Hello, I have just hopefully a quick and easy question. I am trying to find a replacement wifi card for my laptop. It currently has a intel 9560 m.2 2230 slot key e card which appears to be broken in kernels > 5.4

I understand just using a lts kernel but my retort to that is when the lts moves to whatever is next, i am in the same boat. Yes some kernels have had this fixed but the patch does not seem to follow the next builds. Intel sees this card as replaceable and probably just wants me to throw out this $1500 lappy and buy a new one.... you know because these things are just as replaceable as the $1000 android phones...

I have tried kernel 5.7 and 5.8 on gentoo, and arch. anything on lts kernel seems to work. Tried a backported module and no change. Tried multiple different module options. The option changes can get the card to communicate but when it goes into idle, the firmware crashes and wifi/bluetooth dies.

I would very much love to upgrade to something that is NOT intel and does not rely on the simulated hardware over the CNVi communication.
I have been searching for 2 days and honestly do not think anyone but intel makes a wifi card that is m.2 key e or ea

Specs on machine:
System76 darter pro (darp5)

Kernel: 5.7.15.a-1-hardened #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed, 12 Aug 2020 16:02:31 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Hardware:
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8565U CPU @ 1.80GHz
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Coffee Lake HOST and DRAM Controller (rev 0b)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation UHD Graphics 620 (Whiskey Lake)
00:12.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP Thermal Controller (rev 30)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP USB 3.1 xHCI Controller (rev 30)
00:14.2 RAM memory: Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP Shared SRAM (rev 30)
00:14.3 Network controller: Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP CNVi [Wireless-AC] (rev 30)
00:15.0 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #0 (rev 30)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP MEI Controller #1 (rev 30)
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP SATA Controller [AHCI Mode] (rev 30)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #5 (rev f0)
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #9 (rev f0)
00:1d.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #13 (rev f0)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP LPC Controller (rev 30)
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP High Definition Audio Controller (rev 30)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP SMBus Controller (rev 30)
00:1f.5 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Cannon Point-LP SPI Controller (rev 30)
01:00.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation JHL7540 Thunderbolt 3 Bridge [Titan Ridge 2C 2018] (rev 06)
02:00.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation JHL7540 Thunderbolt 3 Bridge [Titan Ridge 2C 2018] (rev 06)
02:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation JHL7540 Thunderbolt 3 Bridge [Titan Ridge 2C 2018] (rev 06)
02:02.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation JHL7540 Thunderbolt 3 Bridge [Titan Ridge 2C 2018] (rev 06)
03:00.0 System peripheral: Intel Corporation JHL7540 Thunderbolt 3 NHI [Titan Ridge 2C 2018] (rev 06)
38:00.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation JHL7540 Thunderbolt 3 USB Controller [Titan Ridge 2C 2018] (rev 06)
39:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8411B PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)
39:00.1 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 12)
3a:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller SM981/PM981/PM983


What i am asking is for suggestions and links for good replacement hardware that is not cpu dependent. I would honestly like to go away from intel for a wifi card. I wouldn't mind something for tinkering as well with atheros. I find that intel says to use a ax200 or ax201 and those cards both say to not use in a machine that has CNVi part so everything contradicts. This laptop is my little coding/infosec machine and i would love for it to stay mobile, Makes for a really crappy desktop.

There's plenty of m.2 wifi cards.

If you want 802.11AX (Wifi 6), you have no choice but to go Intel. AX200 for a real card, AX201 for the CNVIO like your 9560.

If you just want 802.11AC (Wifi 5), you can get Broadcom, Realtek, and Atheros (qualcomm) in addition to Intel. Intel 9260 (REAL card version of your 9560, not CNVIO) comes E key'd. You can also find cards based on the Qualcomm 6174 (2x2 802.11AC) in E-key. I don't really suggest broadcom or realtek, and not surprisingly have no idea which cards might be e-key'd from them. ONe thing I will say is I know at least with Arch they've been having issues with the Ath10k firmware breaking every couple upgrades for about 18 months now (which is why I got rid of my Qualcomm cards and went Intel).

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks Timothy,
I will give this a try, worse case machine doesn't boot or wifi doesn't work. I have ordered a 9260 and ax200. Can always return one i guess if i ever take the time to do so. I will report back the answers once testing is done. Hopefully this can be an answer to others.

9260 should definitely work. I don't really follow Slacks packages that well, but if it's 5.4+ kernel, then the AX200 should also work if the firmware is also modern enough. I have 4 AX200's on Debian, Arch, Fedora and Ubuntu and all work without a single issue.

1 members found this post helpful.

Well ax200 installed, i am replying to this post using that card and bluetooth even works again. Thanks for the suggestion. The ax200 had a note to not use if there was a cnvi part but i guess it doesn't matter. I guess i'll be wifi6 capable even though i will probably not swap out ap's for a while yet. I am currently running a fresh install with arch and hardened kernel. So to anyone else that ever runs into this. if you have a system76 darter pro darp5 then the intel ax200 card appears to work.