Netgear R7800 19.07.04 wifi issues

A log time ago I gave up on both the ath10k-ct as well as the included ath10k firmware/drivers. The first one was never stable for me and the second one is always behind by a lot. I just use the latest firmware/board files from https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware/tree/master/QCA9984/hw1.0 . There was only a single issue in the last couple of years when they released a couple unstable firmwares in a span of a week or so, but they quickly stabilized it. Have been running 3.9.0.2-00131 for a while now and it is flawless.

thanks.

how can I install these drivers on the r7800 running 19.07.5?

And who is the developer of this driver/firmware that can develop such a stable driver? The manufacturer of the wifi chip?

My guess they are developed by QCA developers, the files are published there, and are periodically updated in Linux. That common Linux firmwares/drivers package is what OpenWrt is using. Here are the untested commands for you to get started. Make sure you first remove ath10k-ct and install ath10k and make sure it all works at that point. Then try this over a wired connection. Make sure you know how to recover the router if you make a mistake.

# Get new files
wget https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware/raw/master/QCA9984/hw1.0/board-2.bin
wget https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware/raw/master/QCA9984/hw1.0/3.9.0.2/firmware-5.bin_10.4-3.9.0.2-00131

# Make backups of what you have
mv /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9984/hw1.0/firmware-5.bin  /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9984/hw1.0/firmware-5.bin.orig
mv /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9984/hw1.0/board-2.bin  /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9984/hw1.0/board-2.bin

# Copy the new files
cp board-2.bin /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9984/hw1.0/board-2.bin
cp firmware-5.bin_10.4-3.9.0.2-00131 /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9984/hw1.0/firmware-5.bin  

# Reboot
reboot

# Check that the new firmware is active
msg | grep ath10k
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Thanks @fantom-x.

But I guess QCA4019 is a typo and it should be QCA9984, i.e.

# Get new files
wget https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware/raw/master/QCA9984/hw1.0/board-2.bin
wget https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware/raw/master/QCA9984/hw1.0/3.9.0.2/firmware-5.bin_10.4-3.9.0.2-00131

# Make backups of what you have
mv /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9984/hw1.0/firmware-5.bin  /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9984/hw1.0/firmware-5.bin.orig
mv /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9984/hw1.0/board-2.bin  /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9984/hw1.0/board-2.bin

# Copy the new files
cp board-2.bin /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9984/hw1.0/board-2.bin
cp firmware-5.bin_10.4-3.9.0.2-00131 /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9984/hw1.0/firmware-5.bin  

# Reboot
reboot

# Check that the new firmware is active
msg | grep ath10k

I wonder which ath10k firmware version is the base for the ct version included in 19.07.5 and what is different in the newest version.

dmesg running 19.07.5 says

firmware ver 10.4b-ct-9984-fW-13-795874169 

but how is this related to the QCA9984 10.4 versions (3.10-3.9.02) listed under
github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware/raw/master/QCA9984/hw1.0/?

The newest version on github is 3.9.02 and it is 2 month old, but the previous version 3.9.01 is two years old, so just from the timeline 19.07.5 could be based on 3.9.01 or 3.9.02. Are there any release notes to understand what has changed from 3.9.01 to 3.9.02?

Yeah, a copy/paste error. I just fixed it.

Blockquote
Any other idea?

I have wireless.radio0.log_level=1 running here and I see debug info in syslog. If it is not working for you, then something is wrong with your hostapd packages.

@fantom-x, once drivers are updated, should kmod-ath10k-ct be uninstalled and kmod-ath10k installed?

Yes, you have to uninstall ct and install the regular packages first via opkg. Only then you swap the files.

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@fantom-x, is this correct:

opkg --autoremove remove kmod-ath10k-ct
opkg --autoremove remove ath10k-firmware-qca9984-ct
opkg install kmod-ath10k
opkg install ath10k-firmware-qca9984

then

wget https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware/raw/master/QCA9984/hw1.0/board-2.bin
wget https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware/raw/master/QCA9984/hw1.0/3.9.0.2/firmware-5.bin_10.4-3.9.0.2-00131

(backup, if needed)
# Copy the new files
cp board-2.bin /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9984/hw1.0/board-2.bin
cp firmware-5.bin_10.4-3.9.0.2-00131 /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9984/hw1.0/firmware-5.bin 

Overwriting files on the router might crash it. That is why I renamed the files first. You also get a backup of those files just in case.

@fantom-x Oh, ok, got it. I changed my files with the backup step, just excluded it in the post. But, is the previous commands accurate to remove 2 CT and install non-CT replacement files?

It looks so, but if you search the forum you will find examples of a working solution. I would also reboot the router after.

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