802.11be the cheap way.... <$40

[Tech Junky]

https://kernel.ubuntu.com/mainline/v6.9-rc1/CHANGES

Looks like some more movement on the driver side. A few specific to WCN7850 and more for ath12k in general unlocking some additional options to support AP mode.

 

[Tech Junky]

BEFORE
sudo dmesg | grep ath12
[    4.106677] ath12k_pci 0000:5c:00.0: BAR 0 [mem 0xa1a00000-0xa1bfffff 64bit]: assigned
[    4.106699] ath12k_pci 0000:5c:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[    4.106946] ath12k_pci 0000:5c:00.0: MSI vectors: 16
[    4.106951] ath12k_pci 0000:5c:00.0: Hardware name: wcn7850 hw2.0
[    5.087576] ath12k_pci 0000:5c:00.0: chip_id 0x2 chip_family 0x4 board_id 0xff soc_id 0x40170200
[    5.087580] ath12k_pci 0000:5c:00.0: fw_version 0x100301e1 fw_build_timestamp 2023-12-06 04:05 fw_build_id QC_IMAGE_VERSION_STRING=WLAN.HMT.1.0.c5-00481-QCAHMTSWPL_V1.0_V2.0_SILICONZ-3
*****[    5.095111] ath12k_pci 0000:5c:00.0: failed to fetch board data for bus=pci,qmi-chip-id=2,qmi-board-id=255 from ath12k/WCN7850/hw2.0/board-2.bin

AFTER
sudo dmesg | grep ath12
[    5.320676] ath12k_pci 0000:5c:00.0: BAR 0 [mem 0xa1a00000-0xa1bfffff 64bit]: assigned
[    5.320723] ath12k_pci 0000:5c:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[    5.321080] ath12k_pci 0000:5c:00.0: MSI vectors: 16
[    5.321095] ath12k_pci 0000:5c:00.0: Hardware name: wcn7850 hw2.0
[    5.884652] ath12k_pci 0000:5c:00.0: chip_id 0x2 chip_family 0x4 board_id 0xff soc_id 0x40170200
[    5.884656] ath12k_pci 0000:5c:00.0: fw_version 0x100301e1 fw_build_timestamp 2023-12-06 04:05 fw_build_id QC_IMAGE_VERSION_STRING=WLAN.HMT.1.0.c5-00481-QCAHMTSWPL_V1.0_V2.0_SILICONZ-3

 

[TheLostSwede]

I take it that you're aware that client WiFi solutions aren't really suitable for APs?
There's a reason why there are AP and client specific WiFi solutions.
Then again, if you don't care about range or being able to connect more than a couple of clients, then I guess you're fine.