Archer C7 v1 hardware with v2 5GHz chipset

Hi,

A little back story here. A while back I have installed OpenWrt on an Archer C7 v1 hardware. I was well aware the 5GHz chipset (QCA9880-AR1A) coming with it wasn't working with the firmware, but since its stability was already bad, I made the decision to make the switch anyway. I read on the internet, a guy was able to take a new PCIe 5GHz WiFi module, inserted it, then upon reboot, his router worked and recognized the card: https://smallhacks.wordpress.com/2015/11/22/upgrading-tp-link-archer-c7-ac1750-to-use-with-openwrt/. At first I though it could be a nice idea, but since buying a new card could cost me about a 100 bucks, I simply left the idea.

Then recently, one of my friends told me he bricked his router and guess what, it's an Archer C7 v2 hardware. Naturally, I told him I'd took his router if he was about to throw it out, which as a good samaritain, decided to give me. Today I took the time to switch the the PCIe WiFi (QCA9880-BR4A) to my router. It booted, but the card doesn't seems to be recognized.

I went to "System -> Software" under the administrative panel and I though maybe the driver wasn't installed. So I installed the package "ath10k-firmware-qca988x", rebooted the router, but it did nothing. I even had factory reset the router, but alas, still did nothing.

The kernel logs are showing something interesting though:

[    0.000000] Linux version 4.9.184 (buildbot@2ccc8102e0c3) (gcc version 7.3.0 (OpenWrt GCC 7.3.0 r7808-ef686b7292) ) #0 Thu Jun 27 12:18:52 2019
[    0.000000] MyLoader: sysp=e5ede3a7, boardp=952505af, parts=fde76865
[    0.000000] bootconsole [early0] enabled
[    0.000000] CPU0 revision is: 00019750 (MIPS 74Kc)
[    0.000000] SoC: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9558 ver 1 rev 0
[    0.000000] Determined physical RAM map:
[    0.000000]  memory: 08000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
[    0.000000] Initrd not found or empty - disabling initrd
[    0.000000] Primary instruction cache 64kB, VIPT, 4-way, linesize 32 bytes.
[    0.000000] Primary data cache 32kB, 4-way, VIPT, cache aliases, linesize 32 bytes
[    0.000000] Zone ranges:
[    0.000000]   Normal   [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000007ffffff]
[    0.000000] Movable zone start for each node
[    0.000000] Early memory node ranges
[    0.000000]   node   0: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000007ffffff]
[    0.000000] Initmem setup node 0 [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000007ffffff]
[    0.000000] On node 0 totalpages: 32768
[    0.000000] free_area_init_node: node 0, pgdat 8044c434, node_mem_map 81000020
[    0.000000]   Normal zone: 256 pages used for memmap
[    0.000000]   Normal zone: 0 pages reserved
[    0.000000]   Normal zone: 32768 pages, LIFO batch:7
[    0.000000] pcpu-alloc: s0 r0 d32768 u32768 alloc=1*32768
[    0.000000] pcpu-alloc: [0] 0 
[    0.000000] Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on.  Total pages: 32512
[    0.000000] Kernel command line:  board=ARCHER-C7  console=ttyS0,115200 rootfstype=squashfs noinitrd
[    0.000000] PID hash table entries: 512 (order: -1, 2048 bytes)
[    0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
[    0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
[    0.000000] Writing ErrCtl register=00000000
[    0.000000] Readback ErrCtl register=00000000
[    0.000000] Memory: 124940K/131072K available (3393K kernel code, 178K rwdata, 448K rodata, 324K init, 211K bss, 6132K reserved, 0K cma-reserved)
[    0.000000] SLUB: HWalign=32, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=1, Nodes=1
[    0.000000] NR_IRQS:51
[    0.000000] Clocks: CPU:720.000MHz, DDR:600.000MHz, AHB:200.000MHz, Ref:40.000MHz
[    0.000000] clocksource: MIPS: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 5309056796 ns
[    0.000008] sched_clock: 32 bits at 360MHz, resolution 2ns, wraps every 5965232126ns
[    0.008300] Calibrating delay loop... 358.80 BogoMIPS (lpj=1794048)
[    0.071195] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
[    0.076194] Mount-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.083239] Mountpoint-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.092903] clocksource: jiffies: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 19112604462750000 ns
[    0.103401] futex hash table entries: 256 (order: -1, 3072 bytes)
[    0.110879] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[    0.116810] MIPS: machine is TP-LINK Archer C7
[    0.124624] ar724x-pci ar724x-pci.0: PCIe link is down
[    0.130127] registering PCI controller with io_map_base unset
[    0.136346] registering PCI controller with io_map_base unset
[    0.631936] PCI host bridge to bus 0000:00
[    0.636337] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [mem 0x10000000-0x11ffffff]
[    0.643650] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [io  0x0000]
[    0.649583] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [??? 0x00000000 flags 0x0]
[    0.656797] pci_bus 0000:00: No busn resource found for root bus, will use [bus 00-ff]
[    0.665240] pci_bus 0000:00: busn_res: [bus 00-ff] end is updated to 00
[    0.665342] PCI host bridge to bus 0000:01
[    0.669701] pci_bus 0000:01: root bus resource [mem 0x12000000-0x13ffffff]
[    0.677026] pci_bus 0000:01: root bus resource [io  0x0001]
[    0.682946] pci_bus 0000:01: root bus resource [??? 0x00000000 flags 0x0]
[    0.690171] pci_bus 0000:01: No busn resource found for root bus, will use [bus 01-ff]
[    0.698617] pci 0000:01:00.0: [168c:003c] type 00 class 0x028000
[    0.698655] pci 0000:01:00.0: reg 0x10: [mem 0x00000000-0x001fffff 64bit]
[    0.698704] pci 0000:01:00.0: reg 0x30: [mem 0x00000000-0x0000ffff pref]
[    0.698771] pci 0000:01:00.0: supports D1 D2
[    0.698937] pci_bus 0000:01: busn_res: [bus 01-ff] end is updated to 01
[    0.698960] pci 0000:01:00.0: BAR 0: assigned [mem 0x12000000-0x121fffff 64bit]
[    0.706776] pci 0000:01:00.0: BAR 6: assigned [mem 0x12200000-0x1220ffff pref]
[    0.714463] pci 0000:01:00.0: using irq 41 for pin 1
[    0.722434] clocksource: Switched to clocksource MIPS
[    0.728668] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[    0.734106] TCP established hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.741526] TCP bind hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.748329] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 1024)
[    0.755170] UDP hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.761398] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.768305] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[    0.772998] PCI: CLS 0 bytes, default 32
[    0.775248] Crashlog allocated RAM at address 0x3f00000
[    0.781671] workingset: timestamp_bits=30 max_order=15 bucket_order=0
[    0.794317] squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher
[    0.800517] jffs2: version 2.2 (NAND) (SUMMARY) (LZMA) (RTIME) (CMODE_PRIORITY) (c) 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc.
[    0.818655] io scheduler noop registered
[    0.822863] io scheduler deadline registered (default)
[    0.828671] Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 16 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
[    0.837613] console [ttyS0] disabled
[    0.861492] serial8250.0: ttyS0 at MMIO 0x18020000 (irq = 11, base_baud = 2500000) is a 16550A
[    0.870678] console [ttyS0] enabled
[    0.878095] bootconsole [early0] disabled
[    0.891408] m25p80 spi0.0: found s25fl064k, expected m25p80
[    0.908916] m25p80 spi0.0: s25fl064k (8192 Kbytes)
[    0.914258] 5 tp-link partitions found on MTD device spi0.0
[    0.919910] Creating 5 MTD partitions on "spi0.0":
[    0.924798] 0x000000000000-0x000000020000 : "u-boot"
[    0.931325] 0x000000020000-0x000000170910 : "kernel"
[    0.938021] 0x000000170910-0x0000007f0000 : "rootfs"
[    0.944371] mtd: device 2 (rootfs) set to be root filesystem
[    0.950149] 1 squashfs-split partitions found on MTD device rootfs
[    0.956463] 0x0000003c0000-0x0000007f0000 : "rootfs_data"
[    0.963687] 0x0000007f0000-0x000000800000 : "art"
[    0.970081] 0x000000020000-0x0000007f0000 : "firmware"
[    0.977745] libphy: Fixed MDIO Bus: probed
[    0.994872] switch0: Atheros AR8327 rev. 4 switch registered on ag71xx-mdio.0
[    1.691216] libphy: ag71xx_mdio: probed
[    2.323941] ag71xx ag71xx.0: connected to PHY at ag71xx-mdio.0:00 [uid=004dd034, driver=Atheros AR8216/AR8236/AR8316]
[    2.335296] eth0: Atheros AG71xx at 0xb9000000, irq 4, mode:RGMII
[    2.612430] random: fast init done
[    2.964064] eth1: Atheros AG71xx at 0xba000000, irq 5, mode:SGMII
[    2.972025] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[    2.980042] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[    2.984644] bridge: filtering via arp/ip/ip6tables is no longer available by default. Update your scripts to load br_netfilter if you need this.
[    2.997878] 8021q: 802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8
[    3.003600] hctosys: unable to open rtc device (rtc0)
[    3.014642] VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly on device 31:2.
[    3.022988] Freeing unused kernel memory: 324K
[    3.027491] This architecture does not have kernel memory protection.
[    3.799091] init: Console is alive
[    3.802797] init: - watchdog -
[    4.770514] kmodloader: loading kernel modules from /etc/modules-boot.d/*
[    4.825243] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[    4.830903] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[    4.836406] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[    4.845828] ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Host Controller (EHCI) Driver
[    4.853734] ehci-platform: EHCI generic platform driver
[    4.859110] ehci-platform ehci-platform.0: EHCI Host Controller
[    4.865178] ehci-platform ehci-platform.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
[    4.875461] ehci-platform ehci-platform.0: TX-TX IDP fix enabled
[    4.881562] ehci-platform ehci-platform.0: irq 48, io mem 0x1b000000
[    4.912472] ehci-platform ehci-platform.0: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
[    4.919751] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    4.923861] hub 1-0:1.0: 1 port detected
[    4.928142] ehci-platform ehci-platform.1: EHCI Host Controller
[    4.934210] ehci-platform ehci-platform.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
[    4.944495] ehci-platform ehci-platform.1: TX-TX IDP fix enabled
[    4.950598] ehci-platform ehci-platform.1: irq 49, io mem 0x1b400000
[    4.982459] ehci-platform ehci-platform.1: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
[    4.989741] hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    4.993841] hub 2-0:1.0: 1 port detected
[    4.998490] kmodloader: done loading kernel modules from /etc/modules-boot.d/*
[    5.016205] init: - preinit -
[    5.804750] eth1: link up (1000Mbps/Full duplex)
[    5.842940] random: procd: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[    9.092659] jffs2: notice: (444) jffs2_build_xattr_subsystem: complete building xattr subsystem, 0 of xdatum (0 unchecked, 0 orphan) and 0 of xref (0 dead, 0 orphan) found.
[    9.110831] mount_root: switching to jffs2 overlay
[    9.140963] urandom-seed: Seeding with /etc/urandom.seed
[    9.342239] eth1: link down
[    9.355413] procd: - early -
[    9.358410] procd: - watchdog -
[    9.962540] procd: - watchdog -
[    9.965938] procd: - ubus -
[   10.096366] random: ubusd: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[   10.105632] random: ubusd: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[   10.112496] random: ubusd: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[   10.119753] procd: - init -
[   10.464388] kmodloader: loading kernel modules from /etc/modules.d/*
[   10.474668] ip6_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
[   10.489935] Loading modules backported from Linux version wt-2017-11-01-0-gfe248fc2c180
[   10.498106] Backport generated by backports.git v4.14-rc2-1-31-g86cf0e5d
[   10.507916] ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
[   10.520193] nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (2048 buckets, 8192 max)
[   10.568570] xt_time: kernel timezone is -0000
[   10.616566] PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
[   10.622956] NET: Registered protocol family 24
[   10.662190] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x0
[   10.662197] ath: EEPROM indicates default country code should be used
[   10.662200] ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
[   10.662212] ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x3a
[   10.662216] ath: Country alpha2 being used: US
[   10.662219] ath: Regpair used: 0x3a
[   10.678202] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
[   10.681307] ieee80211 phy0: Atheros AR9550 Rev:0 mem=0xb8100000, irq=47
[   10.767177] kmodloader: done loading kernel modules from /etc/modules.d/*
[   11.797541] urandom_read: 5 callbacks suppressed
[   11.797548] random: jshn: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[   20.016165] eth1: link up (1000Mbps/Full duplex)
[   20.020927] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready
[   20.073899] br-lan: port 1(eth1.1) entered blocking state
[   20.079389] br-lan: port 1(eth1.1) entered disabled state
[   20.085235] device eth1.1 entered promiscuous mode
[   20.090095] device eth1 entered promiscuous mode
[   20.163627] br-lan: port 1(eth1.1) entered blocking state
[   20.169116] br-lan: port 1(eth1.1) entered forwarding state
[   20.174942] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): br-lan: link is not ready
[   20.251972] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[   20.283873] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0.2: link is not ready
[   21.092539] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth1: link becomes ready
[   21.099271] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): br-lan: link becomes ready
[   21.433949] eth0: link up (1000Mbps/Full duplex)
[   21.691544] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
[   21.728673] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0.2: link becomes ready
[   22.181816] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x807c
[   22.185920] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a country code
[   22.192096] ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
[   22.197500] ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x3a
[   22.202357] ath: Country alpha2 being used: CA
[   22.206874] ath: Regpair used: 0x3a
[   22.210411] ath: regdomain 0x807c dynamically updated by user
[   25.269664] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[   25.325443] br-lan: port 2(wlan0) entered blocking state
[   25.330957] br-lan: port 2(wlan0) entered disabled state
[   25.336739] device wlan0 entered promiscuous mode
[   32.737509] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
[   32.744154] br-lan: port 2(wlan0) entered blocking state
[   32.749549] br-lan: port 2(wlan0) entered forwarding state
[   67.615519] random: crng init done

