[elrepo] kmod-ath10k firmware issues (?) with CentOS 7

[Phil Perry]

On 17/08/16 16:24, Sean Hancock via elrepo wrote:
> I successfully installed the firmware package: sudo rpm -Uvh ath10k-firmware-2.0-1.el7.elrepo.noarch.rpm
>
> But, no joy:
>
> [ 0.000000] tsc: Fast TSC calibration failed
> [ 2.736679] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1f.3 failed to add i915 component master (
> -.9)
> [ 2.880797] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not fetch firmware file 'ath10k/QC
> A6174/hw3.0/firmware-4.bin': -2
> [ 2.880873] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not fetch firmware file 'ath10k/QC
> A6174/hw3.0/firmware-3.bin': -2
> [ 2.880934] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not fetch firmware file 'ath10k/QC
> A6174/hw3.0/firmware-2.bin': -2
> [ 2.881054] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not fetch board data (-2)
> [ 2.881153] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not fetch firmware files (-2)
> [ 2.881253] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not probe fw (-2)
> Exception AttributeError:"'NoneType' object has no attribute 'udev_unref'"in<
> bound method Context.__del__of ,pyudev.core.Context object at 0x2947890>>ignor
> ed
>
>

We need to find the right firmware(s) for that driver.

 From your output above:

 > [ 2.880797] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not fetch firmware file 
'ath10k/QC
 > A6174/hw3.0/firmware-4.bin': -2
 > [ 2.880873] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not fetch firmware file 
'ath10k/QC
 > A6174/hw3.0/firmware-3.bin': -2
 > [ 2.880934] ath10k_pci 0000:03:00.0: could not fetch firmware file 
'ath10k/QC
 > A6174/hw3.0/firmware-2.bin': -2

looks like we need

ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/firmware-4.bin
ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/firmware-3.bin
ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/firmware-2.bin

yet the kernel module says otherwise:

$ modinfo ath10k_pci | grep firmware
firmware:       ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/board.bin
firmware:       ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/firmware-3.bin
firmware:       ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/firmware-2.bin
firmware:       ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/firmware.bin

Note /QCA6174/hw3.0/ versus /QCA988X/hw2.0/ not to mention the different 
firmware numbers.

Which is correct? I have no clue so good luck working it out.

So lets start at the beginning. There is a Wiki page with some info here:

https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath10k/firmware

At a point of reference, your kmod-ath10k-0.0-4.el7.elrepo.x86_64 driver 
is backported from kernel-4.1.26.

The firmware(s) that I packaged came from here:

https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware

You need to work out which firmware(s) you require, and copy them in 
place under /lib/firmware/ath10k/  Don't be afraid to just dump 
everything in there and cover all possibilities - the driver will only 
load the firmware it needs. The only caveat is that the versions must be 
correct.

Keep looking in dmesg for clues as to what the driver is looking for.

Once you have figured it out, let us know and we can package the 
appropriate firmwares for the driver. I can't do it for you as I don't 
have the hardware to test.

Good luck!