The MediaTek MT7902 (14c3:7902) is a "soft MAC" device that lacks stable support in the mainline 6.17 kernel.

Follow these steps to install the functional out-of-tree driver and fix the binding/suspend issues.

1. Prerequisites & safety

   You must disable Secure Boot in your BIOS/UEFI. If you do not, the kernel will reject this unsigned module.

   Install the necessary build tools:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install build-essential dkms git linux-headers-$(uname -r)
   

2. Prevent boot panics (blacklist)

   The stock mt7921e driver often conflicts with this hardware. Blacklist both the stock and the new driver temporarily to ensure a clean environment:

   echo "blacklist mt7902" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-mt7902.conf
   echo "blacklist mt7921e" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-mt7902.conf
   sudo update-initramfs -u
   sudo reboot
   

3. Build and install via DKMS

   Using DKMS ensures the driver is rebuilt automatically when Ubuntu updates your kernel.

   git clone https://github.com/hmtheboy154/gen4-mt7902.git
   cd gen4-mt7902
   sudo cp -r . /usr/src/mt7902-1.0
   sudo dkms add -m mt7902 -v 1.0
   sudo dkms build -m mt7902 -v 1.0
   sudo dkms install -m mt7902 -v 1.0
   sudo make install_fw
   sudo depmod -a
   

4. Force driver binding

   On some hardware (like the AW-XB552NF), the PCI device has a driver_override that blocks the driver from claiming it. You must manually clear the override and bind the device.

   Note: Replace 0000:02:00.0 with your actual PCI address from lspci.

   sudo modprobe cfg80211
   sudo modprobe mt7902
   echo "" | sudo tee /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:02:00.0/driver_override
   echo "0000:02:00.0" | sudo tee /sys/bus/pci/drivers/wlan/bind
   

   Your WiFi should now appear in nmcli device.

5. Fix suspend/resume panics

   The MT7902 driver can panic the kernel during sleep. To fix this, create a script to unload the driver before suspend:

   Create the file: sudo nano /lib/systemd/system-sleep/rmmod-mt7902

   Paste the following:

   #!/bin/sh
   case "$1" in
     pre)
       modprobe -r mt7902 2>/dev/null || true
       ;;
   esac
   

   Make it executable: sudo chmod +x /lib/systemd/system-sleep/rmmod-mt7902

   Note: You may need to re-run the Step 4 commands after waking from sleep to re-bind the device.

6. Recovery path

   If the system hangs at boot, enter the GRUB menu (hold Shift), press 'e' to edit your boot entry, and append modprobe.blacklist=mt7902 to the linux line. This will allow you to boot and troubleshoot.

   Limitations:

   • 5 GHz: May be unstable on some access points. 2.4 GHz is generally preferred for this driver.

   • WPA3: Known to be broken with iwd; stick to wpa_supplicant (default in Ubuntu).