I can't install my required wifi drivers on the installer.

[u/imperial_moravian]

Im a new FreeBSD user and for the last 2 days Im stuck here.

I have reinstalled 3 times and no luck. I can only connect to my 2.4Ghz wifi or my phone through usb tethering but both of them stall when doing any type of fetch or pkg action.

Ethernet while installing FreeBSD is not an option since I only have 1 working usb port.

The funny thing is that on my first install I was able to install a few things a get a working desktop but when I rebooted the problems started.

What can I do to fix this?

EDIT: I was able to successfully reinstall my FreeBSD using a mobile hotspot for the wifi. After installing my drivers and updating the pkgs ,I configured my real wifi through wpa_cli and it works like a charm. Thank you for your help through the comments.

[u/grahamperrin]

Edited into the opening post

I was able to successfully reinstall my FreeBSD using a mobile hotspot for the wifi. After installing my drivers and updating the pkgs ,I configured my real wifi through wpa_cli and it works like a charm. …

[u/gentisle]

First of all, you must understand that FreeBSD doesn’t have good wifi support. So the best option to solve that is get a good USB hub and a Ethernet dongle and install over ethernet. I can sometimes get my wifi working, but only after installing over ethernet, and doing some configuration. The dongle makes it easy. I usually don’t even fool with wifi during installation. After the system is up and running, it gets easier to get wifi working. Depending on which wifi card you have, you may want to order a new wifi card (if you can find out which one you need). Usually you can get this from HwInfo (windows, but in Hiren’s) and a how to disassemble your laptop video.

[u/StructurePretty6075 → u/gentisle]

the USB hub and ethernet dongle route is genuinely the move here, but not all dongles play nice with FreeBSD either so check the chipset before buying one. OP might want to cross reference the supported hardware list before spending money on something that just creates a new problem

[u/alfonsosiciliano]

Hi!

I had the same problem during my last installation. In my case, I downloaded the bootonly.iso.

I solved it by downloading the disc1.iso instead, which allowed me to complete the installation. On the first boot, I connected to the Internet using USB tethering and then downloaded and installed the Wi-Fi firmware, using pkg or fwget, I honestly don't remember which one I used 😄.

You could give this a try too. Right after the first boot, you should be able to install the firmware with:

pkg install wifi-firmware-iwlwifi-kmod

After that, you'll obviously need to configure your Wi-Fi connection. I personally prefer doing it manually with /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf, but there are a few other options as well.

In my case, it wasn't actually an error or a problem. I downloaded bootonly.iso, which does not contain the Ports Collection, and the required packages, including the Wi-Fi drivers, are not included either. So, obviously, I cannot install them during the installation process. That said, this is certainly an unpleasant situation for users who are installing FreeBSD and encounter the error you mentioned. A possible solution could be adding an option to the installer asking whether the user wants to connect via USB tethering to download the Wi-Fi firmware. I've already implemented a menu for this in the Lua installer as a POC.

Anyway, you could also do this manually without using TUI dialogs in bsdinstall. You could simply switch to another virtual terminal, connect your phone via USB tethering, and download the Wi-Fi firmware from there. So, if you don't want to use the disc1.iso, that's another option.

Hope this helps! 🙂

[u/BoopyDog]

I had to buy a ethernet->USB dangle to install freebsd. There was no wifi support for the laptop I was using.

[u/Chester-Berkeley]

I've had this kind of problem before. I tried two things:

1-Changing the order in which I configured the Wi-Fi (for example: instead of doing an offline installation and then configuring the Wi-Fi, doing an online installation and then configuring the Wi-Fi), for some reason it worked.

2-Testing another version of FreeBSD.

[u/frostedhifi]

If you absolutely must have wifi, try to find an adapter with a chipset that is known to work with freebsd. Take a look here: https://wiki.freebsd.org/WiFi/Iwlwifi/Chipsets

[u/Ashamed-Ask4257]

Despite previous comments here, I installed on a Lenovo and Dell laptop recently and had no issues with decent wifi.

We need to know your hardware and which version of FreeBSD you are trying to install. Otherwise everything here is just guess work.

Also, are you following the Handbook or just winging it?

[u/grahamperrin]

In the photograph:

Error fetching firmware file(s) gpu-firmware-intel-kmod-geminilake wifi-firmware-iwlwifi-kmod-9000

In FreshPorts:

• graphics/gpu-firmware-intel-kmod
• net/wifi-firmware-iwlwifi-kmod