I have a log reading: "PCIe link is down". So I though maybe this is because I haven't properly installed the card inside, but some other forum threads are guiding us to other possibilities: https://forum.archive.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=56638.

Can someone help me with this issue? Do I need to disable the USB like suggested in the previous thread? Do someone have some insight on that little problem?

Thanks a lot!
David

It does not look like the ath10k driver is loaded at all. If you flashed the ar71xx archer-c7-v1 image, you need to install the kmod-ath10k-ct and ath10k-firmware-qca988x-ct (probably works with the ath10k-firmware-qca988x you already installed, but you need the kmod also). The -ct version of the packages are the default ones used by the archer-c7-v2 image.

Another option is to try the newer snapshot from the ath79 platform, it contains the ath10k packages already:
https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/ath79/generic/openwrt-ath79-generic-tplink_archer-c7-v1-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin

ar724x-pci.0: PCIe link is down

here it uses ar724x-pci.1 for 5ghz card.

you have regdomain messages twice, meaning both wifi are detected:

ath: Country alpha2 being used: US
ath: Country alpha2 being used: CA

maybe there is some wrong with eeprom parsing scripts, or does that card need cal data from art partition? i've put QCA9862 in this same router and is working fine wihtout art calibration for 5ghz

Hi frol,

The ath10k seems to be loading this time:

