware revision, though.

Redfox
Desconectado/a
se unió: 02/07/2019

Thank you for your suggestions.

There is no money for replacing my laptop. And if i had it, i am not sure if i would do it. Honestly, it is very sad that lots of hardware manufacturers obviously don't give a damn about free software etc. But i am dependend on this machine and there is no way for me to switch machines if i want to be able to keep my job. simple as that.

I will wait if theres a "libreboot"/alternative somwhere in the future. Until then i will use a Wifi-USB. Thank you very very much for your help :) I can not wait to try trisquel out :)