[PATCH ath-next] wifi: ath12k: fix ML-STA authentication timeout on QCC2072

[Baochen Qiang]

On 7/4/2026 3:30 PM, Miaoqing Pan wrote:
> QCC2072 firmware interprets the MLO_LINK_ADD and MLO_START_AS_ACTIVE
> flags to control the link state during MLO vdev start. MLO_LINK_ADD
> indicates that a link is being added, while MLO_START_AS_ACTIVE specifies
> that the link should become active during the start.
> 
> When an association link is added without setting MLO_START_AS_ACTIVE,
> the firmware may transition the link into a suspended state. In this
> case, authentication frames transmitted by the host can be dropped,
> leading to repeated authentication retries and eventual timeout,
> for example:
>   wlp1s0: send auth to <AP> (try 1/3)
>   wlp1s0: send auth to <AP> (try 2/3)
>   wlp1s0: send auth to <AP> (try 3/3)
>   wlp1s0: authentication with <AP> timed out
> 
> Avoid triggering this behavior by setting the MLO_START_AS_ACTIVE flag
> when MLO_ASSOC_LINK is set, which tells the firmware that the current
> vdev must not enter suspend mode
> 
> Note that this change relies on firmware behavior observed on the QCC2072
> platform. The firmware on WCN7850 and QCN9274 does not use the
> MLO_START_AS_ACTIVE flag, so this change is effectively a no-op on those
> platforms
> 
> Tested-on: QCC2072 hw1.0 PCI WLAN.COL.1.0.c2-00068-QCACOLSWPL_V1_TO_SILICONZ-1
> Tested-on: WCN7850 hw2.0 PCI WLAN.HMT.1.1.c5-00302-QCAHMTSWPL_V1.0_V2.0_SILICONZ-1.115823.3
> 
> Fixes: d8e1f4a19310 ("wifi: ath12k: enable QCC2072 support")
> Signed-off-by: Miaoqing Pan <miaoqing.pan at oss.qualcomm.com>

Reviewed-by: Baochen Qiang <baochen.qiang at oss.qualcomm.com>