[    0.000000] Linux version 4.9.184 (buildbot@2ccc8102e0c3) (gcc version 7.3.0 (OpenWrt GCC 7.3.0 r7808-ef686b7292) ) #0 Thu Jun 27 12:18:52 2019
[    0.000000] MyLoader: sysp=e5ede3a7, boardp=952505af, parts=fde76865
[    0.000000] bootconsole [early0] enabled
[    0.000000] CPU0 revision is: 00019750 (MIPS 74Kc)
[    0.000000] SoC: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9558 ver 1 rev 0
[    0.000000] Determined physical RAM map:
[    0.000000]  memory: 08000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
[    0.000000] Initrd not found or empty - disabling initrd
[    0.000000] Primary instruction cache 64kB, VIPT, 4-way, linesize 32 bytes.
[    0.000000] Primary data cache 32kB, 4-way, VIPT, cache aliases, linesize 32 bytes
[    0.000000] Zone ranges:
[    0.000000]   Normal   [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000007ffffff]
[    0.000000] Movable zone start for each node
[    0.000000] Early memory node ranges
[    0.000000]   node   0: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000007ffffff]
[    0.000000] Initmem setup node 0 [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000007ffffff]
[    0.000000] On node 0 totalpages: 32768
[    0.000000] free_area_init_node: node 0, pgdat 8044c434, node_mem_map 81000020
[    0.000000]   Normal zone: 256 pages used for memmap
[    0.000000]   Normal zone: 0 pages reserved
[    0.000000]   Normal zone: 32768 pages, LIFO batch:7
[    0.000000] pcpu-alloc: s0 r0 d32768 u32768 alloc=1*32768
[    0.000000] pcpu-alloc: [0] 0 
[    0.000000] Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on.  Total pages: 32512
[    0.000000] Kernel command line:  board=ARCHER-C7  console=ttyS0,115200 rootfstype=squashfs noinitrd
[    0.000000] PID hash table entries: 512 (order: -1, 2048 bytes)
[    0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
[    0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
[    0.000000] Writing ErrCtl register=00000000
[    0.000000] Readback ErrCtl register=00000000
[    0.000000] Memory: 124940K/131072K available (3393K kernel code, 178K rwdata, 448K rodata, 324K init, 211K bss, 6132K reserved, 0K cma-reserved)
[    0.000000] SLUB: HWalign=32, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=1, Nodes=1
[    0.000000] NR_IRQS:51
[    0.000000] Clocks: CPU:720.000MHz, DDR:600.000MHz, AHB:200.000MHz, Ref:40.000MHz
[    0.000000] clocksource: MIPS: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 5309056796 ns
[    0.000008] sched_clock: 32 bits at 360MHz, resolution 2ns, wraps every 5965232126ns
[    0.008300] Calibrating delay loop... 358.80 BogoMIPS (lpj=1794048)
[    0.071195] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
[    0.076194] Mount-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.083239] Mountpoint-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.092898] clocksource: jiffies: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 19112604462750000 ns
[    0.103392] futex hash table entries: 256 (order: -1, 3072 bytes)
[    0.110871] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[    0.116803] MIPS: machine is TP-LINK Archer C7
[    0.124614] ar724x-pci ar724x-pci.0: PCIe link is down
[    0.130119] registering PCI controller with io_map_base unset
[    0.136338] registering PCI controller with io_map_base unset
[    0.631931] PCI host bridge to bus 0000:00
[    0.636336] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [mem 0x10000000-0x11ffffff]
[    0.643650] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [io  0x0000]
[    0.649582] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [??? 0x00000000 flags 0x0]
[    0.656797] pci_bus 0000:00: No busn resource found for root bus, will use [bus 00-ff]
[    0.665241] pci_bus 0000:00: busn_res: [bus 00-ff] end is updated to 00
[    0.665344] PCI host bridge to bus 0000:01
[    0.669700] pci_bus 0000:01: root bus resource [mem 0x12000000-0x13ffffff]
[    0.677025] pci_bus 0000:01: root bus resource [io  0x0001]
[    0.682945] pci_bus 0000:01: root bus resource [??? 0x00000000 flags 0x0]
[    0.690171] pci_bus 0000:01: No busn resource found for root bus, will use [bus 01-ff]
[    0.698616] pci 0000:01:00.0: [168c:003c] type 00 class 0x028000
[    0.698654] pci 0000:01:00.0: reg 0x10: [mem 0x00000000-0x001fffff 64bit]
[    0.698702] pci 0000:01:00.0: reg 0x30: [mem 0x00000000-0x0000ffff pref]
[    0.698769] pci 0000:01:00.0: supports D1 D2
[    0.698935] pci_bus 0000:01: busn_res: [bus 01-ff] end is updated to 01
[    0.698958] pci 0000:01:00.0: BAR 0: assigned [mem 0x12000000-0x121fffff 64bit]
[    0.706776] pci 0000:01:00.0: BAR 6: assigned [mem 0x12200000-0x1220ffff pref]
[    0.714463] pci 0000:01:00.0: using irq 41 for pin 1
[    0.722431] clocksource: Switched to clocksource MIPS
[    0.728670] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[    0.734104] TCP established hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.741526] TCP bind hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.748329] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 1024)
[    0.755170] UDP hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.761398] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.768305] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[    0.773007] PCI: CLS 0 bytes, default 32
[    0.775257] Crashlog allocated RAM at address 0x3f00000
[    0.781679] workingset: timestamp_bits=30 max_order=15 bucket_order=0
[    0.794327] squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher
[    0.800533] jffs2: version 2.2 (NAND) (SUMMARY) (LZMA) (RTIME) (CMODE_PRIORITY) (c) 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc.
[    0.818646] io scheduler noop registered
[    0.822854] io scheduler deadline registered (default)
[    0.828663] Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 16 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
[    0.837608] console [ttyS0] disabled
[    0.861476] serial8250.0: ttyS0 at MMIO 0x18020000 (irq = 11, base_baud = 2500000) is a 16550A
[    0.870666] console [ttyS0] enabled
[    0.878083] bootconsole [early0] disabled
[    0.891385] m25p80 spi0.0: found s25fl064k, expected m25p80
[    0.908900] m25p80 spi0.0: s25fl064k (8192 Kbytes)
[    0.914247] 5 tp-link partitions found on MTD device spi0.0
[    0.919898] Creating 5 MTD partitions on "spi0.0":
[    0.924786] 0x000000000000-0x000000020000 : "u-boot"
[    0.931320] 0x000000020000-0x000000170910 : "kernel"
[    0.938013] 0x000000170910-0x0000007f0000 : "rootfs"
[    0.944351] mtd: device 2 (rootfs) set to be root filesystem
[    0.950129] 1 squashfs-split partitions found on MTD device rootfs
[    0.956442] 0x0000003c0000-0x0000007f0000 : "rootfs_data"
[    0.963663] 0x0000007f0000-0x000000800000 : "art"
[    0.970058] 0x000000020000-0x0000007f0000 : "firmware"
[    0.977723] libphy: Fixed MDIO Bus: probed
[    0.994867] switch0: Atheros AR8327 rev. 4 switch registered on ag71xx-mdio.0
[    1.691224] libphy: ag71xx_mdio: probed
[    2.323938] ag71xx ag71xx.0: connected to PHY at ag71xx-mdio.0:00 [uid=004dd034, driver=Atheros AR8216/AR8236/AR8316]
[    2.335294] eth0: Atheros AG71xx at 0xb9000000, irq 4, mode:RGMII
[    2.612427] random: fast init done
[    2.964062] eth1: Atheros AG71xx at 0xba000000, irq 5, mode:SGMII
[    2.972022] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[    2.980049] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[    2.984650] bridge: filtering via arp/ip/ip6tables is no longer available by default. Update your scripts to load br_netfilter if you need this.
[    2.997884] 8021q: 802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8
[    3.003604] hctosys: unable to open rtc device (rtc0)
[    3.014635] VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly on device 31:2.
[    3.022995] Freeing unused kernel memory: 324K
[    3.027506] This architecture does not have kernel memory protection.
[    3.799161] init: Console is alive
[    3.802864] init: - watchdog -
[    4.770686] kmodloader: loading kernel modules from /etc/modules-boot.d/*
[    4.826017] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[    4.831683] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[    4.837187] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[    4.846667] ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Host Controller (EHCI) Driver
[    4.854555] ehci-platform: EHCI generic platform driver
[    4.859935] ehci-platform ehci-platform.0: EHCI Host Controller
[    4.866004] ehci-platform ehci-platform.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
[    4.876286] ehci-platform ehci-platform.0: TX-TX IDP fix enabled
[    4.882396] ehci-platform ehci-platform.0: irq 48, io mem 0x1b000000
[    4.912468] ehci-platform ehci-platform.0: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
[    4.919764] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    4.923881] hub 1-0:1.0: 1 port detected
[    4.928158] ehci-platform ehci-platform.1: EHCI Host Controller
[    4.934225] ehci-platform ehci-platform.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
[    4.944516] ehci-platform ehci-platform.1: TX-TX IDP fix enabled
[    4.950621] ehci-platform ehci-platform.1: irq 49, io mem 0x1b400000
[    4.982456] ehci-platform ehci-platform.1: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
[    4.989731] hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    4.993836] hub 2-0:1.0: 1 port detected
[    4.998481] kmodloader: done loading kernel modules from /etc/modules-boot.d/*
[    5.016186] init: - preinit -
[    5.805839] eth1: link up (1000Mbps/Full duplex)
[    5.842959] random: procd: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[    9.126539] jffs2: notice: (446) jffs2_build_xattr_subsystem: complete building xattr subsystem, 0 of xdatum (0 unchecked, 0 orphan) and 0 of xref (0 dead, 0 orphan) found.
[    9.145410] mount_root: switching to jffs2 overlay
[    9.176086] urandom-seed: Seeding with /etc/urandom.seed
[    9.381304] eth1: link down
[    9.399382] procd: - early -
[    9.402382] procd: - watchdog -
[   10.006708] procd: - watchdog -
[   10.010116] procd: - ubus -
[   10.126429] random: ubusd: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[   10.135708] random: ubusd: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[   10.143113] random: ubusd: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[   10.150368] procd: - init -
[   10.755458] kmodloader: loading kernel modules from /etc/modules.d/*
[   10.766274] ip6_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
[   10.781695] Loading modules backported from Linux version wt-2017-11-01-0-gfe248fc2c180
[   10.789849] Backport generated by backports.git v4.14-rc2-1-31-g86cf0e5d
[   10.799001] ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
[   10.811119] nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (2048 buckets, 8192 max)
[   10.860984] xt_time: kernel timezone is -0000
[   10.909994] PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
[   10.916385] NET: Registered protocol family 24
[   11.147868] ath10k 4.13 driver, optimized for CT firmware, probing pci device: 0x3c.
[   11.157003] PCI: Enabling device 0000:01:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)
[   11.162944] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: pci irq legacy oper_irq_mode 1 irq_mode 0 reset_mode 0
[   11.446820] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/fwcfg-pci-0000:01:00.0.txt failed with error -2
[   11.457529] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   11.528654] firmware ath10k!fwcfg-pci-0000:01:00.0.txt: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   11.537834] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/pre-cal-pci-0000:01:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[   11.548715] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   11.690075] firmware ath10k!pre-cal-pci-0000:01:00.0.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   11.699411] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/cal-pci-0000:01:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[   11.709936] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   12.308847] firmware ath10k!cal-pci-0000:01:00.0.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   12.318709] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/ct-firmware-5.bin failed with error -2
[   12.329857] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   12.483086] firmware ath10k!QCA988X!hw2.0!ct-firmware-5.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   12.492687] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/ct-firmware-2.bin failed with error -2
[   12.503827] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   12.636022] firmware ath10k!QCA988X!hw2.0!ct-firmware-2.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   12.645631] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/firmware-6.bin failed with error -2
[   12.656508] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   12.788483] firmware ath10k!QCA988X!hw2.0!firmware-6.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   13.275219] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: qca988x hw2.0 target 0x4100016c chip_id 0x043202ff sub 0000:0000
[   13.284611] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: kconfig debug 0 debugfs 1 tracing 0 dfs 1 testmode 0
[   13.297662] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: firmware ver 10.2.4-1.0-00037 api 5 features no-p2p,raw-mode,mfp,allows-mesh-bcast crc32 a4a52adb
[   13.342688] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/board-2.bin failed with error -2
[   13.353297] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   13.422996] firmware ath10k!QCA988X!hw2.0!board-2.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   13.433716] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: board_file api 1 bmi_id N/A crc32 bebc7c08
[   13.553250] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: otp calibration failed: 2
[   13.559176] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: failed to run otp: -22 (download-cal-data)
[   13.566596] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: could not init core (-22)
[   13.572600] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: could not probe fw (-22)
[   13.615310] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x0
[   13.615316] ath: EEPROM indicates default country code should be used
[   13.615319] ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
[   13.615332] ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x3a
[   13.615336] ath: Country alpha2 being used: US
[   13.615339] ath: Regpair used: 0x3a
[   13.631658] ieee80211 phy1: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
[   13.634824] ieee80211 phy1: Atheros AR9550 Rev:0 mem=0xb8100000, irq=47
[   13.719634] kmodloader: done loading kernel modules from /etc/modules.d/*
[   14.603326] urandom_read: 5 callbacks suppressed
[   14.603332] random: jshn: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[   23.444238] eth1: link up (1000Mbps/Full duplex)
[   23.448998] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready
[   23.504583] br-lan: port 1(eth1.1) entered blocking state
[   23.510065] br-lan: port 1(eth1.1) entered disabled state
[   23.515910] device eth1.1 entered promiscuous mode
[   23.520772] device eth1 entered promiscuous mode
[   23.605687] br-lan: port 1(eth1.1) entered blocking state
[   23.611169] br-lan: port 1(eth1.1) entered forwarding state
[   23.616986] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): br-lan: link is not ready
[   23.706807] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[   23.739707] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0.2: link is not ready
[   24.632500] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth1: link becomes ready
[   24.639242] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): br-lan: link becomes ready
[   24.818244] eth0: link up (1000Mbps/Full duplex)
[   24.892599] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
[   24.932530] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0.2: link becomes ready
[   25.141580] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x807c
[   25.145692] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a country code
[   25.151868] ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
[   25.157276] ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x3a
[   25.162129] ath: Country alpha2 being used: CA
[   25.166645] ath: Regpair used: 0x3a
[   25.170182] ath: regdomain 0x807c dynamically updated by user
[   27.807592] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready
[   28.103861] br-lan: port 2(wlan1) entered blocking state
[   28.109261] br-lan: port 2(wlan1) entered disabled state
[   28.115100] device wlan1 entered promiscuous mode
[   35.539694] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan1: link becomes ready
[   35.546384] br-lan: port 2(wlan1) entered blocking state
[   35.551773] br-lan: port 2(wlan1) entered forwarding state
[   62.489116] random: crng init done

