Questions about replacing AirPort card with a Qualcom Atheros AR9382
I have a macbook pro 15" retina display late 2013, which originally had an Apple AirPort card that was just a re-branded Broadcom BCM94360CS. Here's a photo of the card:
I also run Linux on my macbook. My problem is that after upgrading my kernel, the broadcom-wl driver for this card (which was proprietary and quite outdated) no longer was working, and so I decided to get a wifi card that had FOSS Linux drivers for it. I have considered getting a separate USB wifi dongle, but I figured they would be quite cumbersome for me.
So, I found this Qualcom Atheros AR9382 wifi card (yes, it does require proprietary binary blobs, but only for Bluetooth - which I can just use a separate USB dongle for (and I don't use Bluetooth that much)). However, I've noticed that if you look carefully at the PCIe pins on both of the WiFi cards, you will notice that the AirPort card has 6 pins on the left side and the Qualcom card has 8 pins. Also, the size of the cards is different and the AirPort card has 3 antennas, while the Qualcom card has 2.
Also, my macbook only has 1 m.2 slot, which is already being used for the hard drive and yes, I have managed to remove the wifi card.
So, my questions are:
- Does the Broadcom BCM94360CS card use mini PCIe like the Qualcom Atheros AR9382?
- (Assuming that I can stretch out the antennas without breaking them) Is it possible to replace my old AirPort card with the Qualcom one?
