Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

uberben · 2021-09-12 16:14:48

I just installed an Intel AX210 based PCI-E wifi 6E card in my Arch Linux desktop. I have never had a wifi card in this computer before (I used to have a wired connection, but I just moved and won't be able to run cables for a while). It got picked up right away, but the connection was awful. I worked through the `iwlwifi` section of the networking wiki (https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Networ … ss#iwlwifi) and disabling 802.11n got the connection to stop dropping packets, but my internet download speed is less than 10% of what it should be, (and less than 10% of what the same speed test from my phone on the same wifi network shows). Upload is fine. Changing software crypto and bluetooth coexistence had no effect. Setting `11n_disable=8` for antenna aggregation enabled 802.11n again and caused me to drop about 90% of packets.

I've also installed `linux-lts` and `linux-zen` kernels to try them out, but in both of those the wifi card doesn't even show up. Maybe AX210 support is too new for the iwlwifi version in those older kernels?

I'm currently trying to install `linux-firmware-iwlwifi-git` to see if that helps, but due to the slow download speed it is taking some time.

uname -a

Linux new-bendesktop 5.14.2-arch1-2 #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu, 09 Sep 2021 09:42:35 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux

lscpi -v

03:00.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 41) (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode])
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
        Bus: primary=03, secondary=04, subordinate=04, sec-latency=32
        I/O behind bridge: [disabled]
        Memory behind bridge: [disabled]
        Prefetchable memory behind bridge: [disabled]
        Capabilities: [90] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [a0] Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Device 8892

lshw -C network

*-network
       description: Wireless interface
       product: Wi-Fi 6 AX210/AX211/AX411 160MHz
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: wlp2s0
       version: 1a
       serial: 14:18:c3:47:79:b2
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=5.14.2-arch1-2 firmware=63.c04f3485.0 ty-a0-gf-a0-63.uc ip=192.168.1.145 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11
       resources: irq:16 memory:d0900000-d0903fff

iw dev wlp2s0 link

Connected to c4:41:1e:fa:c0:25 (on wlp2s0)
        SSID: good-old-wifi
        freq: 2457
        RX: 192664678 bytes (321245 packets)
        TX: 70216955 bytes (260417 packets)
        signal: -64 dBm
        rx bitrate: 1.0 MBit/s
        tx bitrate: 54.0 MBit/s

        bss flags:      short-preamble short-slot-time
        dtim period:    1
        beacon int:     100

As an aside, I have a Linksys AX3200 as my router. I am unable to see the 5GHz network with this AX210 card. It is visible on my phone in the same room, though the signal strength appears low.

uberben · 2021-09-12 19:56:41

`linux-firmware-iwlwifi-git` has not helped.

seth · 2021-09-12 20:06:25

The signal isn't great - can you move the system closer to the AP (not immediately, but we might get there - the disparity might stem from the chip ramping up the TX power to yell at your AP, but the latter just whispering all the time)

The two things interesting before are
1. station dump, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Networ … _interface
2. system journal / dmesg (notably whether there're constant re-connects and/or firmware crashes - though because of the ok TX, that's probably not an issue)

Do you actually use bluetooth (ie. is there some device connecting to BT) or could you in doubt rfkill it?

uberben · 2021-09-12 20:53:56

Moving the PC closer to the router is tough, but I probably a long enough ethernet cable to temporarily move the router closer to the PC. I'll have to find the right box with my cables later today or tomorrow to try that.

1. station dump:

Station c4:41:1e:fa:c0:25 (on wlp2s0)
        inactive time:  54 ms
        rx bytes:       15453080
        rx packets:     66177
        tx bytes:       15719530
        tx packets:     70651
        tx retries:     5487
        tx failed:      7
        beacon loss:    0
        beacon rx:      89836
        rx drop misc:   64
        signal:         -63 [-63, -64] dBm
        signal avg:     -64 dBm
        beacon signal avg:      -59 dBm
        tx bitrate:     54.0 MBit/s
        tx duration:    0 us
        rx bitrate:     6.0 MBit/s
        rx duration:    0 us
        authorized:     yes
        authenticated:  yes
        associated:     yes
        preamble:       long
        WMM/WME:        yes
        MFP:            yes
        TDLS peer:      no
        DTIM period:    1
        beacon interval:100
        short preamble: yes
        short slot time:yes
        connected time: 9295 seconds
        associated at [boottime]:       2412.031s
        associated at:  1631469393945 ms
        current time:   1631478688385 ms

2a. journalctl -b -0: https://termbin.com/0gfa
2b. dmesg: https://termbin.com/4l5s

I'm seeing some messages in there about eno1, my ethernet connection. I've got a cable plugged into the PC but nothing on the other end, not sure if that is related and accessing the PC to remove it takes a few minutes. I've also got the ethernet disabled in the Gnome settings panel.

