[OpenWRT] - formal ath11k support added to master

[sfx2000]

Noticed this item this afternoon... these checkin's are old, but now committed to master...

commit 93ae4353cdf651ef0b5d8a4d40a6c29d8d3f655b (HEAD -> master, origin/master, origin/HEAD)
Author: Robert Marko <robimarko@gmail.com>
Date:   Sun Feb 6 15:50:24 2022 +0100

    mac80211: add ath11k PCI support
   
    ath11k is the upstream driver for Qualcomm 802.11ax radios, both for the
    internal AHB and PCI based cards.
    This commit does however only provide PCI support while AHB will follow
    but its SoC specific so it will require an OpenWrt target first.
   
    It differs a bit from ath10k as it requires stuff like QRTR, MHI and QMI
    helpers.
   
    PCI variant requires qrtr-mhi and mhi-bus which backports do provide,
    however we are dropping those in a patch as they will conflict with
    support for the AHB variant as that one requires qrtr-smd which in turn
    requires RPMSG and GLINK and its not feasable to provide those in
    backports as they are really SoC specific.
   
    QRTR and MHI in kernel 5.10 are not usable and backporting the changes
    is not easy as they have changed drastically from 5.10 to 5.15 ath11k will
        only be available on targets that use kernel 5.15.
   
    Signed-off-by: Robert Marko <robimarko@gmail.com>

commit b4d3694f81f423089ac5cc8d8e7b6af62428da3a
Author: Robert Marko <robimarko@gmail.com>
Date:   Tue Dec 13 23:01:20 2022 +0100

    linux-firmware: package ath11k consumer cards firmware
   
    Package firmware for ath11k supported QCA consumer cards from linux-firmware.
   
    Signed-off-by: Robert Marko <robimarko@gmail.com>

commit 5968290a21e0b5d191234e07928214b0f0872bbe
Author: Robert Marko <robimarko@gmail.com>
Date:   Tue Dec 21 13:47:03 2021 +0100

    kernel: package QRTR support
   
    QRTR is Qualcomm IPC router protocol and ath11k requires it for both
    AHB and PCI support, so package it as a kernel module so it can be
    added as a dependency to the ath11k module.
   
    Only kernel 5.15 is currently supported due to various things missing in
    5.10 whose backporting is out of scope for this patch.
   
    SMD, TUN and MHI variants are packaged.
   
    SMD variant depends on the ipq807x
    target as it has dependency on the RPMSG drivers which are Qualcomm
    and SoC specific anyway.
   
    Signed-off-by: Robert Marko <robimarko@gmail.com>

 

[sfx2000]

More support added to openwrt master recently...

Qualcomm Atheros AX support is shaping up nicely for the ipq807x target.

26c095cb4d ipq807x: add Dynalink DL-WRX36
6e03304c76 ipq807x: add Edgecore EAP102
2ddb2057cd ipq807x: Add Xiaomi AX9000
bd17683261 ipq807x: add QNAP 301w
a36fc589fe ipq807x: add Edimax CAX1800
8253cb2de5 ipq807x: add Redmi AX6
8364f08164 ipq807x: add Xiaomi AX3600
bc120521db ipq807x: include kmods for wired networking by default
2558e7b443 kernel: add Qualcomm NSS dataplane ethernet driver
c608f70325 kernel: add Qualcomm SSDK driver
d092dee9ed ipq807x: include ath11k-ahb by default
35f28f2838 mac80211: add ath11k AHB support
d9b80ba8b8 CI: labeler: add ipq807x target
b5f32064ed ipq807x: add Qualcomm Atheros IPQ807x target
4f592fb819 mac80211: ath11k: hack for multiple card support
6c9329e088 generic: 5.15: add MHI SBL callback for ath11k
af6da88814 firmware: add ath11k-firmware package
c83dbcdf8f mac80211: ath11k: fix monitor bringup
214c230a79 linux-firmware: ath11k: add symlink for WCN6855 hw2.1
93ae4353cd mac80211: add ath11k PCI support
b4d3694f81 linux-firmware: package ath11k consumer cards firmware

 

[RMerlin]

Qualcomm Atheros AX support is shaping up nicely for the ipq807x target.

How complete usually are these implementations? Are they just basic Ethernet, or they also fully support Wifi features? With or without NAT acceleration?

 

[sfx2000]

How complete usually are these implementations? Are they just basic Ethernet, or they also fully support Wifi features? With or without NAT acceleration?

WiFI - running
Ethernet - running
NSS - running

There's been quite a bit of work on this chipset, and as you can see on the commits a number of devices are now in Master...

This is the second WiFI6 chipset up and running - Mediatek has been running for some time now - wifi there is in a bit of flux with the FOSS drivers, but getting better over time.

 

[sfx2000]

How complete usually are these implementations? Are they just basic Ethernet, or they also fully support Wifi features? With or without NAT acceleration?

I should add that while support is on master, it's not a formal release yet - stable enough for testing, but I'm not sure I would use master/snapshots as a "daily driver" with any target on the tip...

 

[RMerlin]

I should add that while support is on master, it's not a formal release yet - stable enough for testing, but I'm not sure I would use master/snapshots as a "daily driver" with any target on the tip...

Thanks. I was just wondering if it was real complete support, or only partial support like on various BCM platforms where they had Ethernet but no Wireless working.

Even tho BCM apparently now supports OpenWRT within their SDK, still no open source drivers available for that support to be mainlined. If Qualcomm is now starting to have open source support and they aren't going bankrupt by being so open with their IP, then I think BCM no longer has any valid excuse to remain so secretive and paranoid about their own IP.

 

[gerardr]

Thanks. I was just wondering if it was real complete support, or only partial support like on various BCM platforms where they had Ethernet but no Wireless working.

Even tho BCM apparently now supports OpenWRT within their SDK, still no open source drivers available for that support to be mainlined. If Qualcomm is now starting to have open source support and they aren't going bankrupt by being so open with their IP, then I think BCM no longer has any valid excuse to remain so secretive and paranoid about their own IP.

I just opted for a DynaLink DL-WRX36 from Amazon for 80 USD. It's base OS is Openwrt Chaos Calmer, but I've upgraded to the Openwrt snapshot. While the contents of /lib/firmware look proprietary, the kernel device drivers do have source code. Both 5ghz and 2.5ghz bands are working. Various Qualcomm chipsets seem to have had support for a while in Openwrt and now the IPQ807x ones have been added.

 

[dave14305]

I just opted for a DynaLink DL-WRX36 from Amazon for 80 USD.

This is what I run now and it’s been great. Still a lot of active development of the ath11k drivers and firmware. Great bang for the buck.