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# locate QC | grep 6174
/usr/lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174
/usr/lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw2.1
/usr/lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0
/usr/lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw2.1/board-2.bin
/usr/lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw2.1/board.bin
/usr/lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw2.1/firmware-5.bin
/usr/lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw2.1/notice_ath10k_firmware-5.txt
/usr/lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/board-2.bin
/usr/lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/board.bin
/usr/lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/firmware-4.bin
/usr/lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/notice_ath10k_firmware-4.txt
but the interface does not work. It is seen but fails to connect using the ath10k_pci driver. Note that this device handles Bluetooth as well and Bluetooth did work for a short while.
'rfkill list wifi' shows that nothing is blocking wifi.
Tail of dmesg:
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[ 1340.984227] wlp58s0: authenticate with 14:dd:a9:99:18:f8
[ 1341.027439] wlp58s0: send auth to 14:dd:a9:99:18:f8 (try 1/3)
[ 1341.029179] wlp58s0: 14:dd:a9:99:18:f8 denied authentication (status 1)
[ 1346.032692] wlp58s0: authenticate with 14:dd:a9:99:18:f8
[ 1346.078377] wlp58s0: send auth to 14:dd:a9:99:18:f8 (try 1/3)
[ 1346.078411] wlp58s0: aborting authentication with 14:dd:a9:99:18:f8 by local choice (Reason: 3=DEAUTH_LEAVING)
This is a section from the boot journal:
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[ 4.338393] ath10k_pci 0000:3a:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/pre-cal-pci-0000:3a:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[ 4.338411] ath10k_pci 0000:3a:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/cal-pci-0000:3a:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[ 4.338598] ath10k_pci 0000:3a:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/firmware-5.bin failed with error -2
[ 4.338601] ath10k_pci 0000:3a:00.0: could not fetch firmware file 'ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/firmware-5.bin': -2
[ 4.341325] ath10k_pci 0000:3a:00.0: firmware ver WLAN.RM.2.0-00180-QCARMSWPZ-1 api 4 features wowlan,ignore-otp,no-4addr-pad crc32 75dee6c5
At the beginning of the boot sequence a message appears briefly to state that there was a problem fetching a firmware file, similar to the text above on the 4.338601 timestamp. The worrying thing is that firmware-5.bin is in the hw2.1 directory, not hw3.0.
There is Ubuntu software on a recovery partition, in the form of deb files. In an earlier experiment the Atheros deb was converted to rpm format and installed - that installed the same firmware files I think. There is another deb file connected with Atheros with a name which includes "workaround" which might indicate that Dell also had trouble getting this hardware to work but when I installed that it made the wifi interface invisible so I removed it. I later realized that the workaround had to do with delaying the loading of the kernel module so that is why the interface vanished.
Loading the ath10k_pci module did not help with establishing a connection.
After trawling the web I experimented a bit with Network Manager configuration, not really knowing what I was doing and managed to stop NM working properly - could not even make an ethernet connection. Several comments on the web indicated that "Power Management" needed to be switched off to get the device to work and that involved editing an NM configuration file which does not exist on this Cauldron system. neverthless I created it and rebooted but still no connection after configuring the wifi device again. iwconfig still reported that Power Management was 'on'. At that point I feared that the system was in too much of a mess for me to recover it with my limited knowledge so I reinstalled Cauldron and reconfigured the system which took it
back to square one. It must be worth pursuing this because people in other distributions have managed to get it to work.