I'm also seeing a warning message in dmesg about the wifi driver with a call trace, but I'm not really sure what to do with that.

One of the main reasons I got this card was to use bluetooth headphones after I've got an ethernet wire run to the router. For the sake of testing though, I've run `rfkill block bluetooth`, confirmed my headphones cannot connect, and rerun a speed test. I'm still seeing slow download speeds and decent upload speeds.

seth · 2021-09-13 16:05:15

I don't suspect the missing ethernet carrier to cause any interference here (though as long as it's disabled NM should probably not be banging it all the time)
There's no crashing firmware, nor other frequent disconnects and you ruled out BT interference, so the one thing I see remaining is that the upstream signal is stronger than the downstream signal.
Maybe you can increase the TX power in the router?

uberben · 2021-09-13 18:19:21

It seems the stock firmware cannot adjust TX power, though I was thinking of installing OpenWRT at some point down the road.

I have moved the router so it is in the room directly below the PC and the speeds have improved (~15Mb/s instead of the ~1Mb/s I was seeing before), but still not great. My phone on the same 2.4GHz SSID in the same room (about 1 foot from the PC's antennas) gets 60Mb/s.

I'm starting to think I just got a low quality wifi card.

progandy · 2021-09-13 19:05:22

Are the antennas it comes with any good / connected properly?

uberben · 2021-09-13 19:52:33

I believe they are connected okay. Hard to say about the quality - I'll see if I've got any old routers I can scavenge an antenna from for testing.

uberben · 2021-09-14 03:21:27

I found an old D-Link router with external antennas. Swapping them out I see very similar speeds to the card's stock antennas. I also tried removing the antennas completely and am seeing the same speeds, so maybe there is something defective about the card's antenna connections internally?

uberben · 2021-09-14 21:43:09

Customer support said they would ship me out a new one. I'll come back to this thread if I'm still having issues with the replacement.

uberben · 2021-10-10 16:09:11

I'm still having a lot of speed issues so I borrowed a Windows PC and popped the card in there. After installing the default drivers, that Windows PC with the same wifi card, antennas, and wifi network is able to max out my internet connection, so something weird must be happening on the Linux side.

seth · 2021-10-10 19:37:24

Do we have a journal covering "11n_disable=8" and did you try "11n_disable=4"?
(The idea being that if re-enabling TX agg fucks up the acks, losing you packages, maybe disabling RX agg can cure that bottleneck…)

Supermathie · 2021-11-26 04:34:27

I'm having this problem as well with my laptop!

I've tried each of the suggestions:

* using 11n_disable=0, 4 and 8 -> no change

* disabling hardware crypto:

[ 2051.252606] iwlwifi 0000:09:00.0: iwlmvm doesn't allow to disable HW crypto, check swcrypto module parameter

It's this actual card:

09:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wi-Fi 6 AX210/AX211/AX411 160MHz (rev 1a)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Wi-Fi 6 AX210 160MHz

What I've noticed is that it'll negotiate a quick speed at first but then drop down to a slow speed.

○ → iw dev wlp9s0 link
Connected to 7a:45:58:18:be:ef (on wlp9s0)
	SSID: myssid
	freq: 5200
	RX: 57304 bytes (316 packets)
	TX: 18952 bytes (150 packets)
	signal: -41 dBm
	rx bitrate: 103.2 MBit/s 40MHz HE-MCS 4 HE-NSS 1 HE-GI 0 HE-DCM 0
	tx bitrate: 117.0 MBit/s 40MHz HE-MCS 3 HE-NSS 2 HE-GI 2 HE-DCM 0

	bss flags:	short-preamble short-slot-time
	dtim period:	3
	beacon int:	100

○ → iw dev wlp9s0 link
Connected to 7a:45:58:18:be:ef (on wlp9s0)
	SSID: myssid
	freq: 5200
	RX: 76934 bytes (366 packets)
	TX: 28323 bytes (191 packets)
	signal: -40 dBm
	rx bitrate: 6.0 MBit/s
	tx bitrate: 117.0 MBit/s 40MHz HE-MCS 3 HE-NSS 2 HE-GI 2 HE-DCM 0

	bss flags:	short-preamble short-slot-time
	dtim period:	3
	beacon int:	100

It might have to do with the signal quality. I'm sitting with clear line of sight about 12 feet away from my AP, so the actual signal is good.

