9984 VHT

[Sebastian Gottschall]

Am 14.02.2017 um 11:30 schrieb Valo, Kalle:
> (you forgot to CC ath10k list, adding it back)
>
> Sebastian Gottschall <s.gottschall at dd-wrt.com> writes:
>
>> Am 10.02.2017 um 07:50 schrieb Valo, Kalle:
>>> Sebastian Gottschall <s.gottschall at dd-wrt.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> Am 07.02.2017 um 13:14 schrieb Valo, Kalle:
>>>>> Ben Greear <greearb at candelatech.com> writes:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 02/02/2017 10:42 AM, Sebastian Gottschall wrote:
>>>>>>> Am 02.02.2017 um 19:24 schrieb Ben Greear:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I hacked ath10k to enable radar detection on 160Mhz bandwidths. Now hostapd
>>>>>>>> starts.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I can reproduce the FW failure. It is because FW 3.3-25 release
>>>>>>>> started asserting
>>>>>>>> if the freq2 was zero in VHT160 mode. It seems to use both freq1
>>>>>>>> and freq2, and not
>>>>>>>> how the driver or linux seems to normally use them.
>>>>>>> its even worse. starting from 3.3 it uses freq2 instead of freq1.
>>>>>>> but i made a patch for it. but it still wont work. vdev_start still
>>>>>>> fails
>>>>>> Well it would have been helpful from the start to have known about this patch.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Could you post it?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Kalle: Since the firmware API changed, how do you want to handle
>>>>>> the differences here?
>>>>> The firmware API shouldn't change like that, but if it has I guess a
>>>>> firmware feature flag to enable a workaround in ath10k sounds like the
>>>>> easiest solution.
>>>> the more recent firmware have some new wmi services enabled which can
>>>> be used as indicator as well.
>>> I don't know what flag exactly you are referring to, but using a WMI
>>> service flag to detect this is not really reliable. They can be enabled
>>> or disabled between branches, or even between builds.
>> valid argument. but these flags should than be also introduced in
>> codeaurora images
> I'm not involved with codeaurora images so I can't help with that.
>
> But the firmware is not supposed to break the firmware interface like
> this. Can someone please write a detailed bug report as a reply to this
> mail (what version, from which location, how exactly the interface is
> broken) and I'll try to report the issue internally.
i'm not good in this. but let me try to describe whats wrong
all the current firmware images including your latest 3.3 based suffer 
from this issue.
old behaviour with 
https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware/raw/master/QCA9984/hw1.0/firmware-5.bin_10.4-3.2-00072
center freq is stored in band_center_freq1

new behaviour with 
https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware/raw/master/QCA9984/hw1.0/3.3/firmware-5.bin_10.4-3.3-00092 
and all other newers including 3.4 series
center freq is stored in band_center_freq2. where center_freq1 must 
contain the lower or upper side channel depending on the setting

example for new firmware in  ath10k_wmi_put_wmi_channel
         if (arg->mode == MODE_11AC_VHT160)  {
                 if (arg->freq < arg->band_center_freq1)
                         ch->band_center_freq1 = 
__cpu_to_le32(arg->band_center_freq1 - 40);
                 else
                         ch->band_center_freq1 = 
__cpu_to_le32(arg->band_center_freq1 + 40);
                 ch->band_center_freq2 = 
__cpu_to_le32(arg->band_center_freq1);
         }

according to some code i found in hostapd this has been made to 
workaround a issue with vht80 capable client who arent able to associate 
with vht160 networks.
the same workaround has been implemented in recent hostapd versions. so 
solving this on firmware side isnt neccessary, but qca was going this way

see also this patch which is now in mainline of hostapd

https://github.com/kaloz/mwlwifi/blob/master/hostapd/700-interoperability-workaround-for-80%2B80-and-160-MHz-channels

you will clearly see that it is related to the new behaviour of the 
qca9984 firmware (and likelly other vht160mhz capable chipset firmware, 
but i can't check them without having the devices)


>


-- 
Mit freundlichen Grüssen / Regards

Sebastian Gottschall / CTO

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