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

[Xuebing Wang]

On 09/05/2016 10:56 AM, Xuebing Wang wrote:
> 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.

Hi Kalle,

For unknown reasons, previous email bounced back. It did successfully 
went to ath10k mailing list.

Do you consider this hw3.0 firmware does not support monitor mode a 
firmware bug, or do you see any chance to add a way to configure 
firmware to enable Monitor Mode? Thanks.

-- 
Xuebing