Arch Linux

topcat01

Member

Registered: 2019-09-17

Posts: 255

[SOLVED] Qualcomm QCA6174 WiFi firmware crashing

Hi, I updated my old Alienware 17R3 to kernel 6.8.1 and linux-firmware 20240312.3b128b60-1 this week (as part of a full system update). I haven't used the machine in a while. After the update, the Qualcomm QCA6174 WiFi firmware started crashing every half an hour or so. It seems to recover and reconnect successfully. Before the update, the WiFi was stable.

To diagnose the problem, I reverted just the WiFi firmware manually by temporarily replacing

/usr/lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0

with the version from the earlier linux-firmware package, which switched the firmware from the latest version WLAN.RM.4.4.1-00309- to an earlier version WLAN.RM.4.4.1-00288-. This immediately stopped the crashes, but the connection would now lose carrier every few minutes. Next, I booted the lts kernel 6.6.22-1 with the old firmware still in place. Finally my WiFi is stable again.

I will update this post with logs from the failure when I reboot the laptop. I am currently using it for some work, sorry. However, it seems that we have a regression. I also intend to try the lts kernel with the new firmware.

Last edited by topcat01 (2024-05-05 19:39:17)

topcat01

Member

Registered: 2019-09-17

Posts: 255

Re: [SOLVED] Qualcomm QCA6174 WiFi firmware crashing

I managed to find time to reboot the laptop. This time, I restored the firmware to the latest version, but booted the lts kernel. Wifi is still stable. So, it seems to be the new kernel (6.8.1), or rather the new ath10k driver.

topcat01

Member

Registered: 2019-09-17

Posts: 255

Re: [SOLVED] Qualcomm QCA6174 WiFi firmware crashing

I think I have singled out the issue, at least with newer kernels. I'm running 6.8.7 currently. I have two laptops which use QCA6174. On both, if I use Networkmanager + wpa_supplicant, then the connection is stable. However, if I use iwd instead then the firmware crashes frequently and sometimes the device does not come back after the driver initiated hardware restart. So, it seems iwd is doing something which the firmware does not like.

I also saw this issue https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=287255 where the cause was determined to be two network manages conflicting. While that will cause an unstable connection, I believe the firmware crash was caused by iwd, and its removal fixed the issue.

Last edited by topcat01 (2024-05-05 19:10:21)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 24,923

Re: [SOLVED] Qualcomm QCA6174 WiFi firmware crashing

iwd hard requires some newer kernel features that might not have been implemented by every driver, so chances that this might've been related are somewhat present.

If you consider this [SOLVED] please mark it as such by editing the title in your first post.

Last edited by V1del (2024-05-05 19:36:51)

topcat01

Member

Registered: 2019-09-17

Posts: 255

Re: [SOLVED] Qualcomm QCA6174 WiFi firmware crashing

Done, thanks!