Athp driver

kiokoman

[2.5.0-DEVELOPMENT][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: ifconfig -v athp0_wlan0
athp0_wlan0: flags=8902<BROADCAST,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
        ether 00:0e:8e:5a:c6:f6
        inet6 fe80::20e:8eff:fe5a:c6f6%athp0_wlan0 prefixlen 64 tentative scopeid 0xa
        groups: wlan
        ssid pfSense-5G channel 48 (5240 MHz 11a) bssid 00:00:00:00:00:00
        regdomain FCC country US anywhere -ecm authmode WPA2/802.11i -wps
        -tsn privacy MIXED deftxkey 2
        AES-CCM 2:128-bit powersavemode OFF powersavesleep 100 txpower 17
        txpowmax 50.0 -dotd rtsthreshold 2346 fragthreshold 2346 bmiss 7
        11a     ucast NONE    mgmt  6 Mb/s mcast  6 Mb/s maxretry 6
        11b     ucast NONE    mgmt  1 Mb/s mcast  1 Mb/s maxretry 6
        11g     ucast NONE    mgmt  1 Mb/s mcast  1 Mb/s maxretry 6
        turboA  ucast NONE    mgmt  6 Mb/s mcast  6 Mb/s maxretry 6
        turboG  ucast NONE    mgmt  1 Mb/s mcast  1 Mb/s maxretry 6
        sturbo  ucast NONE    mgmt  6 Mb/s mcast  6 Mb/s maxretry 6
        11na    ucast NONE    mgmt 12 MCS  mcast 12 MCS  maxretry 6
        11ng    ucast NONE    mgmt  2 MCS  mcast  2 MCS  maxretry 6
        half    ucast NONE    mgmt  3 Mb/s mcast  3 Mb/s maxretry 6
        quarter ucast NONE    mgmt  1 Mb/s mcast  1 Mb/s maxretry 6
        11acg   ucast NONE    mgmt  1 Mb/s mcast  1 Mb/s maxretry 6
        11ac    ucast NONE    mgmt  6 Mb/s mcast  6 Mb/s maxretry 6
        scanvalid 60 -bgscan bgscanintvl 300 bgscanidle 250
        roam:11a     rssi    7dBm rate 12 Mb/s
        roam:11b     rssi    7dBm rate  1 Mb/s
        roam:11g     rssi    7dBm rate  5 Mb/s
        roam:turboA  rssi    7dBm rate 12 Mb/s
        roam:turboG  rssi    7dBm rate 12 Mb/s
        roam:sturbo  rssi    7dBm rate 12 Mb/s
        roam:11na    rssi    7dBm  MCS  1
        roam:11ng    rssi    7dBm  MCS  1
        roam:half    rssi    7dBm rate  6 Mb/s
        roam:quarter rssi    7dBm rate  3 Mb/s
        roam:11acg   rssi    7dBm rate 64 Mb/s
        roam:11ac    rssi    7dBm rate 64 Mb/s
        -pureg protmode CTS ht htcompat ampdu ampdulimit 64k ampdudensity 8
        amsdu shortgi htprotmode RTSCTS -puren -smps -rifs stbc -ldpctx ldpcrx
        vht vht40 vht80 -vht80p80 -vht160 wme -burst -dwds -hidessid apbridge
        dtimperiod 1 doth -dfs inact bintval 100
        AC_BE cwmin  4 cwmax  6 aifs  3 txopLimit   0 -acm ack
              cwmin  4 cwmax 10 aifs  3 txopLimit   0 -acm
        AC_BK cwmin  4 cwmax 10 aifs  7 txopLimit   0 -acm ack
              cwmin  4 cwmax 10 aifs  7 txopLimit   0 -acm
        AC_VI cwmin  3 cwmax  4 aifs  1 txopLimit  94 -acm ack
              cwmin  3 cwmax  4 aifs  2 txopLimit  94 -acm
        AC_VO cwmin  2 cwmax  3 aifs  1 txopLimit  47 -acm ack
              cwmin  2 cwmax  3 aifs  2 txopLimit  47 -acm
        media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect mode 11a <hostap>
        status: no carrier
        nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>

