Making the iwlwifi driver load the newest firmware for intel 7265D in Ubuntu 16.04 with kernel 4.6.0

Question

My wireless connection seems to slow down from around 50Mbps to 3Mbps frequently. Other PCs on the same network do not suffer this slowdown.

I have an Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless AC 7265, REV=0x210 (which means 7265D according to https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/iwlwifi). I think the latest firmware is iwlwifi-7265D-21.ucode. It appears that the lastest firmware i have is iwlwifi-7265D-13.ucode in /lib/firmware.

I think I need to update the driver so that it can use the newest firmware. Can anyone assist me with this? Thanks.

Some system information:

$ rfkill list all
0: phy0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no
1: hci0: Bluetooth
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no


$ modinfo iwlwifi
filename:       /lib/modules/4.6.0-040600-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/intel/iwlwifi/iwlwifi.ko
license:        GPL
author:         Copyright(c) 2003- 2015 Intel Corporation <[email protected]>
description:    Intel(R) Wireless WiFi driver for Linux
firmware:       iwlwifi-100-5.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-1000-5.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-135-6.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-105-6.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-2030-6.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-2000-6.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-5150-2.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-5000-5.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-6000g2b-6.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-6000g2a-5.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-6050-5.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-7265D-13.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-7265-13.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-3168-20.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-3160-13.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-7260-13.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-8265-20.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-8000C--13.ucode
firmware:       iwlwifi-9000--13.ucode
srcversion:     1A2FBF30BD4BF05A682F6C9
<SNIP SNIP>
depends:        cfg80211
intree:         Y
vermagic:       4.6.0-040600-generic SMP mod_unload modversions 
parm:           swcrypto:using crypto in software (default 0 [hardware]) (int)
parm:           11n_disable:disable 11n functionality, bitmap: 1: full, 2: disable agg TX, 4: disable agg RX, 8 enable agg TX (uint)
parm:           amsdu_size:amsdu size 0:4K 1:8K 2:12K (default 0) (int)
parm:           fw_restart:restart firmware in case of error (default true) (bool)
parm:           antenna_coupling:specify antenna coupling in dB (default: 0 dB) (int)
parm:           nvm_file:NVM file name (charp)
parm:           d0i3_disable:disable d0i3 functionality (default: Y) (bool)
parm:           lar_disable:disable LAR functionality (default: N) (bool)
parm:           uapsd_disable:disable U-APSD functionality (default: Y) (bool)
parm:           bt_coex_active:enable wifi/bt co-exist (default: enable) (bool)
parm:           led_mode:0=system default, 1=On(RF On)/Off(RF Off), 2=blinking, 3=Off (default: 0) (int)
parm:           power_save:enable WiFi power management (default: disable) (bool)
parm:           power_level:default power save level (range from 1 - 5, default: 1) (int)
parm:           fw_monitor:firmware monitor - to debug FW (default: false - needs lots of memory) (bool)
parm:           d0i3_timeout:Timeout to D0i3 entry when idle (ms) (uint)
parm:           disable_11ac:Disable VHT capabilities (bool)

$ grep [[:alnum:]] /sys/module/iwlwifi/parameters/*; lshw -c net
/sys/module/iwlwifi/parameters/11n_disable:0
/sys/module/iwlwifi/parameters/amsdu_size:0
/sys/module/iwlwifi/parameters/antenna_coupling:0
/sys/module/iwlwifi/parameters/bt_coex_active:Y
/sys/module/iwlwifi/parameters/d0i3_disable:Y
/sys/module/iwlwifi/parameters/d0i3_timeout:1000
/sys/module/iwlwifi/parameters/disable_11ac:N
/sys/module/iwlwifi/parameters/fw_monitor:N
/sys/module/iwlwifi/parameters/fw_restart:Y
/sys/module/iwlwifi/parameters/lar_disable:N
/sys/module/iwlwifi/parameters/led_mode:0
/sys/module/iwlwifi/parameters/nvm_file:(null)
/sys/module/iwlwifi/parameters/power_level:0
/sys/module/iwlwifi/parameters/power_save:N
/sys/module/iwlwifi/parameters/swcrypto:0
/sys/module/iwlwifi/parameters/uapsd_disable:Y
WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
  *-network               
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: Ethernet Connection (3) I218-V
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 19
       bus info: pci@0000:00:19.0
       logical name: enp0s25
       version: 03
       serial: b8:ae:ed:77:17:02
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e1000e driverversion=3.2.6-k firmware=0.2-4 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair
       resources: irq:44 memory:aa100000-aa11ffff memory:aa13b000-aa13bfff ioport:3080(size=32)
  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       product: Wireless 7265
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: wlp2s0
       version: 59
       serial: 34:13:e8:39:1f:9d
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlwifi driverversion=4.6.0-040600-generic firmware=21.302800.0 ip=10.0.1.29 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abgn
       resources: irq:49 memory:aa000000-aa001fff
WARNING: output may be incomplete or inaccurate, you should run this program as super-user.

Solution

I had a similar issue with my Dell Precision M4700 which has an Intel 6300 wifi card. I upgraded from Ubuntu 14.04 to 16.04 and all of a sudden performance of wifi was horrible. I would try to download a 60MB file and it would stall out after 10-20MB and then the download would fail, it seemed like the connection would just pause for a minute while doing anything. After searching for over a week and finding others having similar issues with little resolutions, I decided to reload drivers and even tried upgrading to Ubuntu 16.10. After still having issues after that I noticed that there was a new listing under "Software & Updates" in the "Additional Drivers" tab for an Unknown device: "Using Processor microcode firmware for Intel CPUs from intel-microcode (proprietary)". I enabled that and rebooted and then everything started working like new again. Not sure if you are still having problems, or maybe others are still coming across this issue and can give that a try.

Comments

[Britt]

I updated my kernel using the kernel using the ppa because I thought maybe that would load the latest firmware and solve my problem. Didn't change anything though.

[Jeremy31]

Please edit to add grep [[:alnum:]] /sys/module/iwlwifi/parameters/*; lshw -c net Thanks. If the iwlwifi-7265D-21.ucode is in /lib/firmware it should load according to the kernel source I looked at for the 4.6 kernel

[Jeremy31]

It is loading the 21 firmware, does iwconfig show Power Management : on? See if sudo modprobe -r iwlwifi && sleep 20 && sudo modprobe iwlwifi 11n_disable=8 helps any

[Britt]

Yes, Power Managment is on $ iwconfig lo no wireless extensions. enp0s25 no wireless extensions. wlp2s0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"monty's Wi-Fi Network" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 54:E4:3A:E9:F7:CE Bit Rate=115.6 Mb/s Tx-Power=22 dBm Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Power Management:on Link Quality=50/70 Signal level=-60 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:13 Missed beacon:0

[Britt]

if I try that code you gave me, I get: modprobe: FATAL: Module iwlwifi is in use.

[Jeremy31]

Does 'sudo iwconfig wlp2s0 power off` change the power management setting in iwconfig

[Britt]

Yes, it is now off

[Britt]

Unfortunately, this hasn't improved wifi speeds.

[zeroconf]

Here is one bug report bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-firmware/+bug/170479‌​9 - hopefully can you download newer modules and fix the issue.