Can Librem 14 accept wifi ax

Hardware
1

Hi
can i mount a small wifi ax chip? it is possible ?
thank you
Rodrigue

2

I believe that the WiFi will be provided via an optional removable M.2 card.

So provided that you can find a module that has drivers for Linux, you can use the WiFi module of your choice.

However, you may compromise your privacy and security (purity) in doing so i.e. if you install a blackbox driver in order to use the WiFi module of your choice, you have no way of verifying the privacy or security properties of the driver, so you have to trust the supplier of the driver.

As the Librem 14 hasn’t been released yet, I doubt that anyone can say for sure which WiFi modules will work and which WiFi modules will not work.

I would be looking at the Intel AX200 or AX201. However it looks as if that will require kernel 5.x and that may open up a can of worms - depending on which Linux distro you intended to run.

Obviously you will need an 802.11ax Wireless Access Point in order to get maximum benefit from using an 802.11ax WiFi card in a client device.

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3

If using the Intel AX200, then the driver is free, but proprietary firmware is stored in the /lib/firmware/ directory and transferred to the AX200 every time the laptop is booted. I don’t see much of a security difference between having the proprietary firmware stored on the M.2 card and having it stored in the /lib/firmware directory in the main file system, except that it would be easier for a hacker to change the code in the /lib/firmware/ directory than to flash firmware into an M.2 card.

I assume that something like this card will fit. The first people who get the Librem 14 will have to try it to make sure. (Unfortunately, Purism doesn’t publish info like the size of the M.2 card and its keying, so you have to look at the existing card.)

Then, the steps are:

  1. Upgrade from Amber to Byzantium (because need Linux kernel 5.1 or later).
  2. Install the proprietary “iwlwifi” package from Debian bullseye (testing):
    wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/non-free/f/firmware-nonfree/firmware-iwlwifi_20201218-1_all.deb
    sudo dpkg -i firmware-iwlwifi_20201218-1_all.deb
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4

I can confirm that we will have M.2 key-E 2230 slot for the WiFi/BT card, with PCIe, USB, SDIO and UART connected to that slot. Please be aware that CNVI is not supported on the slot. Also take into account that the antennas are tuned to the 2.4GHz and 5GHz WiFi bands and that there are “only” two antennas.

So if such a card can live within these specs, it should work just fine.

But please also note that replacing the card is in your own risk, especially concerning RF interference etc.

Cheers
nicole

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5

In the second case, your computer will have a non-auditable blob in the file system, which is updated often and unpredictably. If it contains something executable, then any malicious code you run could take advantage of that before you can do anything.

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6

Yep.

The ordering of my paragraphs was important.

The third paragraph is a generic comment “if you install a blackbox driver” - under the assumption that I don’t control the OP’s choice of module. He could choose any module. It may or may not have a Linux driver at all - and, if it does (assumed to be the case otherwise why bother?), said driver may or may not be blackbox.

The fifth paragraph was steering the OP towards what I would do, if I were him - towards a relatively pain free option.

Also potentially easier for a legitimate but undesirable update to occur. (I expect that, with PureOS, such drivers - manually downloaded and installed - aren’t going to auto-update ever but with some other distro …)

Given Intel’s propensity to lock things down, you wonder whether a hacker (as distinct from Intel-the-hacker) can actually change the firmware. (For example, in order to comply with future laws, it may be that the firmware has to be locked down.) Since it is a blackbox, it may be that the answer is not publicly known.

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