# [SOLVED] Linux Drivers and Wireless AC



## tdb (Feb 4, 2008)

*product*: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 for Desktop
*Distro:* Linux Mint 17 (Mate')
*Linux* drivers*

_The AC 7260 also has bluetooth but I'll askk a question about that later._

I purchased this device for the bluetooth feature and to access the 5g network on my router. The strength of both bands are underwhhelming but the 5g more so. I found these Linux Drives on Intels sight (above) but I don't know how to install them. I only know how to upload software/firmware via the terminal, package manager, and software manager. Thank you for any assistance you can give me.


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## hal8000 (Dec 23, 2006)

*Re: Linux Drivers and Wireless AC*

If you read that page you will see that your dongle uses the iwlwifi module. This is already enabled in the Linux Mint kernel, on LM16 and higher, so it will probably just work.

Connect your wireless dongle abd post the output of:

inxi -Nx


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## tdb (Feb 4, 2008)

*Re: Linux Drivers and Wireless AC*



hal8000 said:


> If you read that page you will see that your dongle uses the *iwlwifi module*. This is already enabled in the Linux Mint kernel, on LM16 and higher, so it will probably just work.
> 
> Connect your wireless dongle abd post the output of:
> 
> inxi -Nx



*Yeah, I saw that...*

[email protected] ~ $ inxi -Nx 
Network: Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
driver: r8169 ver: 2.3LK-NAPI port: de00 bus-ID: 04:00.0
Card-2: Intel Wireless 7260 driver: iwlwifi ver: in-tree: bus-ID: 03:00.0


I see my card and *iwiwif driver*... wishful thinking in thinking this was a driver issue. The 5g reception only gets to two bars. I hope I can do something from the router to boost reception. Now that that driver question has been answered. I have another question,

The card came with bluetooth and I didn't install it because I didn't understand where the wire was suppose to go on my motherboard. One end - the mini wire- of course connects to wireless card, the other the wire connects to D+ and D- on the on my motherboard.

I see rows of pin headers running along the side of the soundcard (1 x PCI Express x16 slot) goes. You get a better view if you see the pics below in the link. I didn't dare plug anythig in, fearing I would kill my board. As always, thanks Hal. 

Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 (ver. 5.0)


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## hal8000 (Dec 23, 2006)

*Re: Linux Drivers and Wireless AC*

OK, I think this is your card:

Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 + Bluetooth for Desktop

The picture shows two wires that look like a loop antenna for 5G.
Not sure where the D+ and D- wires go, but my Motherboard is also Gigabyte, and the manual is very comprehensive.
Have a look through your motherboard manual to see if there is anything relating to Bluetooth.

Regarding weak signal strength, try altering the 5G wifi channel. The 5GHz band has more available channels than 2.3GHz but being shorter wavelength, is also more rapidly absorved by walls, ceilings and floors.
You may have to experiment with the position of the antenna for best coverage.


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## tdb (Feb 4, 2008)

*Re: Linux Drivers and Wireless AC*

Yep, that's my card. Thanks for explaining the differences between 2.5g & 5g signal strength. My router has a "boosting" application and I'll see if that will improve the 5g ouput,

As much as I can surmise, after reading the manual... accessing bluetooth via the Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 (rev. 5.0) it's a no go. Oh well... thanks.

Coming back to a subject I've asked before... streaming audio & video over a home network.

Another question about creating a network to play my music and movies over different platforms; Hal you recommended XBMC. Do I still need to build a home network? My desktop will house all of my stuff... if a network is needed I'll use Samba.


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## hal8000 (Dec 23, 2006)

*Re: Linux Drivers and Wireless AC*



tdb said:


> Coming back to a subject I've asked before... streaming audio & video over a home network.
> Another question about creating a network to play my music and movies over different platforms; Hal you recommended XBMC. Do I still need to build a home network? My desktop will house all of my stuff... if a network is needed I'll use Samba.



Sorry, just seen this question, you could also have started a new topic.
If you want to be able to stream files at any time from any device then you need to make the content always available and therefore require one computer to be always available, and therefore need to build a network.

If however you only want to stream periodically then its not necessary to build a home network. You can install a UPnP client on two devices and stream using UPnP. The easiet UPnP server is xbmc. Its available for windows, mac, linux and Android and its only necessary to add a new source as per this wiki article:
UPnP/Media source - Kodi

One advantage of using a Raspberry Pi as a media server is its low power consumption of 3.5 Watt. With my external hard drive power consumption rises to about 12 Watts but its still low enough to leave connected all the time.
One thing I have not tried and that is streaming files to windows. My rasperry pi hard drive is formatted with ext4 and may not be playable on windows, its playable on Android which is linux based. On NAS devices the underlying filesystem does not matter ext3/4, NTFS as software on NAS always translates the filesystem (although I'd never ever recommend any filesystem like NTFS that fragments so rapidly). It may be the same with UPnP, I may get round to testing this one day.


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## tdb (Feb 4, 2008)

*Re: Linux Drivers and Wireless AC*

No problem Hal... I should have opened up another thread. So many options, so much to consider. I have a board up listing the pros and cons of streaming and /or networking... what my needs are. I'll open up another thread when I've sorted this all out in my own mind. Thank you.


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