mac80211: HT disabled ("required MCSes not supported") on Xfinity network, RTL8852BE (rtw89) capped at ~20 Mbps on kernel 7.0.0
From: Noah Yacob <hidden>
Date: 2026-08-26 20:57:53
Hello, I'm reporting a throughput regression that appears to match an issue discussed on the Arch Linux forums (https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=313033), where other users ran into the same symptom. - Wi-Fi throughput dropped from near-gigabit speeds to a hard ~20 Mbps cap. - Confirmed not an ISP or router issue: booting an older kernel (6.8.0-138-generic) on the same machine, same hardware, same network, restores normal (near-plan) speeds. - Confirmed not a driver-installation issue: the in-tree rtw89 driver is in use in both cases (no custom/out-of-tree driver). - The regression is reproducible simply by booting the newer kernel vs. the older one -- no other configuration changed. Hardware / environment: - Wi-Fi chipset: Realtek RTL8852BE (rtw89, rtw8852be), PCIe - Driver in use: in-tree rtw89 (rtw89_8852be / rtw89_pci / rtw89_core / mac80211 / cfg80211) - Firmware: rtw8852b_fw-1.bin, version 0.29.29.5 (da87cccd), cmd version 0 - OS: Linux Mint - Broken kernel: 7.0.0-30-generic - Working kernel: 6.8.0-138-generic (confirmed via dpkg -l | grep linux-image and booting via GRUB "Advanced options") - ISP: Comcast Xfinity, 1 Gbps plan Symptom pattern: On the affected kernel, dmesg / journal shows mac80211 disabling HT ("required MCSes not supported, disabling HT"), and the link negotiates down to a 20 MHz, no-HT connection instead of HT/VHT/HE, which caps throughput at roughly 20 Mbps regardless of my ISP plan speed. The fix that resolved this for other users in the linked Arch thread is a community patch that removes mac80211's basic MCS/NSS check (github.com/WoodyWoodster/mac80211-mcs-patch). That fix has since been picked up into Arch's own kernel package as of version 7.0.13. I'm submitting this to add a confirmed data point (RTL8852BE, kernel 7.0.0, Xfinity) in case it's useful for tracking or prioritizing a fix upstream. Happy to provide any other diagnostics that would help.