Unfortunately, there is more errors. The details are vague, but it always says the return code is -2. What does it mean? The file cannot be found? Also, I still have the message that the PCIe module hasn't loaded anything... Isn't that weird?

Thanks

I do not really understand the pci messages, but here the kernel has found the WiFi card, so I would think that part is ok:

Then regarding the ath10k firmware... I didn't really think this through before my previous answer. You need 3 files to get the card to work ok:

  1. cal-pci-0000:01:00.0.bin which is calibration data unique to your individual card. This is usually extracted from the flash when OpenWrt boots, you would preferably get it from the old/broken unit. Without the correct version of this file (i.e. by extracting the wrong data from your current unit) ath10k should start ok, but it will probably not get very good wifi signal.
  2. firmware*.bin, this is from the ath10k-firmware-qca988x* package. The line: indicates this has been found.
  3. board*.bin - which is for the wifi-card / AP model. Probably ok:

Then the real error is here.

For some reason the calibration upload fails. What does ls -laR /lib/firmware/ath10k output on your device? Are any of the above mentioned files missing or wrong version etc?

As I mentioned before, try the snapshot of the ath79 firmware, I believe it should contain the correct versions of everything, except the correct cal-pci-0000:01:00.0.bin file.

From what the "ls" command returned, it seems the calibration bin file is missing:

root@ArcherC7:~# ls -laR /lib/firmware/ath10k
/lib/firmware/ath10k:
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root             0 Oct 14 13:42 .
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root             0 Oct 14 13:42 ..
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root             0 Oct 14 13:42 QCA988X

/lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA988X:
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root             0 Oct 14 13:42 .
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root             0 Oct 14 13:42 ..
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root             0 Oct 14 13:42 hw2.0

/lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0:
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root             0 Oct 14 13:42 .
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root             0 Oct 14 13:42 ..
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          2116 Oct  8 09:53 board.bin
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        248108 Oct  8 09:53 firmware-5.bin

Why is it missing though? Do I need to install another package? Can I download it from someone who as an Archer C7 v2? I'm gonna try the snapshot version next weekend if we can't find a way to solve this.

The data you need would be in the ART partition of the C7V2 that the card was removed from.

For regular wifi cards used in a desktop or laptop the calibration data is in an EEPROM on the card but I think the TP-Link cards which are "permanently" part of the router saved the cost of the EEPROM, by placing it in the main flash chip.