[2.5.0-DEVELOPMENT][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: ifconfig athp0_wlan0 list regdomain
:regdomain FCC country US anywhere -ecm
Channel   1 : 2412      MHz 11b          Channel   9 : 2452      MHz 11g
Channel   1 : 2412      MHz 11g          Channel   9 : 2452      MHz 11g ht/20
Channel   1 : 2412      MHz 11g ht/20    Channel   9 : 2452      MHz 11g ht/40-
Channel   1 : 2412      MHz 11g ht/40+   Channel  10 : 2457      MHz 11b
Channel   2 : 2417      MHz 11b          Channel  10 : 2457      MHz 11g
Channel   2 : 2417      MHz 11g          Channel  10 : 2457      MHz 11g ht/20
Channel   2 : 2417      MHz 11g ht/20    Channel  10 : 2457      MHz 11g ht/40-
Channel   2 : 2417      MHz 11g ht/40+   Channel  11 : 2462      MHz 11b
Channel   3 : 2422      MHz 11b          Channel  11 : 2462      MHz 11g
Channel   3 : 2422      MHz 11g          Channel  11 : 2462      MHz 11g ht/20
Channel   3 : 2422      MHz 11g ht/20    Channel  11 : 2462      MHz 11g ht/40-
Channel   3 : 2422      MHz 11g ht/40+   Channel  36 : 5180      MHz 11a
Channel   4 : 2427      MHz 11b          Channel  36 : 5180      MHz 11a ht/20
Channel   4 : 2427      MHz 11g          Channel  36 : 5180      MHz 11a ht/40+
Channel   4 : 2427      MHz 11g ht/20    Channel  40 : 5200      MHz 11a
Channel   4 : 2427      MHz 11g ht/40+   Channel  40 : 5200      MHz 11a ht/20
Channel   5 : 2432      MHz 11b          Channel  40 : 5200      MHz 11a ht/40-
Channel   5 : 2432      MHz 11g          Channel  44 : 5220      MHz 11a
Channel   5 : 2432      MHz 11g ht/20    Channel  44 : 5220      MHz 11a ht/20
Channel   5 : 2432      MHz 11g ht/40+   Channel  44 : 5220      MHz 11a ht/40+
Channel   5 : 2432      MHz 11g ht/40-   Channel  48 : 5240      MHz 11a
Channel   6 : 2437      MHz 11b          Channel  48 : 5240      MHz 11a ht/20
Channel   6 : 2437      MHz 11g          Channel  48 : 5240      MHz 11a ht/40-
Channel   6 : 2437      MHz 11g ht/20    Channel 149 : 5745      MHz 11a
Channel   6 : 2437      MHz 11g ht/40+   Channel 149 : 5745      MHz 11a ht/20
Channel   6 : 2437      MHz 11g ht/40-   Channel 149 : 5745      MHz 11a ht/40+
Channel   7 : 2442      MHz 11b          Channel 153 : 5765      MHz 11a
Channel   7 : 2442      MHz 11g          Channel 153 : 5765      MHz 11a ht/20
Channel   7 : 2442      MHz 11g ht/20    Channel 153 : 5765      MHz 11a ht/40-
Channel   7 : 2442      MHz 11g ht/40+   Channel 157 : 5785      MHz 11a
Channel   7 : 2442      MHz 11g ht/40-   Channel 157 : 5785      MHz 11a ht/20
Channel   8 : 2447      MHz 11b          Channel 157 : 5785      MHz 11a ht/40+
Channel   8 : 2447      MHz 11g          Channel 161 : 5805      MHz 11a
Channel   8 : 2447      MHz 11g ht/20    Channel 161 : 5805      MHz 11a ht/20
Channel   8 : 2447      MHz 11g ht/40-   Channel 161 : 5805      MHz 11a ht/40-
Channel   9 : 2452      MHz 11b          Channel 165 : 5825*     MHz 11a

ifconfig athp0_wlan0 channel 48:ht/40-
ifconfig: SIOCS80211: invalid argument

kiokoman

nevermind, i see that you set 11na and i have 11a, after setting to 11na i can configure width to 40Mhz.
thank you
the problem for me was hostapd that as soon as i start it, it go back to 11a
so i changed my script to set mode and channel with ifconfig and start hostapd with only wpa stuff inside config

