XPS 9360 - AX200 - low signal issue

Hi,

Blockquote
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v6/7th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 02)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 620 (rev 02)
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor Thermal Subsystem (rev 02)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 21)
00:14.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Thermal subsystem (rev 21)
00:15.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #0 (rev 21)
00:15.1 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #1 (rev 21)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP CSME HECI #1 (rev 21)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev f1)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #5 (rev f1)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #6 (rev f1)
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #9 (rev f1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP LPC Controller (rev 21)
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PMC (rev 21)
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio (rev 21)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SMBus (rev 21)
3a:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (rev 1a)
3b:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS525A PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)
3c:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Toshiba Corporation XG4 NVMe SSD Controller (rev 01)

Blockquote

I am using an XPS 9360 where I replaced the Killer wireless card with an AX200 one. Now the signal strength is very low on 2.4ghz 10-15 meters from the modem (Bbox V3 of Proximus). I tried live environments of Manjaro, Mint but I could not even connect there and I tried POP and there it worked though same low signal issues. There are sometimes disconnects as well.

Issues persists in latest kernel and LTS Kernel.

What I already did:

  • disable fast boot in BIOS. I am only running Endeavour, nothing else.
  • downloaded latest firmware which is in use:

[x@x ~]$ modinfo iwlwifi | grep iwlwifi-cc
firmware: iwlwifi-cc-a0-66.ucode

This is a later version then what is on the dell page. Source: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree

output of sudo dmesg | grep iwlwifi | grep version:

[ 2.828643] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: loaded firmware version 66.f1c864e0.0 cc-a0-66.ucode op_mode iwlmvm

  • added the following in modprobe:

otions iwlwifi power_save=0
options iwlwifi uapsd_disable=1
options iwlmvm power_scheme=1
options iwlwifi enable_ini=N

What I have not tried yet:

Should I revert back to an older kernel or just use the driver of Intel?

IntelĀ® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 160MHz 5.1+ iwlwifi-cc-46.3cfab8da.0.tgz

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005511/wireless.html

additional info

CPU: dual core Intel Core i5-7200U (-MT MCP-) speed/min/max: 861/400/3100 MHz
Kernel: 5.15.33-1-lts x86_64 Up: 38m Mem: 2604.2/7834.9 MiB (33.2%)
Storage: 238.47 GiB (53.2% used) Procs: 187 Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.15

Blockquote 3a:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (rev 1a)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Wi-Fi 6 AX200NGW
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Memory at dc200000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities:
Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi
Kernel modules: iwlwifi
Blockquote

Blockquote sudo dmesg | grep iwl
[ 2.778275] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: enabling device (0000 → 0002)
[ 2.828330] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: api flags index 2 larger than supported by driver
[ 2.828341] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: TLV_FW_FSEQ_VERSION: FSEQ Version: 89.3.35.37
[ 2.828643] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: loaded firmware version 66.f1c864e0.0 cc-a0-66.ucode op_mode iwlmvm
[ 3.368545] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: Detected Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX200 160MHz, REV=0x340
[ 3.512540] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: Detected RF HR B3, rfid=0x10a100
[ 3.581776] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: base HW address: d0:3c:1f:0e:b9:38
Blockquote

AX200 seems to have issues generally.

There’s a number of possible fixes by tbg on the Garuda forum.

Disable power management:

Disable MAC address randomisation:

Apparently it can also just fix itself:

thx!

I tried the different solutions and rebooted but no change like this advice:

It is probably an issue with this specific card or the antenna of the laptop. I might just try to interchange the card with the one of an older dell d5440 that uses an 9260 card. I just really wanted to avoid that because those connectors are so easy to break and that happened to me already once (although back then asrock sent replacements).

Just checking whether you also tried kernel 5.4?

I tried that but unfortunately, I get ā€˜no network devices available’ when I am on kernel 5.4 by importing your key and pgp and installing yay linux-lts54. I am typing this using LTS kernel where wifi works albeit slow.