1 Like

Well the current C7V2 is unusable, I don't have the tools nor the expertise to debug a bricked device. What are my options? @frol told that I could still use a "wrong" calibration bin file, but the WiFi signal wouldn't be optimal. Maybe I could try with that first?

Regarding the snapshot firmware, even if I install it, wouldn't I be still blocked by the fact that I still don't have that file?

Can we generate a calibration file? And most importantly, why don't I have a calibration file onto my router? To my understanding, it seems @frol was implying the calibration file should be there, provided by the OpenWrt Firmware itself. Isn't that right?

Thanks for the help!

The ART partition is written to flash during final test of each unit based on calibration data for that specific unit. Unless you have quite an RF lab and have licensed Qualcomm Atheros software (buying a few reels of a couple thousand SoCs is a good start), you can't "try this at home".

A normal install of OpenWrt on virtually all devices leaves the ART partition untouched. OpenWrt doesn't "install" it in any way.

It's not on your router, because the ART partition for the "borrowed" card is in the flash of the donor router. I would need to be read from there, then written onto the flash of the C7v1 (after, of course, backing up its ART that matches its card).

1 Like

As @jeff says, tha calibration data is in the ART partition (not in the filesystem of the router). When OpenWrt boots, the calibration data is extracted from the ART partition and placed in the cal-pci file. Probably, since your V1 router did not originally have the 5GHz radio, the scripts to extract the data from the ART partition are missing or not working (I'm speculating here).

What I said previously was that OpenWrt ath10k driver should start ok, even with the wrong calibration data. But you may or may not (probably not..) end up with usable 5GHz WiFi. The get 5 GHz WiFi, you need to extract the calibration data from the broken V2 unit.

We are talking about two rather different wireless chipsets here, QCA9880-AR1A in case of the c7-v1 (a chipset that's apparently so broken that QCA and everyone else knowing the hardware doesn't want to support) and QCA9880-BR4A in case of the c7-v2. ART is device specific by definition, but trying to use calibration data for a 'completely' different chipset is quite some step further.

Ahh, right.. Maybe quite futile yes. I guess @davewut best bet would be to try to get to the flash of the broken unit and hope the calibration data is still there.

guys this isnt supposed to be ART problem. otp cal is loaded from file, and sometime ago it was decided to be unnecessary, thus dropped from usage, so only board and firmware file are loaded. @davewut which version of openwrt are you running? i'd suggest to try build your own if it's one of 18.xx releases

I'm using this version: OpenWrt 18.06.4 r7808-ef686b7292 / LuCI openwrt-18.06 branch (git-19.170.32094-4d6d8bc).

I'm still having the error that look to be related to the calibration data:

