Bug 498944 - Show the wifi generation/connection type on Details tab
Summary: Show the wifi generation/connection type on Details tab
Status: CONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: plasmashell
Classification: Plasma
Component: Networks widget (show other bugs)
Version: 6.2.90
Platform: Neon Linux
: NOR wishlist
Target Milestone: 1.0
Assignee: Plasma Bugs List
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2025-01-21 01:42 UTC by John
Modified: 2025-02-06 18:30 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
Connection type (generation) not shown anywhere in the widget (261.31 KB, image/png)
2025-01-21 01:42 UTC, John
Details

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Description John 2025-01-21 01:42:54 UTC
Created attachment 177564 [details]
Connection type (generation) not shown anywhere in the widget

SUMMARY
The connected network Details section in the Networks widget doesn't show at all the connection type (generation) when back-end is IWD.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. On KDE Neon, Debian or other distro install and switch to iwd as explained here: https://wiki.debian.org/NetworkManager/iwd
2. Open the Networks widget.
3. Click on the currently connected network and then its "Details" tab.

OBSERVED RESULT
Compared to the "station wlan0 show" command in the iwctl tool, that says that the "RxMode" is "802.11ac"...
The Networks widget doesn't show any info about the connection type (generation), either as a user-friendly generation number (Wi-Fi 5 in this case) or as IEEE standard, as iwctl tool shows.

EXPECTED RESULT
1. Show in the Details section the network type (generation) as  user-friendly Wi-Fi <number>, for example Wi-Fi 4, Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 7.
Or the not so user-friendly IEEE standards: 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax, 802.11be.
Like the table on Wikipedia shows:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11#General_description

Changing the network icon to display the generation number, like the Wi-Fi Alliance did, would be nice too (though it would be better if it's for all past, current and future generations):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_6#/media/File:Wi-Fi_6_Logo.png
But I wish that too only if the icon would still be able to display the signal level.

I noticed that newer versions of Android (>=13), can do that too and if I'm not wrong it can also display the generation even for some networks that is not connected to.
That would also be nice and useful to have.
But at the moment I don't see IWD providing that kind of information for networks that are not connected.


SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Linux/KDE Plasma:
KDE Plasma Version: 6.2.90
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.11.0
Qt Version: 6.8.1
Kernel Version: 6.8.0-51-generic (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Hardware: Laptop Dell Inspiron 5770
Graphics Processor 1: Mesa Intel® UHD Graphics 620 (main)
Graphics Processor 2: AMD Radeon R5 M465 Series
Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 31)
Comment 1 David Redondo 2025-01-21 13:02:09 UTC
We dont't show it either with networkmanager.
Comment 2 John 2025-02-06 18:30:06 UTC
(In reply to David Redondo from comment #1)
> We dont't show it either with networkmanager.

I assume you mean with wpa_supplicant as, from what I could understand from these 2 articles:
https://wiki.debian.org/NetworkManager/iwd
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Wpa_supplicant
They are both similar, alternative to each other and they don't fully replace networkmanager, but instead act as back-ends for it.
But I agree that the Wi-Fi generation should be shown for both back-kends, if possible.
If not, at least for the one that provides this information.
Too bad that nmcli, wavemon and iwlist are not helpful with this.
https://www.baeldung.com/linux/wifi-display-realtime-info

Maybe there's some propagation problem, like NetworkManager not taking all the information provided by the back-ends to give it to whoever is needing it.