I'm looking for a replacement for the ath10k card in my Archer C7. The driver crashes everyday making wifi completely unavailable.
I don't care if there's binary firmware in the driver. As long as it works.
Any suggestions?
I assume you mean the Archer C7 v2, since the 5GHz radio of the first edition is unsupported afaik.
Rather than exchanging the radio, I'd recommend testing other firmware blobs. I've also experienced crashes with the latest firmwares, just not as often as you (the first after about 3 weeks, the second after 2). There have been other reports of crashes as well, so I will recommend the developers to revert the last update of the ath10k firmware blob.
You can manually download older (or newer) firmware blobs from here:
Latest tree, currently used in LEDE: https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware/tree/master/QCA988X/hw2.0/10.2.4-1.0
Older tree, previously used in LEDE: https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware/tree/master/QCA988X/hw2.0/10.2.4.70
The previous version that was used in LEDE before the update was firmware-5.bin_10.2.4.70.59-2. You would have to download it, rename it to firmware-5.bin and place it in /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/ on your router to exchange the current firmware.
Be aware: There is a longstanding issue with the Nexus 5X and the ath10k firmware. If you connect a Nexus 5X to your 5GHz radio, it will crash after some time. The only way I found to avoid that is a) let the Nexus 5X only connect to the 2.4GHz radio or b) use the the second approach below.
Another option you have is to use the alternative Candelatech driver and firmware by installing the packages ath10k-ct and the corresponding ct-firmware package (not sure about the package names right now, but you can find it on the forum or in the package archive). You will have to remove the original driver and firmware first.
yeah unfortunately i'm tired of dealing with ath10k. I've even replaced my laptop's wifi card with an ath9k one.
I could take one of my dual band ath9k cards and swap it out. I'm a little worried that the signal would be much worse though.
I also happen to own a Nexus 5X so there's that.
Bump. So it turns out QCA9880 firmware has massive stability issues regarding Android Oreo. I'm getting around 6 firmware crashes per day. Doesn't matter which firmware I use, regular or ct.
My current plan is to replace the card with a Killer 1535 card. If that doesn't work, then I guess I'll have to go to ath9k for 5ghz...
I don't know of any other m2 or minipcie cards that support AP mode. Mediatek seems to have none. Intel has none. Marvell seems to have none. QCA = Qualcomm crack addicts. Realtek has a spotty driver situation. Broadcom? Please no.
Nope. Broken EEPROM.
The Killer 1535 is a rebrand of the QCA6174A so ATH10K again, have you tried the Intel 9260ac or 8265ac? Pretty decent cards in my experience. Never mind I see you needed AP mode, but from what I’ve seen there were people who have gotten even the 7260ac to work in AP mode though.