[    0.000000] Linux version 4.9.184 (buildbot@2ccc8102e0c3) (gcc version 7.3.0 (OpenWrt GCC 7.3.0 r7808-ef686b7292) ) #0 Thu Jun 27 12:18:52 2019
[    0.000000] MyLoader: sysp=e5ede3a7, boardp=952505af, parts=fde76865
[    0.000000] bootconsole [early0] enabled
[    0.000000] CPU0 revision is: 00019750 (MIPS 74Kc)
[    0.000000] SoC: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9558 ver 1 rev 0
[    0.000000] Determined physical RAM map:
[    0.000000]  memory: 08000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
[    0.000000] Initrd not found or empty - disabling initrd
[    0.000000] Primary instruction cache 64kB, VIPT, 4-way, linesize 32 bytes.
[    0.000000] Primary data cache 32kB, 4-way, VIPT, cache aliases, linesize 32 bytes
[    0.000000] Zone ranges:
[    0.000000]   Normal   [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000007ffffff]
[    0.000000] Movable zone start for each node
[    0.000000] Early memory node ranges
[    0.000000]   node   0: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000007ffffff]
[    0.000000] Initmem setup node 0 [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000007ffffff]
[    0.000000] On node 0 totalpages: 32768
[    0.000000] free_area_init_node: node 0, pgdat 8044c434, node_mem_map 81000020
[    0.000000]   Normal zone: 256 pages used for memmap
[    0.000000]   Normal zone: 0 pages reserved
[    0.000000]   Normal zone: 32768 pages, LIFO batch:7
[    0.000000] pcpu-alloc: s0 r0 d32768 u32768 alloc=1*32768
[    0.000000] pcpu-alloc: [0] 0 
[    0.000000] Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on.  Total pages: 32512
[    0.000000] Kernel command line:  board=ARCHER-C7  console=ttyS0,115200 rootfstype=squashfs noinitrd
[    0.000000] PID hash table entries: 512 (order: -1, 2048 bytes)
[    0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
[    0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
[    0.000000] Writing ErrCtl register=00000000
[    0.000000] Readback ErrCtl register=00000000
[    0.000000] Memory: 124940K/131072K available (3393K kernel code, 178K rwdata, 448K rodata, 324K init, 211K bss, 6132K reserved, 0K cma-reserved)
[    0.000000] SLUB: HWalign=32, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=1, Nodes=1
[    0.000000] NR_IRQS:51
[    0.000000] Clocks: CPU:720.000MHz, DDR:600.000MHz, AHB:200.000MHz, Ref:40.000MHz
[    0.000000] clocksource: MIPS: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 5309056796 ns
[    0.000008] sched_clock: 32 bits at 360MHz, resolution 2ns, wraps every 5965232126ns
[    0.008300] Calibrating delay loop... 358.80 BogoMIPS (lpj=1794048)
[    0.071195] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
[    0.076194] Mount-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.083239] Mountpoint-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.092905] clocksource: jiffies: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 19112604462750000 ns
[    0.103402] futex hash table entries: 256 (order: -1, 3072 bytes)
[    0.110878] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[    0.116805] MIPS: machine is TP-LINK Archer C7
[    0.124615] ar724x-pci ar724x-pci.0: PCIe link is down
[    0.130119] registering PCI controller with io_map_base unset
[    0.136338] registering PCI controller with io_map_base unset
[    0.631925] PCI host bridge to bus 0000:00
[    0.636328] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [mem 0x10000000-0x11ffffff]
[    0.643642] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [io  0x0000]
[    0.649575] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [??? 0x00000000 flags 0x0]
[    0.656789] pci_bus 0000:00: No busn resource found for root bus, will use [bus 00-ff]
[    0.665232] pci_bus 0000:00: busn_res: [bus 00-ff] end is updated to 00
[    0.665335] PCI host bridge to bus 0000:01
[    0.669692] pci_bus 0000:01: root bus resource [mem 0x12000000-0x13ffffff]
[    0.677017] pci_bus 0000:01: root bus resource [io  0x0001]
[    0.682937] pci_bus 0000:01: root bus resource [??? 0x00000000 flags 0x0]
[    0.690162] pci_bus 0000:01: No busn resource found for root bus, will use [bus 01-ff]
[    0.698608] pci 0000:01:00.0: [168c:003c] type 00 class 0x028000
[    0.698646] pci 0000:01:00.0: reg 0x10: [mem 0x00000000-0x001fffff 64bit]
[    0.698694] pci 0000:01:00.0: reg 0x30: [mem 0x00000000-0x0000ffff pref]
[    0.698761] pci 0000:01:00.0: supports D1 D2
[    0.698928] pci_bus 0000:01: busn_res: [bus 01-ff] end is updated to 01
[    0.698951] pci 0000:01:00.0: BAR 0: assigned [mem 0x12000000-0x121fffff 64bit]
[    0.706767] pci 0000:01:00.0: BAR 6: assigned [mem 0x12200000-0x1220ffff pref]
[    0.714454] pci 0000:01:00.0: using irq 41 for pin 1
[    0.722423] clocksource: Switched to clocksource MIPS
[    0.728659] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[    0.734097] TCP established hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.741517] TCP bind hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.748322] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 1024)
[    0.755162] UDP hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.761390] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.768295] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[    0.772990] PCI: CLS 0 bytes, default 32
[    0.775242] Crashlog allocated RAM at address 0x3f00000
[    0.781669] workingset: timestamp_bits=30 max_order=15 bucket_order=0
[    0.794317] squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher
[    0.800517] jffs2: version 2.2 (NAND) (SUMMARY) (LZMA) (RTIME) (CMODE_PRIORITY) (c) 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc.
[    0.818635] io scheduler noop registered
[    0.822838] io scheduler deadline registered (default)
[    0.828647] Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 16 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
[    0.837593] console [ttyS0] disabled
[    0.861468] serial8250.0: ttyS0 at MMIO 0x18020000 (irq = 11, base_baud = 2500000) is a 16550A
[    0.870653] console [ttyS0] enabled
[    0.878071] bootconsole [early0] disabled
[    0.891376] m25p80 spi0.0: found s25fl064k, expected m25p80
[    0.908880] m25p80 spi0.0: s25fl064k (8192 Kbytes)
[    0.914225] 5 tp-link partitions found on MTD device spi0.0
[    0.919877] Creating 5 MTD partitions on "spi0.0":
[    0.924766] 0x000000000000-0x000000020000 : "u-boot"
[    0.931299] 0x000000020000-0x000000170910 : "kernel"
[    0.937988] 0x000000170910-0x0000007f0000 : "rootfs"
[    0.944334] mtd: device 2 (rootfs) set to be root filesystem
[    0.950116] 1 squashfs-split partitions found on MTD device rootfs
[    0.956430] 0x0000003c0000-0x0000007f0000 : "rootfs_data"
[    0.963653] 0x0000007f0000-0x000000800000 : "art"
[    0.970044] 0x000000020000-0x0000007f0000 : "firmware"
[    0.977704] libphy: Fixed MDIO Bus: probed
[    0.994834] switch0: Atheros AR8327 rev. 4 switch registered on ag71xx-mdio.0
[    1.691219] libphy: ag71xx_mdio: probed
[    2.323930] ag71xx ag71xx.0: connected to PHY at ag71xx-mdio.0:00 [uid=004dd034, driver=Atheros AR8216/AR8236/AR8316]
[    2.335281] eth0: Atheros AG71xx at 0xb9000000, irq 4, mode:RGMII
[    2.612419] random: fast init done
[    2.964055] eth1: Atheros AG71xx at 0xba000000, irq 5, mode:SGMII
[    2.972021] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[    2.980053] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[    2.984656] bridge: filtering via arp/ip/ip6tables is no longer available by default. Update your scripts to load br_netfilter if you need this.
[    2.997889] 8021q: 802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8
[    3.003615] hctosys: unable to open rtc device (rtc0)
[    3.014649] VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly on device 31:2.
[    3.023005] Freeing unused kernel memory: 324K
[    3.027511] This architecture does not have kernel memory protection.
[    3.799034] init: Console is alive
[    3.802737] init: - watchdog -
[    4.770498] kmodloader: loading kernel modules from /etc/modules-boot.d/*
[    4.825260] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[    4.830924] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[    4.836426] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[    4.845834] ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Host Controller (EHCI) Driver
[    4.853729] ehci-platform: EHCI generic platform driver
[    4.859105] ehci-platform ehci-platform.0: EHCI Host Controller
[    4.865172] ehci-platform ehci-platform.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
[    4.875454] ehci-platform ehci-platform.0: TX-TX IDP fix enabled
[    4.881555] ehci-platform ehci-platform.0: irq 48, io mem 0x1b000000
[    4.912455] ehci-platform ehci-platform.0: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
[    4.919738] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    4.923849] hub 1-0:1.0: 1 port detected
[    4.928128] ehci-platform ehci-platform.1: EHCI Host Controller
