[PATCH] wifi: mt76: mt7925: fix missing mutex protection in reset and ROC abort paths

Zac Bowling zbowling at gmail.com
Wed Dec 31 14:37:02 PST 2025


From: Zac Bowling <zac at zacbowling.com>

This patch is a follow-up to the NULL pointer dereference fix (commit
6790e656030fb23527aa5c0d6eaa28ce029335b1). While that patch prevented
kernel panics from NULL pointer dereferences, it did not address the
underlying system hangs and deadlocks that occur during firmware
recovery.

The issue manifests on Framework Desktop systems with MT7925 WiFi cards
when:
1. Switching between WiFi networks
2. Disconnecting/reconnecting ethernet while WiFi is active
3. Firmware message timeouts trigger hardware reset recovery

During these operations, MCU message timeouts can occur, triggering
mt792x_reset() which queues reset_work. The reset work and ROC abort
functions iterate over active interfaces and call MCU functions that
require the device mutex to be held, but the mutex was not acquired
before the iteration.

This causes system-wide hangs where:
- Network commands (ip, etc.) hang indefinitely
- Processes get stuck in uninterruptible sleep (D state)
- Tailscale and other network services timeout
- System becomes completely unresponsive requiring force reboot

The hang occurs because:
1. Firmware timeouts trigger hardware reset via mt792x_reset()
2. Reset work (mt7925_mac_reset_work) or ROC abort (mt7925_roc_abort_sync)
   tries to iterate interfaces and call MCU functions
3. MCU operations block indefinitely waiting for mutex that's held
   elsewhere, or deadlock occurs
4. Network stack becomes unresponsive

Add mutex protection around interface iteration in both:
- mt7925_mac_reset_work(): Called during firmware recovery after MCU
  timeouts to reconnect all interfaces
- mt7925_roc_abort_sync(): Called during suspend/resume and when aborting
  Remain On Channel operations

This matches the pattern used elsewhere in the driver (e.g., in
mt7925_roc_iter, mt7925_mcu_set_suspend_iter, etc.) where interface
iteration callbacks invoke MCU functions.

Note: The author does not have deep familiarity with this codebase, but
this fix has been tested and appears to resolve the panic and deadlock
issues observed on Framework Desktop hardware with MT7925 WiFi cards.

Reported-by: Zac Bowling <zac at zacbowling.com>
Tested-by: Zac Bowling <zac at zacbowling.com>
Signed-off-by: Zac Bowling <zac at zacbowling.com>
---
 drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/mt7925/mac.c  | 2 ++
 drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/mt7925/main.c | 5 ++++-
 2 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/mt7925/mac.c b/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/mt7925/mac.c
index 184efe8afa10..06420ac6ed55 100644
--- a/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/mt7925/mac.c
+++ b/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/mt7925/mac.c
@@ -1331,9 +1331,11 @@ void mt7925_mac_reset_work(struct work_struct *work)
 	dev->hw_full_reset = false;
 	pm->suspended = false;
 	ieee80211_wake_queues(hw);
+	mt792x_mutex_acquire(dev);
 	ieee80211_iterate_active_interfaces(hw,
 					    IEEE80211_IFACE_ITER_RESUME_ALL,
 					    mt7925_vif_connect_iter, NULL);
+	mt792x_mutex_release(dev);
 	mt76_connac_power_save_sched(&dev->mt76.phy, pm);
 
 	mt7925_regd_change(&dev->phy, "00");
diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/mt7925/main.c b/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/mt7925/main.c
index 3001a62a8b67..1f7661175623 100644
--- a/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/mt7925/main.c
+++ b/drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/mt7925/main.c
@@ -459,10 +459,13 @@ void mt7925_roc_abort_sync(struct mt792x_dev *dev)
 
 	timer_delete_sync(&phy->roc_timer);
 	cancel_work_sync(&phy->roc_work);
-	if (test_and_clear_bit(MT76_STATE_ROC, &phy->mt76->state))
+	if (test_and_clear_bit(MT76_STATE_ROC, &phy->mt76->state)) {
+		mt792x_mutex_acquire(dev);
 		ieee80211_iterate_interfaces(mt76_hw(dev),
 					     IEEE80211_IFACE_ITER_RESUME_ALL,
 					     mt7925_roc_iter, (void *)phy);
+		mt792x_mutex_release(dev);
+	}
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(mt7925_roc_abort_sync);
 
-- 
2.51.0




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