WiFi problem with proxmox (7.2-7) - Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174

[TomSawyer]

Hi,

I'm having a problem with Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac (M.2 2230) wireless NIC.
I installed proxmox on a protectli device and it works fine except for this wifi card. The adapter doesn't show up in /etc/network/interfaces.
I see this adapter only when I run the "lspci" command. What can I do in order to fix this issue? Do I need to install the firmware-atheros package manually?
Also, there's a message on the screen, after the "login:" part, saying something about this hardware crashed on init...

See the attached screenshots for more info, please (ignore the pve-nuc naming in the screenshots, it's installed on a protectli device):

 

[leesteken]

Proxmox VE (a server oriented hypervisor) does not support/configure/use WiFi by design, as most WiFi-devices don't support bridge mode (like wired network devices).
You can configure WiFi manually as one would do on Debian Linux, upon which Proxmox builds.

 

[TomSawyer]

Proxmox VE (a server oriented hypervisor) does not support/configure/use WiFi by design, as most WiFi-devices don't support bridge mode (like wired network devices).
You can configure WiFi manually as one would do on Debian Linux, upon which Proxmox builds.

One option is to follow the link you sent (even though I tried something like that), hope that it works and then set the wifi to be wlan and use NAT for everything else. The other option (sounds better I think) is to install dd-wrt (or similar) on as a VM and use that a access point to provide internet access to the proxmox machine it's installed on. That way no special changes or installs are needed and no risk of weird wifi behavior.

What do you think?

BTW, I need all of this for a mini portable lab setup. That's why the wifi request.

 

[leesteken]

If you really need to use WiFi as the only network interface for Proxmox, you probably need the NAT configuration from the manual.
Running a router as a VM inside Proxmox might have more benefits like DNS, DHCP and you can define all the separate (internal) networks for your VMs and containers you want. I would say, go for it.

 

[TomSawyer]

I need wifi to communicate with the outside world. The main VM will be pfSense. dd-wrt will act as access point just to get internet access. It only needs 256mb of ram so I think it's fine. I would just put pfsense on this device but FreeBSD doesn't support the wifi module it came with so...workaround is needed

 

[leesteken]

I need wifi to communicate with the outside world. The main VM will be pfSense

That's more or less the NAT use case from the manual. You could just configure the WiFi in /etc/network/interfaces, if you don't mind the plain text password, and pass it via a bridge to a VM. Maybe that could even be done without the NAT as pfSense could do the routing, but the IP configuration would still be in /etc/network/interfaces. Maybe someone om this forum with more specific experience on this tpoic can explain how to do it.

 

[TomSawyer]

For everyone who wants to know and/or had the same problem, this is the only thing that fixed the crash messages printed to the screen/console and also made the wireless card appear under "ip a". Now the only thing left to check is if the wifi connection will be stable

 

[TomSawyer]

That's more or less the NAT use case from the manual. You could just configure the WiFi in /etc/network/interfaces, if you don't mind the plain text password, and pass it via a bridge to a VM. Maybe that could even be done without the NAT as pfSense could do the routing, but the IP configuration would still be in /etc/network/interfaces. Maybe someone om this forum with more specific experience on this tpoic can explain how to do it.

Update: Still not working...the wifi card at least appears as a network device in the GUI and under "ip a" but shows this message when trying to activate it and connect a known wifi network defined in /etc/network/interfaces


The real shame and bummer here is that even windows would have a working drive for this card...

 

[leesteken]

Update: Still not working...the wifi card at least appears as a network device in the GUI and under "ip a" but shows this message when trying to activate it and connect a known wifi network defined in /etc/network/interfaces
View attachment 38825

I think wpa_supplicant is only needed for the password, which can also be stored plain text in the /etc/network/interfaces.Does something like this not work?
iface wlan0 inet static wpa-ssid SSID_NAME_WITHOUT_QUOTES wpa-psk PLAIN_TEXT_PASSWORD address 192.168.100.200 netmask 255.255.255.0 gateway 192.168.100.1
Sorry, I have no experience with wpa_supplicant.

 

[TomSawyer]

Sorry, I have no experience with wpa_supplicant.

That's ok at least you're trying to help. I tried the same (including pass) with dhcp and I think I also tried with static IP but I'll try again...Thank you very much for taking the time to answer.

 

[TomSawyer]

Un-f*ing-believable! Just installed Windows 10 machine and it supports this Atheros wifi card with one click of updating driver.....crazy....I thought linux was much better in terms of compatibility regardless of bridging etc., just for basic functionality without so much manual configuration which make the use of a wifi card almost not worth it...sad...but I guess it is what it is

Trying to see if untangle (eventhough it's linux) will save the day...one would assume that in 2022 such simple things would just work out of the box

 

[TomSawyer]

Last Update: Instead of doing it with windows, I decided to create LXC (whatever linux version) and make it share the wifi over an Ethernet port that will be passed through to it.

 

[ronaldjeremy]

For everyone who wants to know and/or had the same problem, this is the only thing that fixed the crash messages printed to the screen/console and also made the wireless card appear under "ip a". Now the only thing left to check is if the wifi connection will be stable

"the only thing" refers to what? I am having the exact same issue with a protectli device