Which mini PCIe WIFI cards are working with Radxa E25?

#1

Hello, guys,
Did anybody succeed in using any mini PCIe WIFI card with Radxa E25 in the mode of AP? Which card it was?
I have the only card that is working for me, based on Intel X210. But because of being Intel it does not provide AP mode at 5GHz
I tried to use 3 (three!) cards from Atheros on different chips, including one based on the same chip, like DR900VX card is based on (namely on QCA9880), which is recommended as an example of WIFI card to use on the Radxa E25 page
All 3 cards from Atheros behave for me the same way:

  • on linux builds based on recent kernels (6.x) I receive in dmesg ‘Phy link never came up’
  • on official ubuntu build from Radxa based on kernel 4.19 I receive in dmesg ‘PCIe Link Fail’

Guys, did anybody have success with creating AP 5 GHz based on Radxa E25?

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#2

@Maxone I have Wallys DR7915, but my E25 had power issues from the start - it refused to boot anything but OpenWRT-flippy with Radxa 5V 6A PSU. The PSU in question worked just fine with Rock 5B. I was hesitant about turning on power-hungry DR7915 with weaker PSUs or when powered directly by laptop with a type C, so can’t report on your exact issue.

Sadly, while troubleshooting these power issues, I lost both 2.5G ports on E25 alongside a good 87W PSU and cable connecting them - they all burned out. E25 still works with USB ethernet adapter, and miniPCIe port at the very least detects (via lspci) DR7915, that seemingly escaped unscathed.

I’ll probably keep using DR7915 with 4B, which has proper OpenWRT support - unlike E25 at the moment - but has single 1Gbe thus has to rely on USB for more, needs an adapter to accept a miniPCIe card, and separate box for WWAN module. A pity…

Regarding AX210, there were software hacks to make AX200 work as 5GHz AP which may be applicable given how similar they are. However, even if you manage to pull it off, it will be limited to 80MHz bandwidth with pretty pathetic signal strength…

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#3

I’m appreciating for sharing your case, very interesting info.
I have investigated my own case taking in mind your idea about possible power issues. I have tested the 3.3V and 5V lines for a drawdown, which would be in place if the power of power supply is not enough - without Atheros WiFi card inserted, and with it. In my case, the voltages are exactly what they should be, that is, there is enough power for the card. It looks like there is some other source of the issues in case of the Atheros WiFi cards.

I suspect that the problem may be that for using Atheros WiFi cards the PCIe controller for mini PCIe may require some different device tree configuration.

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