[    4.934195] ehci-platform ehci-platform.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
[    4.944479] ehci-platform ehci-platform.1: TX-TX IDP fix enabled
[    4.950583] ehci-platform ehci-platform.1: irq 49, io mem 0x1b400000
[    4.982448] ehci-platform ehci-platform.1: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
[    4.989724] hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    4.993832] hub 2-0:1.0: 1 port detected
[    4.998476] kmodloader: done loading kernel modules from /etc/modules-boot.d/*
[    5.016185] init: - preinit -
[    5.807153] eth1: link up (1000Mbps/Full duplex)
[    5.845453] random: procd: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[    9.122794] jffs2: notice: (445) jffs2_build_xattr_subsystem: complete building xattr subsystem, 0 of xdatum (0 unchecked, 0 orphan) and 0 of xref (0 dead, 0 orphan) found.
[    9.140695] mount_root: switching to jffs2 overlay
[    9.169131] urandom-seed: Seeding with /etc/urandom.seed
[    9.373061] eth1: link down
[    9.390792] procd: - early -
[    9.393854] procd: - watchdog -
[    9.997606] procd: - watchdog -
[   10.001006] procd: - ubus -
[   10.117038] random: ubusd: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[   10.125827] random: ubusd: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[   10.133238] random: ubusd: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[   10.140496] procd: - init -
[   10.733253] kmodloader: loading kernel modules from /etc/modules.d/*
[   10.743496] ip6_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
[   10.758892] Loading modules backported from Linux version wt-2017-11-01-0-gfe248fc2c180
[   10.767060] Backport generated by backports.git v4.14-rc2-1-31-g86cf0e5d
[   10.776290] ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
[   10.788456] nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (2048 buckets, 8192 max)
[   10.837137] xt_time: kernel timezone is -0000
[   10.885255] PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
[   10.891572] NET: Registered protocol family 24
[   11.149928] ath10k 4.13 driver, optimized for CT firmware, probing pci device: 0x3c.
[   11.159036] PCI: Enabling device 0000:01:00.0 (0000 -> 0002)
[   11.164970] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: pci irq legacy oper_irq_mode 1 irq_mode 0 reset_mode 0
[   11.446574] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/fwcfg-pci-0000:01:00.0.txt failed with error -2
[   11.457283] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   11.535008] firmware ath10k!fwcfg-pci-0000:01:00.0.txt: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   11.544168] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/pre-cal-pci-0000:01:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[   11.555042] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   12.133737] firmware ath10k!pre-cal-pci-0000:01:00.0.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   12.143093] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/cal-pci-0000:01:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[   12.153622] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   12.309171] firmware ath10k!cal-pci-0000:01:00.0.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   12.319118] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/ct-firmware-5.bin failed with error -2
[   12.330268] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   12.484864] firmware ath10k!QCA988X!hw2.0!ct-firmware-5.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   12.494464] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/ct-firmware-2.bin failed with error -2
[   12.505602] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   12.636931] firmware ath10k!QCA988X!hw2.0!ct-firmware-2.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   12.646539] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/firmware-6.bin failed with error -2
[   12.657420] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   12.788315] firmware ath10k!QCA988X!hw2.0!firmware-6.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   12.797653] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/firmware-5.bin failed with error -2
[   12.808533] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   12.941169] firmware ath10k!QCA988X!hw2.0!firmware-5.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   12.950507] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/firmware-4.bin failed with error -2
[   12.961389] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   13.092918] firmware ath10k!QCA988X!hw2.0!firmware-4.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   13.102211] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/firmware-3.bin failed with error -2
[   13.113099] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   13.244986] firmware ath10k!QCA988X!hw2.0!firmware-3.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   13.668451] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: qca988x hw2.0 target 0x4100016c chip_id 0x043202ff sub 0000:0000
[   13.677839] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: kconfig debug 0 debugfs 1 tracing 0 dfs 1 testmode 0
[   13.690182] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: firmware ver 10.1-ct-8x-__fW-021-4fa9f30 api 2 features wmi-10.x,has-wmi-mgmt-tx,txstatus-noack,wmi-10.x-CT,ratemask-CT,get-temp-CT,tx-rc-CT,cust-stats-CT crc32 ca41d135
[   13.736484] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/board-2.bin failed with error -2
[   13.747094] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   13.815875] firmware ath10k!QCA988X!hw2.0!board-2.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   13.826616] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: board_file api 1 bmi_id N/A crc32 bebc7c08
[   13.892486] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: otp calibration failed: 2
[   13.898413] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: failed to run otp: -22 (download-cal-data)
[   13.905846] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: could not init core (-22)
[   13.911836] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: could not probe fw (-22)
[   13.983865] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x0
[   13.983872] ath: EEPROM indicates default country code should be used
[   13.983875] ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
[   13.983887] ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x3a
[   13.983891] ath: Country alpha2 being used: US
[   13.983895] ath: Regpair used: 0x3a
[   14.000216] ieee80211 phy1: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
[   14.003373] ieee80211 phy1: Atheros AR9550 Rev:0 mem=0xb8100000, irq=47
[   14.088062] kmodloader: done loading kernel modules from /etc/modules.d/*
[   14.973299] urandom_read: 5 callbacks suppressed
[   14.973306] random: jshn: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[   23.885292] eth1: link up (1000Mbps/Full duplex)
[   23.890053] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready
[   23.947307] br-lan: port 1(eth1.1) entered blocking state
[   23.952828] br-lan: port 1(eth1.1) entered disabled state
[   23.958633] device eth1.1 entered promiscuous mode
[   23.963540] device eth1 entered promiscuous mode
[   24.043605] br-lan: port 1(eth1.1) entered blocking state
[   24.049089] br-lan: port 1(eth1.1) entered forwarding state
[   24.054924] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): br-lan: link is not ready
[   24.123808] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[   24.159914] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0.2: link is not ready
[   25.312487] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth1: link becomes ready
[   25.319232] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): br-lan: link becomes ready
[   25.417598] eth0: link up (1000Mbps/Full duplex)
[   25.757285] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
[   25.800826] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0.2: link becomes ready
[   25.971120] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x807c
[   25.975230] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a country code
[   25.981405] ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
[   25.986809] ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x3a
[   25.991666] ath: Country alpha2 being used: CA
[   25.996183] ath: Regpair used: 0x3a
[   25.999719] ath: regdomain 0x807c dynamically updated by user
[   30.070407] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan1: link is not ready
[   30.225365] br-lan: port 2(wlan1) entered blocking state
[   30.230762] br-lan: port 2(wlan1) entered disabled state
[   30.236524] device wlan1 entered promiscuous mode
[   37.818399] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan1: link becomes ready
[   37.825095] br-lan: port 2(wlan1) entered blocking state
[   37.830485] br-lan: port 2(wlan1) entered forwarding state
[   63.714734] random: crng init done

