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I have a Lenovo Ideapad 100S 14'' IBR-14'' Intel Celeron CPU N3060 @ 1.60GHz, 32GB SSD, 4GB RAM, but I am both at a loss what wifi I have there, as there are several different generations, and how to find which driver I have to use in FreeBSD.

How to go about it?

To find what kernel wifi the driver to use, do:

$sysctl net.wlan.devices 

net.wlan.devices: iwm0

So we know now we have to use iwm0.

You can also find the corresponding hardware doing:

$ pciconf -lv iwm0

iwm0@pci0:2:0:0:    class=0x028000 card=0x82708086 chip=0x08b48086 rev=0x93 hdr=0x00

    vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'

    device     = 'Wireless 3160'

    class      = network

So now we know it is a model with an Intel Wireless AC, and the iwm0; which are very good news, as this model was sold to me as capable of doing bgn, and not 802.11n AC.

While in the past the Intel 3160AC driver had to be compiled, nowadays, it is already supported by the default kernel.

Now to set it up, we will load the module, the firmware and the supported wifi authentication protocols in /etc/rc.conf:

legal.intel.license_ack=1

if_iwm_load="YES"

iwm3160fw_load="YES"

wlan_wep_load="YES"

wlan_ccmp_load="YES"

wlan_tkip_load="YES"

Also in /etc/rc.conf, will define the wpa_supplicant, DHCP client, activate the interface and define the country as PT for it to transmit in a stronger frequency more appropriate for my country:

wpa_supplicant_enable="YES"

synchronous_dhclient="YES"

wlans_iwm0="wlan0"

create_args_wlan0="country PT"

Now search for wpa_config and install it:

#pkg search wpa_config

wpa_gui-2.6                    Qt-based frontend for wpa_supplicant

wpa_supplicant-2.6             Supplicant (client) for WPA/802.1x protocols

#pkg install wpa_gui wpa_supplicant

Edit now /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant



network={

 ssid="my_ssid"

 priority=146

 scan_ssid=1

 psk="wifipassword"

}

Upon restarting, you can see the lines, or later with dmesg.

iwm0: hw rev 0x160, fw ver 17.352738.0, address f4:06:69:xx:xx:xx

wlan0: Ethernet address: f4:06:69:xx:xx:xx

iwm0: iwm_update_edca: called

iwm0: iwm_update_edca: called

wlan0: link state changed to UP

We have now wifi connectivity, IP address and Internet connectivity.

$ ifconfig wlan0

wlan0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500

    ether f4:06:69:xx:xx:xx

    inet 192.168.1.9 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255 

    nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>

    media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet OFDM/54Mbps mode 11g

    status: associated

    ssid xxxx channel 13 (2472 MHz 11g) bssid 30:b5:c2:xx:xx:xx

    regdomain ETSI country PT authmode WPA2/802.11i privacy ON

    deftxkey UNDEF AES-CCM 2:128-bit AES-CCM 3:128-bit txpower 30 bmiss 10

    scanvalid 60 protmode CTS wme roaming MANUAL

    groups: wlan 

Finally for configuring it graphically, you can use wpa_gui ; if using Lumina you can also install pcbsd-utils to have the wifi icon on the tray.

To list for the available SSIDs in the command line do:

#ifconfig wlan0 list scan

SSID/MESH ID    BSSID              CHAN RATE    S:N     INT CAPS

MEO-1608CD      c4:ea:1d:16:08:cd    1   54M  -87:-96   100 EP   RSN      HTCAP WPS WPA WME

MEO-WiFi        c6:ea:1d:16:08:ce    1   54M  -89:-96   100 ES   HTCAP WME

Vodafone-11...  9c:97:26:11:ad:10    1   54M  -70:-96   100 EP   RSN HTCAP WPS WPA WME

NOS-14F0        f0:f2:49:99:14:f8   12   54M  -88:-96   100 EPS  WPS HTCAP WPA RSN WME BSSLOAD

NOS_WIFI_Fon    bc:4d:fb:53:65:d9   12   54M  -88:-96   100 ES   HTCAP WME BSSLOAD

xxxx            30:b5:c2:xx:xx:xx   13   54M  -44:-96   100 EPS  RSN HTCAP WME

xxxxx           30:b5:c2:xx:xx:xx   36   54M  -50:-96   100 EP   RSN HTCAP VHTCAP VHTOPMODE WME

MEO-A8E087-5G   e2:b9:e5:a8:e0:87   60   54M  -78:-96   100 EP   RSN HTCAP VHTCAP VHTOPMODE VHTPWRENV WPS WPA WME

oLi oNe         2c:9d:1e:d3:22:c0  124   54M  -75:-96    98 EP   RSN BSSLOAD HTCAP VHTCAP VHTOPMODE VHTPWRENV WPS WPA WME

Further reading: FreeBSD Handbok 30.3. Wireless Networking