[ltp] T430i ac wireless card

[Bjørn Mork]

Robin Becker <robin@reportlab.com> writes:

> I use Arch linux on my T430i and it works well, but the wireless card
> is not terribly good.
>
> Having bought a new router I though of getting a card that supports AC
> eg Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260, but that doesn't have an FRU
> number. An equivalent (nearly) BM Intel Dual Band Wireless 7260
> 7260HMW AC 802.11b/g/n Mini PCI-E Wifi + Bluetooth 4.0 Adapter 04W3814
> has an FRU, but doesn't claim to do AC.
>
> What does the FRU actually mean? I'm not using EFI, but can the bios
> refuse to use a card that doesn't have an FRU?

Yes, and it has to be a part specifically certified for that laptop
model. So even if the Intel 7260 cards look very similar, you are
probably out of luck unless either
a) one of the AC parts are on the list for the T430i, or
b) you can modify the BIOS whitelist

I don't know it option b is possible on the T430i, and it is definitely
risky.

> Also all the newer cards semm to come with bluetooth, I'm not sure if
> the T430i has a separate blutooth module or if it's actually part of
> the wireless. What would happen if I add a second bluetooth?

Nothing much, except that you'll have 2 bluetooth devices.  I replaced
the original Intel 5300 wifi on my X301 (with a modified BIOS) with a
7260 AC module.  The 7260 shows up as a BT 4.0 device:

bjorn@nemi:~$ hciconfig hci0 version
hci0:   Type: BR/EDR  Bus: USB
        BD Address: 0C:8B:FD:08:09:75  ACL MTU: 1021:5  SCO MTU: 96:5
        HCI Version: 4.0 (0x6)  Revision: 0x500
        LMP Version: 4.0 (0x6)  Subversion: 0x500
        Manufacturer: Intel Corp. (2)

while the original BT device of this more than 5 year old laptop of
course is a 2.1 device:

bjorn@nemi:~$ hciconfig hci1 version
hci1:   Type: BR/EDR  Bus: USB
        BD Address: 00:23:4D:F0:D9:1A  ACL MTU: 1021:8  SCO MTU: 64:1
        HCI Version: 2.1 (0x4)  Revision: 0x518f
        LMP Version: 2.1 (0x4)  Subversion: 0x424c
        Manufacturer: Broadcom Corporation (15)


There aren't any problems with this, although I guess they will
interfere with each other if I should attempt to use the full bandwith
of both.  But that won't be any different than using another BT device
nearby.


Bjørn