Unraid newbie here...

 

Tried to add "rtw8852c_fw.bin" file to boot/config/firmware, as mentioned in change log, but that didn't help.

 

Diagnostics file attached.

 Thanks for your help!

server-diagnostics-20250417-0813.zip

Edited April 17, 20251 yr by Sci-Fidelity

Adapter is failing to initialize, can you post new diags with the firmware copied to the flash drive?

Sure thing.

server-diagnostics-20250417-0925 incl driver.zip

From what I can see, it doesn't try to load the external firmware, there's another user with the exact same adapter that also fails, LT is looking into it, but it may be a Linux driver issue.

Thanks, Jorge, for looking into it. If I am not mistaken the adapter should be supported by the kernel, so yes, it might be a Linux issue.

Sorry for my dumb question: what's the LT?

LimeTech

 

🤦‍♂️

@Sci-Fidelity I also didn't know this, but since we want the firmware to be copied to /rtw89, please try again with the external firmware, but copy it to /boot/config/firmware/rtw89/rtw8852c_fw.bin and please post new diags with that.

 

 

Here you go.

server-diagnostics-20250417-2211 incl driver in subfolder.zip

It's still using the original firmware, before we try to see if it's possible to force using the new one, please run a diff on both, to see if they are different, or it will be a futile exercise, if you need help with the command let me know, the original firmware should be in /lib/firmware/rtw89/rtw8852c_fw-1.bin

Ah yes, please enlighten me about the command needed. Much appreciated.

Assuming the external folder is still in the flash drive, type:

 

diff /lib/firmware/rtw89/rtw8852c_fw-1.bin /boot/config/firmware/rtw89/rtw8852c_fw.bin

 

If they are the same it won't output anything, it will if they differ.

Binary files /lib/firmware/rtw89/rtw8852c_fw-1.bin and /boot/config/firmware/rtw89/rtw8852c_fw.bin differ

 

That's good, let's try this then, open a terminal window type or copy/paste in this order:

 

cp /boot/config/firmware/rtw89/rtw8852c_fw.bin /lib/firmware/rtw89/rtw8852c_fw-1.bin

rmmod rtw89_8852ce

modprobe rtw89_8852ce

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 restart

 

Then please post new diags.

Wohoo - the “wireless” tab is now shown in settings...

server-diagnostics-20250419-1416 copy of new driver.zip

Great, can you connect to a wireless AP?

 

P.S. if you don't mind, let me know where you got that firmware from, there's another user with the adapter having a similar issue

Yesses, connected to my AP. But it looks like the driver-swap is not surviving a reboot.

 

Sure, I got it from here (it's the rtw8852c_fw.bin)

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/rtw89

6 minutes ago, Sci-Fidelity said:

But it looks like the driver-swap is not surviving a reboot.

Yes, I'm afraid that expected, all the changes we did are lost after a reboot.

 

For this adapter, it only loads a firmware using the original firmware name (rtw8852c_fw-1.bin), but currently, if you place the new firmware with the same name on the flash drive, it won't overwrite the existing bad firmware that comes with Unraid, and if you use a different name, it  won't be used by the driver, so LT may need to let the original firmware be overwritten, looks like it's the only way, at least for some adapters.

 

6 minutes ago, Sci-Fidelity said:

Sure, I got it from here (it's the rtw8852c_fw.bin)

Thanks.

 

 

Alright, got you. Well, I have to wait for LT then, since it kind of destroys my idea to put the server in a place without LAN, when I need to activate Wi-Fi after a reboot.

Many thanks for your help, though. Much appreciate your time and effort - I hope it'll be helpful for others too.

Edited April 19, 20251 yr by Sci-Fidelity

So the issue is the current firmware from Realtek for this adapter, the firmware that comes stock with Unraid (and Linux), is the one from the same site you got the other one, but the one ending in -1, since it's the latest available one:

 

 

The one that you are using and works is from 2024:

 

So hopefully Realtek will fix this in a future update, LT may also allow the stock firmware to be overwritten in a future release to help deal with similar issues.

 

16 hours ago, Sci-Fidelity said:

since it kind of destroys my idea to put the server in a place without LAN, when I need to activate Wi-Fi after a reboot.

You could add the lines we used to load the new firmware above to the go file (/config/go) on the flash drive, e.g.:

#!/bin/bash
# Start the Management Utility
/usr/local/sbin/emhttp 

#install working rtl8852 firmware at boot
cp /boot/config/firmware/rtw89/rtw8852c_fw.bin /lib/firmware/rtw89/rtw8852c_fw-1.bin
rmmod rtw89_8852ce
modprobe rtw89_8852ce
/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 restart

 

 

 

That should load the old firmware and driver at every boot automatically, but would be good to retest with the stock firmware once a new one is available.

I emailed Realtek maintainer and looks like they had found the issue recently, and just release a new firmware, if you don't mind, please test it to see if it works, but for now, and due to how the driver is codded, I think it will only work if you do the manual copy and reload the driver like before.

 

So, if you can try, download rtw8852c_fw-2.bin from that same site, copy to the flash drive as firmware/rtw89/rtw8852c_fw-2.bin, and I don't think it will be loaded like that, but just to test, reboot and post new diags.

 

If it doesn't work, then try:

 

cp /boot/config/firmware/rtw89/rtw8852c_fw-2.bin /lib/firmware/rtw89/rtw8852c_fw-1.bin

rmmod rtw89_8852ce

modprobe rtw89_8852ce

/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 restart

 

And post new diags.

 

Hey Jorge,

once again: thanks for your efforts.

Like you assumed, driver -2 will not be loaded automatically. Unfortunately, copying and running it manually didn't do the trick either.

Please find the diags attached.

server-diagnostics-20250422-1203 copy of -2 driver.zip

Thanks for testing, assuming the new firmware was correctly copied, it may also need a driver change to detect the new format, best to wait for the changes to get merged upstream in the kernel, it should be soon.

Hey Jorge,

 

since the installation of rc4 the Wi-Fi tab is visible under Network Settings.

Thanks again for your support.