[PATCH] wifi: ath12k: enable WIPHY_FLAG_DISABLE_WEXT

[Jeff Johnson]

On 4/11/2024 1:59 PM, Jeff Johnson wrote:
> On 4/11/2024 12:41 PM, Jeff Johnson wrote:
>> On 4/11/2024 9:56 AM, Kalle Valo wrote:
>>> From: Kalle Valo <quic_kvalo at quicinc.com>
>>>
>>> ath12k will support Multi-Link Operation (MLO) in the future but not yet. A
>>> major change with MLO is that cfg80211 will disable Wireless Extension (WEXT)
>>> user space interface. To avoid having inconsistent user experience, first
>>> supporting WEXT and later not, disable WEXT already now.
>>>
>>> Now ath12k claims that WEXT is not supported:
>>>
>>> $ iwconfig wlan0
>>> wlan0     no wireless extensions.
>>>
>>> Tested-on: WCN7850 hw2.0 PCI WLAN.HMT.1.0.c5-00481-QCAHMTSWPL_V1.0_V2.0_SILICONZ-3
>>>
>>> Signed-off-by: Kalle Valo <quic_kvalo at quicinc.com>
>>> ---
>>>  drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath12k/mac.c | 6 ++++++
>>>  1 file changed, 6 insertions(+)
>>>
>>> diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath12k/mac.c b/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath12k/mac.c
>>> index f15dcd75157d..e989628d7d72 100644
>>> --- a/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath12k/mac.c
>>> +++ b/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath12k/mac.c
>>> @@ -8556,6 +8556,12 @@ static int ath12k_mac_hw_register(struct ath12k_hw *ah)
>>>  	wiphy->features |= NL80211_FEATURE_AP_MODE_CHAN_WIDTH_CHANGE |
>>>  				   NL80211_FEATURE_AP_SCAN;
>>>  
>>> +	/* MLO is not yet supported so disable Wireless Extensions for now
>>> +	 * to make sure ath12k users don't use it. This flag can be removed
>>> +	 * once WIPHY_FLAG_SUPPORTS_MLO is enabled.
>>> +	 */
>>> +	wiphy->flags |= WIPHY_FLAG_DISABLE_WEXT;
>>> +
>>>  	hw->queues = ATH12K_HW_MAX_QUEUES;
>>>  	wiphy->tx_queue_len = ATH12K_QUEUE_LEN;
>>>  	hw->offchannel_tx_hw_queue = ATH12K_HW_MAX_QUEUES - 1;
>>>
>>> base-commit: 363e7193eaf258fe7f04e8db560bd8a282a12cd9
>>
>> Currently on my version of Ubuntu when I switch to Hotspot mode I'm seeing:
>> [   55.189623] warning: `iwconfig' uses wireless extensions which will stop
>> working for Wi-Fi 7 hardware; use nl80211
>>
>> So are userspace folks aware of the need to move away from iwconfig?
>> Is there a Ubuntu / Network Manager fix fir this?
> 
> And I've confirmed that with this patch in place I cannot start the Hotspot.
> So suggest you sit on that until userspace is ready.

It turns out that once I configured the Hotspot explicitly for 2.4 GHz
operation that it works even with this patch in place. So I have a separate
issue somewhere with 5 GHz Hotspot operation.

So this patch can go forward...
Acked-by: Jeff Johnson <quic_jjohnson at quicinc.com>