/usr/local/etc/rc.d/hostapd-5g.sh

#/bin/sh
ifconfig athp0_wlan0 mode 11na
ifconfig athp0_wlan0 channel 48:ht/40-
/usr/local/sbin/hostapd -B -P /var/run/hostapd_athp0_wlan0.pid /root/hostapd_athp0_wlan0.conf

and inside /root/hostapd_athp_wlan0.conf

interface=athp0_wlan0
logger_syslog=-1
logger_syslog_level=0
dump_file=/tmp/hostapd_athp0_wlan0.dump
ctrl_interface=/var/run/hostapd_wlan0
ctrl_interface_group=wheel
ssid=pfSense-5G
beacon_int=100
dtim_period=2
max_num_sta=255
rts_threshold=2347
fragm_threshold=2346
auth_algs=3
wmm_enabled=1
wme_enabled=1
wpa=2
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
wpa_pairwise=CCMP
rsn_pairwise=CCMP
wpa_group_rekey=3600
wpa_passphrase=somepassword

the problem was that i had channel=48:ht/40- before inside hostapd conf and starting it resulted in mode changed to 11a without 40 width
now i have a 300Mpbs connection on my phone

Screenshot_20190516-215107_Wi-Fi SweetSpots.jpg

stephenw10

Mmm, yeah it's connecting at 300Mbps at 802.11n. Which is as good as it gets for a 2x2 device. So that's good!

Room for improvement!

Steve

kiokoman

nonSense 12-RELEASE-p4 https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fM-Jlmf8BY21kIEGueSxFWmrISZqcDj3
as before i had to add ALQ and increse #define FIRMWARE_MAX because i had "firmware table full!" followed by kernel panic

stephenw10

Anything else changed in there? Just updated?

Not really sure what is required to put this into 802.11ac mode. It seems like that would ahve to be set via ifconfig and perhaps that part is missing at this point...

Steve

kiokoman

i just recopiled the pfsense kernel because there was an update on the kernel but nothing to do with wifi in general

idk where that part is missing on the ath10k driver or kernel

[2.5.0-DEVELOPMENT][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: ifconfig athp0_wlan0 mode 11g
[2.5.0-DEVELOPMENT][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: ifconfig athp0_wlan0 mode 11a
[2.5.0-DEVELOPMENT][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: ifconfig athp0_wlan0 mode 11b
[2.5.0-DEVELOPMENT][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: ifconfig athp0_wlan0 mode 11g
[2.5.0-DEVELOPMENT][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: ifconfig athp0_wlan0 mode 11na
[2.5.0-DEVELOPMENT][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: ifconfig athp0_wlan0 mode 11ac
ifconfig: SIOCSIFMEDIA (media): Invalid argument

sadly, for sure nothing will come out of it in the next few days

kiokoman

https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/9538

"ALQ added to all pfSense kernels"

good news, at least we don't need to recompile nonSense kernel anymore, we just need the modules

stephenw10

Yup, there was some other stuff being added, seemed like a good time. Just using the modules will be waaay easier.

However I'm not sure the max firmware size increase has been included yet. That has potential to affect far more things so it was being investigated last I heard.

Steve

stephenw10

@kiokoman said in Athp driver:

FIRMWARE_MAX

What value did you end up using for that? Is it possible to allow the firmware to be loaded there by not loading other unused firmwares perhaps?

Steve

kiokoman

yes, i understand that, but i have 2 atheros mini pci express card, 1 for 2.4Ghz that use ath9k that work without problem and one QCA988X for the 5Ghz.
i set FIRMWARE_MAX to 100 but i put a random value, default was 50 if I remember correctly.

stephenw10

Yes I have two cards in there also.

But it would be a useful test. I was referring to some of the other stuff like the Broadcom and Chelsio firmwares. I've never tried to check what is loaded there by default though. More research needed!

Steve

kiokoman

i am now on official kernel, after the introduction of ALQ, and that problem did not come out again/i don't need to modify firmware_max anymore.
also i changed my 4 lan network card from realtek to intel i350-t4. i had too many trouble from realtek.
so now i don't need to load if_re.ko anymore, maybe that helped.

