ath10k: qca6174 firmware: difference between hw2.1/firmware-5 and hw3.0/firmware-4

[Xuebing Wang]

On 08/24/2016 02:13 PM, Michal Kazior wrote:
> On 24 August 2016 at 05:57, Xuebing Wang <xbing6 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi Kalle,
>>
>> I cloned your ath10k-firmware from your github. Would you please advise what
>> are the differences of hw2.1/firmware-5 and hw3.0/firmware-4 for qca6174?
>> Does hw3.0/firmware-4 support Monitor Mode?
>>
>> I have a wlan card with BMI version (QCA6174_HW_2_1_VERSION 0x05010000) and
>> Monitor Mode works no problem with latest kernel v4.8-rc2.
>>
>> I have another wlan card with (QCA6174_HW_3_2_VERSION 0x05030000). I am
>> trying to back-port ath10k from v4.8-rc2 to 3.10.73 for this HW_3_2 QCA6174
>> wlan card. Virtual interface (mon0) can be added and brought-up, but tcpdump
>> can not capture any packets. I am wondering if it could be related to
>> (hw2.1/firmware-5 vs hw3.0/firmware-4)?
> Official hw3.x's firmware supports full rx offload. Rx event used to
> deliver frames is very specialized effectively preventing sniffing /
> monitor operation.
>
> I don't know if there's any way around it without getting your hands
> on firmware build that doesn't have the full rx offload compiled in
> (assuming such a build even exists).
>
>
> Michał

Hi Michal,

I confirm hw3.0 firmware does not support monitor mode, on kernel 4.8.0-rc2.

I got one Killer 1535 wlan card (with qca6174 hw3.2), monitor mode does 
not work. I do use monitor mode on hw2.1 qca6174 and ath9k many times.

dmesg shows:
------
qca6174 hw3.2 target 0x05030000 chip_id 0x00340aff sub 1a56:1535
kconfig debug 0 debugfs 1 tracing 1 dfs 0 testmode 0
firmware ver WLAN.RM.2.0-00180-QCARMSWPZ-1 api 4 features 
wowlan,ignore-otp,no-4addr-pad crc32 75dee6c5
board_file api 2 bmi_id N/A crc32 46b57247
------

Also, I can not set hw3.x firmware monitor mode to a specific freq as 
below. I am using Ubuntu 16.04.1 with kernel 4.8.0-rc2.
------
$ sudo iw dev mon0 set freq 2462
$ iwconfig mon0
mon0      IEEE 802.11  Mode:Monitor  Tx-Power=0 dBm
           Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
           Power Management:on
------


HI Kalle,

Do you consider this hw3.0 firmware does not support monitor mode a 
firmware bug?

Thanks.

-- 
Xuebing