WiFi firmware crash

WiFi firmware crash

Postby Gelsenbury » Jul 21st, '17, 12:48

I have done a fresh install of Mageia 6 on my Lenovo ideapad 310 from the installation DVD. Most things work really well.

But this here is the biggest issue so far: Occasionally (about twice per day so far), the wifi stops working. It still shows as connected in the net_applet, but no data is received. Trying to reconnect via the Network Centre or the Mageia Control Centre causes the system to freeze. I switched to a text console and found the following:

Code: Select all
ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: failed to read firmware dump area: -16
ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: failed to reset chip: -5
ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: Could not init hif: -5
ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: failed to read device register, device is gone
ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: firmware crashed! (uuid n/a)
ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: failed to read firmware dump area: -28
ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: failed to reset chip: -5
ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: Could not init hif: -5
ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: failed to read device register, device is gone
ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: firmware crashed! (uuid n/a)


... and so on. Rebooting the system fixes the problem, but only until the next time.

The device is detected as a QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter and uses the ath10k_pci driver. I haven't changed any of the driver options.

Can anything be done?
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Re: WiFi firmware crash

Postby wintpe » Jul 21st, '17, 16:14

when you have an obscure issue like this its always worth remembering that the linux kernel
controls the hw and all distributions will at some point xcrossover.

theres a few recent threads around on this.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1634681

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1484159

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2324503

https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/use ... ers/ath10k

http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drive ... __v28.html

some of the suggestions may help.

personally when i have an issue with a nic in a laptop, i rip it out and replace it with a more reputable one.

I changed the one in my asus ux31A recently to a intel 7260.

http://laptopmedia.com/highlights/insid ... e-options/

according to that picture this one should be the right size.

but id check

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-INTEL-Dua ... SwxbtZa80w

its working 100% under mga6

I used this one

Intel 7260.HMWWB.R - Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 - Network adapter

regards peter
Redhat 6 Certified Engineer (RHCE)
Sometimes my posts will sound short, or snappy, however its realy not my intention to offend, so accept my apologies in advance.
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Re: WiFi firmware crash

Postby Gelsenbury » Sep 12th, '17, 20:05

I may just consider installing a different network adapter if the problem persists. After years of having no problems, I haven't been able to get reliable WiFi with Mageia on 3 of my last 4 laptops. When my wife asks which of our computers actually has internet access, you know you're in trouble.

Generally speaking, though, I wasn't expecting a suggestion to change hardware when the issue seems to be with the software. The connection is made, so it's not a case of not working at all. I don't have the expertise to determine what the problem is. The firmware is meant to be part of the kernel, and building an up-to-date driver from your links hasn't helped. So where do we go from here?
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Re: WiFi firmware crash

Postby wintpe » Sep 14th, '17, 15:01

Hi Gelsenbury

thats a fair point about not expecting a reply about changing hardware when its a software problem.

so best I explain myself.

This applies to any hardware where the manufacturer is secretive about the software/firmware element.

95% of the drivers in Linux are either provided by big manufacturers like Intel, or Nvidia, or written by reverse engineers.

the written by reverse engineers is because some great programers have your opinion, of I paid for the hardware, so its going to work, even if the manufacturer cant be bothered with Linux, or are in MSTs pocket, and deliberately avoiding helping other OS's

im not going to list them here, but I will say Intel are a very big contributer to Linux.

So what im saying is move to an Intel card and you are more likely to get a stable driver. (its no guarrentee though, some Intel drivers have bugs to.)

But I dont think twice about pulling my laptop apart and replacing anything thats plugable. so for me, its easier than
fighting with the poor choices that the notebook manufacturer has made.

alternatively choose your hardware carefully, and dont look for the cheapest thing available.

regards peter
Redhat 6 Certified Engineer (RHCE)
Sometimes my posts will sound short, or snappy, however its realy not my intention to offend, so accept my apologies in advance.
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Re: WiFi firmware crash

Postby jiml8 » Sep 15th, '17, 05:11

I am actually encountering the same symptoms in a USB wifi dongle that uses an atheros chipset. The symptoms are so similar it is eerie and makes me wonder if there is a widespread problem in atheros chips. We are running these dongles on FreeBSD platforms.
.
We need to solve this problem. To this point, I have modified the kernel driver, instrumented wpa_supplicant, run all kinds of diagnostics, and everything points to an issue either in the atheros device or in the bios on our boxes (looks like sometimes a race in early detection of the device if it is plugged in when the box is powered up). The specific chip that is biting us is the AR5523.
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Re: WiFi firmware crash

Postby Gelsenbury » Oct 12th, '17, 18:24

I'm beginning to think that the issue may have something to do with the wifi adapter going into power-saving mode and not coming out again. Rolling back from Mageia 6.0 to Mageia 5.1 (for various reasons; I'm not looking forward to the end of support for 5.1!) seems to have helped a little, with the problem occurring just once this week. When it did happen, I found first that the device had gone down and couldn't be brought up again any more because of the firmware crash. Then I noticed with rfkill that a soft block had been placed on the device. Still, unblocking didn't help, and a restart was required.

I'll now experiment with preventing power saving to keep the device up.
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Re: WiFi firmware crash

Postby jiml8 » Oct 26th, '17, 20:02

My conclusion with our atheros problem is that the firmware in the device sucks. The device does not support certain essential commands (notably, it does not support the reset command) and the firmware is a bit buggy; the device can get itself into illegal states and can't be recovered without a hard power cycle.

We are now switching to a device that uses the realtek 8192CU. This device has much better firmware and I was able to backport a really nice driver from the latest version of FreeBSD. Problem solved.

I suspect that, at a minimum, atheros is being lazy about their firmware. While there might be some justification for this with a USB device, there is none with an embedded device.

Changing to a different network interface card with a different manufacturer's chip might be the most desirable solution.
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