kiokoman

@stephenw10 i'm trying to understand why the athp0 is not recognized as a wireless interface in the gui,
i track down the problem to this file: /usr/local/www/interfaces_assign.php at line 209 where it say

if (preg_match($g['wireless_regex'], $_POST['if_add'])) {
			$config['interfaces'][$newifname]['wireless'] = array();
			interface_sync_wireless_clones($config['interfaces'][$newifname], false);
		}

it should save the interface inside a 'wireless' array but it doesn't do it, it save it inside a "enable" array

i put a print_r($config); inside the php

[opt5] => Array ( [descr] => WIFI5G [if] => athp0_wlan0 [enable] => [spoofmac] => [ipaddr] => ....
vs
[opt3] => Array ( [descr] => WIFI [if] => ath0_wlan0 [wireless] => Array ( [mode] => hostap [standard] =>....

from what i understand, the 'wireless' tag is readed when you go to configure the interface
i'm too tired now to go on, i will check further tomorrow, if you have any idea let me know

stephenw10

Yeah I'll have to re-check tomorrow too. I'm pretty sure I found that previously though....

Steve

kiokoman

found something new inside interfaces_assign.php

if (preg_match($g['wireless_regex'] =>

/^(ath|bwi|bwn|ipw|iwi|iwm|iwn|malo|mwl|ral|rsu|rum|run|uath|upgt|ural|urtw|urtwn|wi|wpi|wtap|zyd)[0-9]
athp does not match preg_match, now i need to find out where this is defined ...

found it
/etc/inc/globals.inc
need to add athp

"wireless_regex" => "/^(ath|bwi|bwn|ipw|iwi|iwm|iwn|malo|mwl|ral|rsu|rum|run|uath|upgt|ural|urtw|urtwn|wi|wpi|wtap|zyd|athp)[0-9]+/",

after adding it, you need to delete and re-add the interface

stephenw10

Aha, that was it, nice!

stephenw10

Hmm, I kinda lost track of where we are with this.

I have two ath10k NICs in my test box and they load up OK across 2.5 updates. I have some kernel modules in there but they are waaay old at this point. The only line required, seemingly, is if_athp_load="yes" in loader.conf(.local). It seems to pull in the required firmware modules without explicitly loading them:

[2.5.0-DEVELOPMENT][root@apu.stevew.lan]/root: kldstat
Id Refs Address                Size Name
 1   22 0xffffffff80200000  3123108 kernel
 2    1 0xffffffff83324000    d42f8 if_athp.ko
 3    1 0xffffffff83621000      a45 athp_QCA988X_hw2.0_board.bin.ko
 4    1 0xffffffff83622000    3cb9f athp_QCA988X_hw2.0_firmware-5.bin.ko
 5    1 0xffffffff8365f000      fe0 cpuctl.ko
 6    1 0xffffffff83660000     2678 intpm.ko
 7    1 0xffffffff83663000      b10 smbus.ko
 8    1 0xffffffff83664000     3110 cryptodev.ko

[2.5.0-DEVELOPMENT][root@apu.stevew.lan]/root: sysctl net.wlan.devices
net.wlan.devices: athp1 athp0

I don't see any sort of driver version listed in a sysctl.

I do see it trying and failing to load this:

athp0: ath10k_fetch_fw_file: firmware_get: athp_cal-pci-athp0.bin
athp_cal-pci-athp0.bin: could not load firmware image, error 2

Steve

kiokoman

hi steve,
athp_cal-pci-athp0.bin
this is a firmware for calibration, not used/needed by us. I found it month ago and searched on google for what it was.

the only file we need to load are the one already present in your kldstat

the only thing that if_athp.ko do is to load the correct firmware for the card, in your case
athp_QCA988X_hw2.0_board.bin.ko and athp_QCA988X_hw2.0_firmware-5.bin.ko

also i found that if you remove *firmware-5.bin.ko then firmware-4.bin.ko will be loaded.
if you remove *5.bin.ko and 4.bin.ko then *3.bin.ko will be loaded and so on

i found somewhere a discussion talking about the difference of this firmware but the only thing that i rember now is that firmware-2 should be idea for AP mode. i tried all of them and saw no difference

stephenw10

Ah, interesting. Looks like the modules I have are dated May 14th, they must still be those you compiled.

I'll try to update.

Steve

kiokoman

there is nothing new from Geramy or Adrian, the last commit is 7 feb
but here is the new firmware i found
10.2.4.70.70.zip
from kvalo/ath10k-firmware

content of athp_QCA988X_hw2.0_firmware-5.bin.ko

^?ELF^B^A^A 
......
^@QCA-ATH10K^@w^@^@^@^@^L^@^@^@10.2.4.70.70^A^@^@^@^D^@
......