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Wi-Fi (IW620 / mwifiex)

  • Internal chip: 40:00.7 Marvell Technology Group Ltd. Device [1b4b:2b56] (rev 02)
  • Driver: NXP mwifiex fork, patched for the PS5's IW620
MediaTek chips (most PS5 Slims and the PS5 Pro)

Some consoles use a MediaTek chip instead of the Marvell IW620 covered on this page: the MT7961 (14c3:7961) on most Slims and the MT7925 (14c3:7925) on the PS5 Pro. See Console models and chips for how to check which one you have.

The official ps5-linux kernel config doesn't build the mt7921e driver, so these chips don't work on the official images. PS5 Bazzite Deck builds it (CONFIG_MT7921E=m) and supports MediaTek Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. On other images, use a USB Wi-Fi adapter.

Using the package repository?

The linux-ps5 kernel package from the package repository already includes this driver, so Wi-Fi works without the install steps below.

Install​

git clone https://github.com/ps5-linux/ps5-linux-mwifiex
cd ps5-linux-mwifiex
sudo ./install.sh

To uninstall:

sudo ./install.sh uninstall

Load the driver manually​

sudo modprobe cfg80211
sudo insmod ./mlan.ko
sudo insmod ./moal.ko \
  fw_name=nxp/pcieuartiw620_combo_v1.bin \
  pcie_int_mode=1 drv_mode=1 cfg80211_wext=4 sta_name=mlan \
  ext_scan=1 auto_fw_reload=0 wifi_reset_config=0 \
  sched_scan=0 ps_mode=2 auto_ds=2 amsdu_disable=1

Build from source​

git clone https://github.com/nxp-imx/mwifiex.git && cd mwifiex
git checkout lf-6.18.2_1.0.0
git apply ../ps5-iw620.patch
make CONFIG_OBJTOOL=

Set up Wi-Fi before the first boot​

No Ethernet, but you need Wi-Fi on the first boot? You can add your network credentials from another Linux PC before you plug the USB drive into the PS5. Replace /dev/sdX1 with the root filesystem partition of the flashed drive.

# Mount the root filesystem partition of the flashed USB drive
MNT=$(mktemp -d)
sudo mount /dev/sdX1 "$MNT"

# Create the NetworkManager connection file
sudo install -d -m 700 "$MNT/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections"
sudo tee "$MNT/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/wifi.nmconnection" >/dev/null <<'EOF'
[connection]
id=wifi
type=wifi
autoconnect=true

[wifi]
mode=infrastructure
ssid=YOUR_SSID_HERE

[wifi-security]
key-mgmt=wpa-psk
psk=YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE

[ipv4]
method=auto

[ipv6]
addr-gen-mode=stable-privacy
method=auto
EOF

sudo chmod 600 "$MNT/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/wifi.nmconnection"
sudo chown root:root "$MNT/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/wifi.nmconnection"
sudo umount "$MNT"

Troubleshooting​

Arch: install fails (missing headers or wrong headers path)​

If ./install.sh fails on Arch, first make sure the kernel headers are installed:

sudo pacman -U linux-bin/linux-ps5-headers_*.pkg.tar.zst

The headers package is in the same linux-bin/ folder as the kernel package. You can also download it from the ps5-linux-patches releases.

If it still fails, you may have hit a known packaging bug that installs the headers to /usr/usr/include instead of /usr/include. Fix it with:

sudo cp -r /usr/usr/include/* /usr/include/

Confirmed working on a CachyOS (Arch-based) install.

Adapter shows as UNCLAIMED: the driver loads but never binds​

Symptoms: lspci shows the Marvell chip, moal is listed under kernel modules, but the interface never comes up. dmesg shows the driver recognising the card and then giving up silently, without any firmware errors:

Attach moal handle ops, card interface type: 0x207
Enable moal_recv_amsdu_packet
Attach mlan adapter operations.card_type is 0x207.

This was a bug in the install script: install.sh put the firmware in /lib/ instead of /lib/firmware/, and the kernel only looks in /lib/firmware/. Check where the file ended up:

find /lib -iname "pcieuartiw620_combo_v1.bin"

If it is in /lib/ instead of /lib/firmware/nxp/, move it:

sudo mkdir -p /lib/firmware/nxp
sudo mv /lib/pcieuartiw620_combo_v1.bin /lib/firmware/nxp/

Reload the driver and the interface should come up straight away.

Package manager installs (Fedora/Debian): common failures​

If your distro uses the ps5-linux-mwifiex package instead of the manual install.sh above, two failures come up often.

Kernel version pin:

ps5-linux-mwifiex : Depends: linux-ps5 (= 7.1.1) but 7.1.2 is to be installed

The mwifiex package requires one exact kernel version. Install the matching linux-ps5 version instead of upgrading the kernel first. Before fighting the package manager, check whether your kernel already has the driver built in:

dmesg | grep -iE 'moal|mlan|mwifiex'

Kernel/GCC/pahole mismatch while building:

warning: kernel built on gcc 13, using gcc 15

The toolchain that builds the module must match the one that built the kernel. Don't combine a distro-upgraded GCC with an older prebuilt linux-ps5 kernel package.

Confirmed working install (rpm-ostree/Bazzite):

sudo dnf upgrade -y linux-ps5 --setopt=gpgcheck=0
sudo rpm-ostree install ps5-linux-mwifiex ps5-linux-tools
sudo systemctl reboot

If apt or dnf reports conflicts between cached package files with the same names, use the manual install.sh method instead.

Bazzite: no Wi-Fi networks​

Bazzite uses iwd as NetworkManager's Wi-Fi backend by default, which doesn't work with the IW620 driver. Switch back to wpa_supplicant with ujust toggle-iwd (choose "disable iwd"), then run sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager. Newer images already include this fix.

Wi-Fi doesn't connect or drops under load​

Wi-Fi may need to be turned off and on again after the first boot before it connects. If it drops under load (a known issue), reload the driver:

sudo modprobe -r moal mlan
sudo modprobe cfg80211
sudo insmod ./mlan.ko
sudo insmod ./moal.ko fw_name=nxp/pcieuartiw620_combo_v1.bin pcie_int_mode=1 drv_mode=1 cfg80211_wext=4 sta_name=mlan ext_scan=1 auto_fw_reload=0 wifi_reset_config=0 sched_scan=0 ps_mode=2 auto_ds=2 amsdu_disable=1

Driver stuck under sustained load​

If dmesg shows a pattern like this during heavy traffic, the driver is stuck in a reset loop:

num_cmd_timeout = 1
woal_reset_adma: ADMA reset failed (value:97)
woal_reset_intf: get bss info failed
Block woal_cfg80211_deauthenticate in abnormal driver state
PCIe In-band Reset Fail

Power-save cycling is the suspected trigger. Replace ps_mode=2 with ps_mode=0 (power saving off) in the insmod command above. Users report that this holds up under sustained load where ps_mode=2 did not.