ath10k "failed to install key for vdev 0 peer <mac>: -110"

[James Prestwood]

I forgot to mention:

QCA6174 hw3.0 firmware WLAN.RM.4.4.1-00288-

The higher rate of frequency is happening on kernel 5.15, although as I 
said only at one location with a different AP vendor. We have many other 
5.15 devices with significantly less instances of this happening. I also 
checked a few of our newer software releases using kernel 6.2, and the 
timeout occurred there as well, but no real impact (no disconnect, no 
assoc timeout).

On 7/12/24 6:11 AM, James Prestwood wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've seen this error mentioned on random forum posts, but its always 
> associated with a kernel crash/warning or some very obvious negative 
> behavior. I've noticed this occasionally and at one location very 
> frequently during FT roaming, specifically just after CMD_ASSOCIATE is 
> issued. For our company run networks I'm not seeing any negative 
> behavior apart from a 3 second delay in sending the re-association 
> frame since the kernel waits for this timeout. But we have some 
> networks our clients run on that we do not own (different vendor), and 
> we are seeing association timeouts after this error occurs and in some 
> cases the AP is sending a deauthentication with reason code 8 instead 
> of replying with a reassociation reply and an error status, which is 
> quite odd.
>
> We are chasing down this with the vendor of these APs as well, but the 
> behavior always happens after we see this key removal failure/timeout 
> on the client side. So it would appear there is potentially a problem 
> on both the client and AP. My guess is _something_ about the 
> re-association frame changes when this error is encountered, but I 
> cannot see how that would be the case. We are working to get PCAPs 
> now, but its through a 3rd party, so that timing is out of my control.
>
> From the kernel code this error would appear innocuous, the old key is 
> failing to be removed but it gets immediately replaced by the new key. 
> And we don't see that addition failing. Am I understanding that logic 
> correctly? I.e. this logic:
>
> https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/net/mac80211/key.c#n503 
>
>
> Below are a few kernel logs of the issue happening, some with the 
> deauth being sent by the AP, some with just timeouts:
>
> --- No deauth frame sent, just association timeouts after the error ---
>
> Jul 11 00:05:30 kernel: wlan0: disconnect from AP <previous BSS> for 
> new assoc to <new BSS>
> Jul 11 00:05:33 kernel: ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: failed to install key 
> for vdev 0 peer <previous BSS>: -110
> Jul 11 00:05:33 kernel: wlan0: failed to remove key (0, <previous 
> BSS>) from hardware (-110)
> Jul 11 00:05:33 kernel: wlan0: associate with <new BSS> (try 1/3)
> Jul 11 00:05:33 kernel: wlan0: associate with <new BSS> (try 2/3)
> Jul 11 00:05:33 kernel: wlan0: associate with <new BSS> (try 3/3)
> Jul 11 00:05:33 kernel: wlan0: association with <new BSS> timed out
> Jul 11 00:05:36 kernel: wlan0: authenticate with <new BSS>
> Jul 11 00:05:36 kernel: wlan0: send auth to <new BSS>a (try 1/3)
> Jul 11 00:05:36 kernel: wlan0: authenticated
> Jul 11 00:05:36 kernel: wlan0: associate with <new BSS> (try 1/3)
> Jul 11 00:05:36 kernel: wlan0: RX AssocResp from <new BSS> 
> (capab=0x1111 status=0 aid=16)
> Jul 11 00:05:36 kernel: wlan0: associated
>
> --- Deauth frame sent amidst the association timeouts ---
>
> Jul 11 00:43:18 kernel: wlan0: disconnect from AP <previous BSS> for 
> new assoc to <new BSS>
> Jul 11 00:43:21 kernel: ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: failed to install key 
> for vdev 0 peer <previous BSS>: -110
> Jul 11 00:43:21 kernel: wlan0: failed to remove key (0, <previous 
> BSS>) from hardware (-110)
> Jul 11 00:43:21 kernel: wlan0: associate with <new BSS> (try 1/3)
> Jul 11 00:43:21 kernel: wlan0: deauthenticated from <new BSS> while 
> associating (Reason: 8=DISASSOC_STA_HAS_LEFT)
> Jul 11 00:43:24 kernel: wlan0: authenticate with <new BSS>
> Jul 11 00:43:24 kernel: wlan0: send auth to <new BSS> (try 1/3)
> Jul 11 00:43:24 kernel: wlan0: authenticated
> Jul 11 00:43:24 kernel: wlan0: associate with <new BSS> (try 1/3)
> Jul 11 00:43:24 kernel: wlan0: RX AssocResp from <new BSS> 
> (capab=0x1111 status=0 aid=101)
> Jul 11 00:43:24 kernel: wlan0: associated
>