Station dump shows that:

Station 7a:45:58:18:be:ef (on wlp9s0)
	inactive time:	0 ms
	rx bytes:	282651331
	rx packets:	191244
	tx bytes:	7852205
	tx packets:	88782
	tx retries:	0
	tx failed:	0
	beacon loss:	0
	beacon rx:	5372
	rx drop misc:	127
	signal:  	-46 [-48, -46] dBm
	signal avg:	-50 dBm
	beacon signal avg:	-45 dBm
	tx bitrate:	458.8 MBit/s 40MHz HE-MCS 9 HE-NSS 2 HE-GI 0 HE-DCM 0
	tx duration:	0 us
	rx bitrate:	6.0 MBit/s
	rx duration:	0 us
	authorized:	yes
	authenticated:	yes
	associated:	yes
	preamble:	long
	WMM/WME:	yes
	MFP:		no
	TDLS peer:	no
	DTIM period:	3
	beacon interval:100
	short preamble:	yes
	short slot time:yes
	connected time:	564 seconds
	associated at [boottime]:	3749.896s
	associated at:	1637900593507 ms
	current time:	1637901157371 ms

seth · 2021-11-26 07:43:35

Try to disable power saving, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 0#p1951800 …

Supermathie · 2021-11-26 17:48:55

seth wrote:

power saving

I forgot to include that, but I tried it as well. No change.

Sweenu · 2022-02-10 13:36:58

Were you able to fix your problem? You are the only one I found with exactly the same problem (normal upload speeds but low download speeds).

tbg · 2022-02-11 12:43:13

Try disabling TSO.

Sweenu · 2022-02-11 12:44:51

Tried it, didn't work

blakehartshorn · 2022-02-12 20:12:55

Actively reviewing the troubleshooting that's already been done here, but tried a couple things.

Comparing to the Mediatek adapter my new laptop came with, and the model below AX200 in my other laptop, I'm getting less than half the speed on the AX210 on Linux, about 350mpbs.

Booted into the Windows drive it came with, ran the same test, got 950mbps.

I changed my router to only use 802.11ax so there were no guesses about whether the device was falling back to an old protocol. No change in speed.

I'm going to keep tinkering, but I have a feeling we're still waiting on future modules and firmware.

blakehartshorn · 2022-02-12 21:20:49

Okay, yeah, we gotta wait. I checked Phoronix and it said Intel was making a lot of changes to iwlwifi for 5.17. So I grabbed the latest iwlwifi firmware from the official git, and built the mainline kernel from AUR. I'm getting 650mbps. Close to as fast as the chip it just replaced, so I'll leave it for now.

Sweenu · 2022-02-12 21:54:40

Oh waw, that's very good news! I'll try with 5.17 then. I'm still far from the numbers you're getting with my 10Mbps but hopefully, it can bring me to some usable numbers.

Arch Linux

#1 2021-09-12 16:14:48

Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

#2 2021-09-12 19:56:41

Re: Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

#3 2021-09-12 20:06:25

Re: Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

#4 2021-09-12 20:53:56

Re: Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

#5 2021-09-13 16:05:15

Re: Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

#6 2021-09-13 18:19:21

Re: Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

#7 2021-09-13 19:05:22

Re: Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

#8 2021-09-13 19:52:33

Re: Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

#9 2021-09-14 03:21:27

Re: Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

#10 2021-09-14 21:43:09

Re: Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

#11 2021-10-10 16:09:11

Re: Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

#12 2021-10-10 19:37:24

Re: Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

#13 2021-11-26 04:34:27

Re: Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

#14 2021-11-26 07:43:35

Re: Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

#15 2021-11-26 17:48:55

Re: Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

#16 2022-02-10 13:36:58

Re: Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

#17 2022-02-11 12:43:13

Re: Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

#18 2022-02-11 12:44:51

Re: Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

#19 2022-02-12 20:12:55

Re: Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

#20 2022-02-12 21:20:49

Re: Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

#21 2022-02-12 21:54:40

Re: Very slow wifi with AX210 based PCI-E card

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