So you suggest I build my own version of the firmware? Any reasons why? Because I could switch a build flag that would enable or disable something that might make it work?

because you could choose different code revision than the default one for that specific release. meanwhile, you could try flashing this image https://www116.zippyshare.com/v/GhQWUeKH/file.html to verify card works.
i was able to use both QCA9862 and QCA9880 v2 cards with it

Isn't what @frol suggested earlier in the thread? He pasted a link to download a snapshot with the ath79 platform. I'm gonna try it this weekend and I'll come back to you with an update.

Thanks!

snapshots don't have GUI, and change on a daily basis. so it's entirely possible you end up with another issue. this image was based on snapshot about month ago, built with luci(GUI) and most important is proven to initialise cards

Oh! I wasn't aware the snapshot builds weren't built with the GUI. Good, then I will be trying your snapshot this weekend. Thanks!

Hi, installing the snapshot didn't helped:

[    0.000000] Linux version 4.19.74 (whtw46ww4@I5576) (gcc version 7.4.0 (OpenWrt GCC 7.4.0 r11086-4fc0a61)) #0 Sat Sep 21 13:12:45 2019
[    0.000000] bootconsole [early0] enabled
[    0.000000] CPU0 revision is: 00019750 (MIPS 74Kc)
[    0.000000] MIPS: machine is TP-Link Archer C7 v1
[    0.000000] SoC: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9558 ver 1 rev 0
[    0.000000] Determined physical RAM map:
[    0.000000]  memory: 08000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
[    0.000000] Initrd not found or empty - disabling initrd
[    0.000000] Primary instruction cache 64kB, VIPT, 4-way, linesize 32 bytes.
[    0.000000] Primary data cache 32kB, 4-way, VIPT, cache aliases, linesize 32 bytes
[    0.000000] Zone ranges:
[    0.000000]   Normal   [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000007ffffff]
[    0.000000] Movable zone start for each node
[    0.000000] Early memory node ranges
[    0.000000]   node   0: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000007ffffff]
[    0.000000] Initmem setup node 0 [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000007ffffff]
[    0.000000] On node 0 totalpages: 32768
[    0.000000]   Normal zone: 288 pages used for memmap
[    0.000000]   Normal zone: 0 pages reserved
[    0.000000]   Normal zone: 32768 pages, LIFO batch:7
[    0.000000] random: get_random_bytes called from start_kernel+0x98/0x4a8 with crng_init=0
[    0.000000] pcpu-alloc: s0 r0 d32768 u32768 alloc=1*32768
[    0.000000] pcpu-alloc: [0] 0 
[    0.000000] Built 1 zonelists, mobility grouping on.  Total pages: 32480
[    0.000000] Kernel command line: console=ttyS0,115200n8 rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2
[    0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
[    0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
[    0.000000] Writing ErrCtl register=00000000
[    0.000000] Readback ErrCtl register=00000000
[    0.000000] Memory: 122488K/131072K available (4272K kernel code, 172K rwdata, 1008K rodata, 1196K init, 207K bss, 8584K reserved, 0K cma-reserved)
[    0.000000] SLUB: HWalign=32, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=1, Nodes=1
[    0.000000] NR_IRQS: 51
[    0.000000] CPU clock: 720.000 MHz
[    0.000000] clocksource: MIPS: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 5309056796 ns
[    0.000007] sched_clock: 32 bits at 360MHz, resolution 2ns, wraps every 5965232126ns
[    0.008292] Calibrating delay loop... 358.80 BogoMIPS (lpj=1794048)
[    0.074984] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
[    0.080100] Mount-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.087136] Mountpoint-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.098950] clocksource: jiffies: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 19112604462750000 ns
[    0.109452] futex hash table entries: 256 (order: -1, 3072 bytes)
[    0.116049] pinctrl core: initialized pinctrl subsystem
[    0.122409] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[    0.134118] PCI host bridge /ahb/pcie-controller@18250000 ranges:
[    0.140608]  MEM 0x0000000012000000..0x0000000013ffffff
[    0.146199]   IO 0x0000000000000001..0x0000000000000001
[    0.169144] PCI host bridge to bus 0000:00
[    0.173510] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [mem 0x12000000-0x13ffffff]
[    0.180867] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [io  0x0001]
[    0.186793] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [??? 0x00000000 flags 0x0]
[    0.194020] pci_bus 0000:00: No busn resource found for root bus, will use [bus 00-ff]
[    0.202477] pci 0000:00:00.0: [168c:003c] type 00 class 0x028000
[    0.202531] pci 0000:00:00.0: reg 0x10: [mem 0x00000000-0x001fffff 64bit]
[    0.202586] pci 0000:00:00.0: reg 0x30: [mem 0x00000000-0x0000ffff pref]
[    0.202659] pci 0000:00:00.0: supports D1 D2
[    0.203682] pci_bus 0000:00: busn_res: [bus 00-ff] end is updated to 00
[    0.203707] pci 0000:00:00.0: BAR 0: assigned [mem 0x12000000-0x121fffff 64bit]
[    0.211532] pci 0000:00:00.0: BAR 6: assigned [mem 0x12200000-0x1220ffff pref]
[    0.222027] clocksource: Switched to clocksource MIPS
[    0.228354] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[    0.233729] tcp_listen_portaddr_hash hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.241918] TCP established hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.249378] TCP bind hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.256157] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 1024)
[    0.263030] UDP hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.269258] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.276281] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[    0.280951] PCI: CLS 0 bytes, default 32
[    0.283541] Crashlog allocated RAM at address 0x3f00000
[    0.290262] workingset: timestamp_bits=14 max_order=15 bucket_order=1
[    0.302745] squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher
[    0.308949] jffs2: version 2.2 (NAND) (SUMMARY) (LZMA) (RTIME) (CMODE_PRIORITY) (c) 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc.
[    0.330063] io scheduler noop registered
[    0.334276] io scheduler deadline registered (default)
[    0.339973] ar7200-usb-phy 18030000.usb-phy0: phy reset is missing
[    0.346638] ar7200-usb-phy 18030010.usb-phy1: phy reset is missing
[    0.354847] pinctrl-single 1804002c.pinmux: 544 pins, size 68
[    0.361495] gpio-export gpio-export: 2 gpio(s) exported
[    0.367842] Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 1 ports, IRQ sharing disabled
[    0.375237] console [ttyS0] disabled
[    0.379063] 18020000.uart: ttyS0 at MMIO 0x18020000 (irq = 9, base_baud = 2500000) is a 16550A
[    0.388285] console [ttyS0] enabled
[    0.395712] bootconsole [early0] disabled
[    0.421901] m25p80 spi0.0: s25fl064k (8192 Kbytes)
[    0.426840] 3 fixed-partitions partitions found on MTD device spi0.0
[    0.433300] Creating 3 MTD partitions on "spi0.0":
[    0.438177] 0x000000000000-0x000000020000 : "u-boot"
[    0.443919] 0x000000020000-0x0000007f0000 : "firmware"
[    0.451704] 2 tplink-fw partitions found on MTD device firmware
[    0.457754] Creating 2 MTD partitions on "firmware":
[    0.462820] 0x000000000000-0x0000001b7083 : "kernel"
[    0.468522] 0x0000001b7084-0x0000007d0000 : "rootfs"
[    0.474208] mtd: device 3 (rootfs) set to be root filesystem
[    0.481224] 1 squashfs-split partitions found on MTD device rootfs
[    0.487550] 0x000000780000-0x0000007d0000 : "rootfs_data"
[    0.493729] 0x0000007f0000-0x000000800000 : "art"
[    0.500100] libphy: Fixed MDIO Bus: probed
[    0.853818] libphy: ag71xx_mdio: probed
[    0.860365] switch0: Atheros AR8327 rev. 4 switch registered on mdio-bus.0
[    1.511341] ag71xx 19000000.eth: connected to PHY at mdio-bus.0:00 [uid=004dd034, driver=Atheros AR8216/AR8236/AR8316]
[    1.522758] eth0: Atheros AG71xx at 0xb9000000, irq 4, mode: rgmii
[    1.863699] ag71xx 1a000000.eth: connected to PHY at fixed-0:00 [uid=00000000, driver=Generic PHY]
[    1.873360] eth1: Atheros AG71xx at 0xba000000, irq 5, mode: sgmii
[    1.881883] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[    1.891101] Segment Routing with IPv6
[    1.894971] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[    1.899545] 8021q: 802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8
[    1.913389] VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly on device 31:3.
[    1.924851] Freeing unused kernel memory: 1196K
[    1.929450] This architecture does not have kernel memory protection.
[    1.936007] Run /sbin/init as init process
[    2.562037] random: fast init done
[    2.841027] init: Console is alive
[    2.844723] init: - watchdog -
[    4.486539] kmodloader: loading kernel modules from /etc/modules-boot.d/*
[    4.536878] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[    4.542559] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[    4.548032] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[    4.558619] ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Host Controller (EHCI) Driver
[    4.566739] ehci-platform: EHCI generic platform driver
[    4.572314] ehci-platform 1b000000.usb: EHCI Host Controller
[    4.578106] ehci-platform 1b000000.usb: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
[    4.586149] ehci-platform 1b000000.usb: irq 14, io mem 0x1b000000
[    4.622094] ehci-platform 1b000000.usb: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
[    4.629113] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    4.633279] hub 1-0:1.0: 1 port detected
[    4.637817] ehci-platform 1b400000.usb: EHCI Host Controller
[    4.643639] ehci-platform 1b400000.usb: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
[    4.651668] ehci-platform 1b400000.usb: irq 15, io mem 0x1b400000
[    4.682052] ehci-platform 1b400000.usb: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
[    4.689094] hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    4.693256] hub 2-0:1.0: 1 port detected
[    4.698251] kmodloader: done loading kernel modules from /etc/modules-boot.d/*
[    4.715986] init: - preinit -
[    6.511727] random: jshn: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[    6.769013] random: jshn: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[    6.939533] random: jshn: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[    8.254487] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready
[    8.260475] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1.1: link is not ready
[    8.303654] urandom_read: 4 callbacks suppressed
[    8.303662] random: procd: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[    9.313158] eth1: link up (1000Mbps/Full duplex)
[    9.317871] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth1: link becomes ready
[    9.324561] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth1.1: link becomes ready
[   11.440710] mount_root: jffs2 not ready yet, using temporary tmpfs overlay
[   11.467793] urandom-seed: Seed file not found (/etc/urandom.seed)
[   11.566629] eth1: link down
[   11.586146] procd: - early -
[   11.589156] procd: - watchdog -
[   12.238420] procd: - watchdog -
[   12.241858] procd: - ubus -
[   12.319164] random: ubusd: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[   12.337742] random: ubusd: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[   12.345520] procd: - init -
[   12.993248] kmodloader: loading kernel modules from /etc/modules.d/*
[   13.042642] Loading modules backported from Linux version v5.3-rc4-0-gd45331b00ddb
[   13.050318] Backport generated by backports.git v5.3-rc4-1-0-g4ec72687
[   13.111697] urngd: v1.0.0 started.
[   13.122873] xt_time: kernel timezone is -0000
[   13.425740] ath10k_pci 0000:00:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[   13.432587] ath10k_pci 0000:00:00.0: pci irq legacy oper_irq_mode 1 irq_mode 0 reset_mode 0
[   13.474087] random: crng init done
[   13.893298] firmware ath10k!pre-cal-pci-0000:00:00.0.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   14.087213] firmware ath10k!cal-pci-0000:00:00.0.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   14.279263] firmware ath10k!QCA988X!hw2.0!firmware-6.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   14.294772] ath10k_pci 0000:00:00.0: qca988x hw2.0 target 0x4100016c chip_id 0x043202ff sub 0000:0000
[   14.304183] ath10k_pci 0000:00:00.0: kconfig debug 0 debugfs 1 tracing 0 dfs 1 testmode 1
[   14.317229] ath10k_pci 0000:00:00.0: firmware ver 10.2.4-1.0-00045 api 5 features no-p2p,raw-mode,mfp,allows-mesh-bcast crc32 ccbd5104
[   14.533879] firmware ath10k!QCA988X!hw2.0!board-2.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[   14.554471] ath10k_pci 0000:00:00.0: board_file api 1 bmi_id N/A crc32 bebc7c08
[   14.692095] ath10k_pci 0000:00:00.0: otp calibration failed: 2
[   14.698018] ath10k_pci 0000:00:00.0: failed to run otp: -22
[   14.703683] ath10k_pci 0000:00:00.0: could not init core (-22)
[   14.709691] ath10k_pci 0000:00:00.0: could not probe fw (-22)
[   14.772595] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x0
[   14.772602] ath: EEPROM indicates default country code should be used
[   14.772605] ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
[   14.772617] ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x3a
[   14.772622] ath: Country alpha2 being used: US
[   14.772625] ath: Regpair used: 0x3a
[   14.790536] ieee80211 phy1: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
[   14.791875] ieee80211 phy1: Atheros AR9550 Rev:0 mem=0xb8100000, irq=12
[   14.817534] kmodloader: done loading kernel modules from /etc/modules.d/*
[   31.159871] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready
[   31.166989] eth1: link up (1000Mbps/Full duplex)
[   31.171688] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth1: link becomes ready
[   31.195311] br-lan: port 1(eth1.1) entered blocking state
[   31.200822] br-lan: port 1(eth1.1) entered disabled state
[   31.206684] device eth1.1 entered promiscuous mode
[   31.211547] device eth1 entered promiscuous mode
[   31.248862] br-lan: port 1(eth1.1) entered blocking state
[   31.254382] br-lan: port 1(eth1.1) entered forwarding state
[   31.260183] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): br-lan: link is not ready
[   31.358776] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[   31.386249] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0.2: link is not ready
[   32.208264] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): br-lan: link becomes ready
[   32.833320] eth0: link up (1000Mbps/Full duplex)
[   32.838073] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
[   32.872246] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0.2: link becomes ready
[   38.564133] jffs2: notice: (1627) jffs2_build_xattr_subsystem: complete building xattr subsystem, 4 of xdatum (2 unchecked, 2 orphan) and 13 of xref (2 dead, 0 orphan) found.
[   39.163293] overlayfs: upper fs does not support tmpfile.

Same problem, calibration data is missing from what I can see from the kernel.log. So well, I guess there isn't much more to do right?

you could change /etc/modules.d/ath10k

ath10k_core

to

ath10k_core debug_mask=0xffffffff

and reboot, then post full output here

this image build works fine with Killer 1420 and WLE900VX cards