Firmware Installation

This section applies to the "Native Build from Source" and "Cross-Compilation from Source" methods. The DKMS method manages firmware automatically via the linux-firmware package.

Deploy Firmware Files

Intel® Wi-Fi firmware files must be placed in /lib/firmware/ on the target filesystem. To deploy firmware, run the following commands:

git clone https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git
cd linux-firmware
cp -rf iwlwifi-*.* <target firmware path>

Where <target firmware path> is the firmware folder in rootfs (typically /lib/firmware/).

Selecting a Firmware Release

By default, this clones the latest firmware. To use a specific release, check out the desired tag after cloning: git checkout <tag> (e.g., git checkout iwlwifi-fw-2026-03-17).

Firmware Files

File Pattern	Purpose
iwlwifi-*.ucode	Wi-Fi firmware binary
*.pnvm	Regulatory configuration data