wifi: ath12k: MLO not working in main/main-pending for NCM865 / WCM7850 in station mode

[Benjamin Eggerstedt]

Hi,

I compiled main-pending from here https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/ath/ath.git/log/?h=main-pending after "Merge branch 'pending' into main-pending ath-pending-202504182357 master-pending main-pending” by Jeff Johnson. I tried “main” the day before, but saw that a couple of additional fixes went in and redid the previously and unfortunately still unsuccessful test.

Debian Testing/trixie
debadm at debian:~/hostap/wpa_supplicant$ uname -a
Linux debian 6.15.0-rc2-wt-ath-ath12kmp #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Sat Apr 19 10:51:08 CEST 2025 x86_64 GNU/Linux

wpa_supplicant v2.11 and v2.12-dev (both compiled with 802.11be and with/without QCA extensions - makes no difference)
wpa3.conf

network={
ssid="Stellar-Wi-Fi-7-Pi"
psk=“[redacted]"
key_mgmt=SAE
ieee80211w=2
}

My Wi-Fi 7 access point (Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Stellar AP1521, QCA based) reports the client as follows:
(the following output was taken later and doesn’t correspond to attached traces/capture file/dmesg)

support at AP-CE:40:/tmp$ ssudo wlanconfig mld1 list
==== STA Info From Link: ath001 =======
ADDR               AID CHAN TXRATE RXRATE RSSI MINRSSI MAXRSSI IDLE  TXSEQ  RXSEQ  CAPS XCAPS ACAPS     ERP    STATE MAXRATE(DOT11) HTCAPS   VHTCAPS ASSOCTIME    IEs   MODE RXNSS TXNSS                   PSMODE
==== STA Info From Link: ath101 =======
ADDR               AID CHAN TXRATE RXRATE RSSI MINRSSI MAXRSSI IDLE  TXSEQ  RXSEQ  CAPS XCAPS ACAPS     ERP    STATE MAXRATE(DOT11) HTCAPS   VHTCAPS ASSOCTIME    IEs   MODE RXNSS TXNSS                   PSMODE
==== STA Info From Link: ath201 =======
ADDR               AID CHAN TXRATE RXRATE RSSI MINRSSI MAXRSSI IDLE  TXSEQ  RXSEQ  CAPS XCAPS ACAPS     ERP    STATE MAXRATE(DOT11) HTCAPS   VHTCAPS ASSOCTIME    IEs   MODE RXNSS TXNSS                   PSMODE
50:cf:14:8e:e3:d1    4    5   6M   3843M  -38     -38     -21    8      0   65535     P  EWBQ NULL    0          3        5764800               Q              00 00:00:22     RSN WME IEEE80211_MODE_11BEA_EHT320  2 2   0           RSSI is combined over chains in dBm
 Minimum Tx Power : 0
 Maximum Tx Power : 24
 HT Capability : No
 VHT Capability : No
 MU capable : Yes
 SNR : 55
 Operating band : 6GHz
 Current Operating class : 131
 Supported Operating classes : 81  83  84  115  116  117  118  119  120  121  122  123  124  125  126  127  128  129  131  132  133  134  137  130  128  135  133   Supported Rates(Mbps) : 6  9  12  18  24  36  48  54   Max STA phymode : IEEE80211_MODE_11BEA_EHT320   
MLO : No  

MLO is reported as “No” by the AP, although some MLD-related details are in the wpa_supplicant output.
I was also surprised to find "Apr 19 13:45:44 debian kernel: ath12k_pci 0000:03:00.0: MLO is disabled hence skip QMI MLO cap” when the module is initialised.

ath12k_wmi_diag taken and attached as trace.dat

debadm at debian:~$ sudo trace-cmd record -e ath12k_wmi_diag
Hit Ctrl^C to stop recording
^CCPU0 data recorded at offset=0x238000
    0 bytes in size (0 uncompressed)
CPU1 data recorded at offset=0x238000
    0 bytes in size (0 uncompressed)
CPU2 data recorded at offset=0x238000
    0 bytes in size (0 uncompressed)
CPU3 data recorded at offset=0x238000
    174997 bytes in size (892928 uncompressed)

Association Request of client 50:cf:14:8e:e3:d1 to MLD/MLO enabled SSID "Stellar-Wi-Fi-7-Pi” is #2423 in attached PCAP capture.

The attached dmesg output is taken with:
sudo modprobe ath12k debug_mask=0xffff

I have taken the firmware from here: https://git.codelinaro.org/clo/ath-firmware/ath12k-firmware/-/tree/main/WCN7850/hw2.0?ref_type=heads

I hope I haven’t done some simple mistake, but even if I’d appreciate the pointer.

Thanks,
Regards,
Benny

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