seeking further info on firmware-3

[Kalle Valo]

"Robert E. Cochran" <wifi at mindchasers.com> writes:

> I'm testing Linux 3.18-rc5 with a QCA9880 / Compex WLE900VX.
>
> During boot, I'm seeing complaints about not finding firmware-3.bin:
>
> ath10k_pci 0001:03:00.0: Direct firmware load for
> ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/firmware-3.bin failed with error -2
> ath10k_pci 0001:03:00.0: could not fetch firmware file
> ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/firmware-3.bin': -2

You can ignore this warning. ath10k is just telling (in a confusing way)
that it could not find firmware-3.bin and will try firmware-2.bin next.
We should clear up that warning message.

> Can someone please confirm that we should be using
> firmware-3.bin_10.2-00082-4-2 from the 10.2 folder on
> https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware.git
> ?  When we use this firmware, we see the following during boot:
>
> ath10k_pci 0001:03:00.0: qca988x hw2.0 (0x4100016c, 0x043202ff) fw
> 10.2-00082-4-2 api 3 htt 2.1
> ath10k_pci 0001:03:00.0: debug 1 debugfs 1 tracing 0 dfs 0 testmode 1

That's good. Using firmware from 10.2 branch is a good idea. But did you
rename it to firmware-2.bin? It should be called firmware-3.bin.

> If this isn't the latest & greatest firmware, then where do I find
> firmware-3.bin?

ath10k-firmware.git is the correct location to find the firmware.

> And If I should be using firmware-3.bin_10.2-00082-4-2, then are there
> some release notes available for this?

Unfortunately there are no firmware release notes available.

> Finally, please let me know if it's a mistake to be working with
> firmware-3 on the 3.18 kernel.   We're performing some early
> integration testing with this WiFi module, and it's more important to
> get things working as an AP with hostapd than getting the latest
> cutting edge features working.

The number three in "firmware-3.bin" is just an API number, just like
the soname in shared libraries, to make it possible to have backwards
compatibility with the firmware releases. Instead use version string
like "10.2-00082-4-2" to identify between firmware releases.

And yes, using firmware version 10.2-00082-4-2 is the firmware version I
recommend to use at the moment.

-- 
Kalle Valo