Problem with 2 Qualcomm Atheros QCA9880 cards (mini pc qotom Q350G4)

Hi,

I have a problem with detection of second Qualcomm Atheros QCA9880 802.11bgnac card on my OpenWrt 18.06.4 r7808-ef686b7292 router.
dmesg shows below errors.

[    7.084891] ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
[    7.091476] nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (65536 buckets, 262144 max)
[    7.102940] xt_time: kernel timezone is -0000
[    7.113383] PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
[    7.118005] NET: Registered protocol family 24
[    7.124755] pmd_set_huge: Cannot satisfy [mem 0xf7800000-0xf7a00000] with a huge-page mapping due to MTRR override.
[    7.135619] ath10k_pci 0000:05:00.0: pci irq msi oper_irq_mode 2 irq_mode 0 reset_mode 0
[    7.372897] ath10k_pci 0000:05:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/pre-cal-pci-0000:05:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[    7.383805] ath10k_pci 0000:05:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[    7.391232] firmware ath10k!pre-cal-pci-0000:05:00.0.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[    7.400448] ath10k_pci 0000:05:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/cal-pci-0000:05:00.0.bin failed with error -2
[    7.410989] ath10k_pci 0000:05:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[    7.418197] firmware ath10k!cal-pci-0000:05:00.0.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[    7.427546] ath10k_pci 0000:05:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/firmware-6.bin failed with error -2
[    7.438448] ath10k_pci 0000:05:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[    7.446144] firmware ath10k!QCA988X!hw2.0!firmware-6.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[    7.456303] ath10k_pci 0000:05:00.0: qca988x hw2.0 target 0x4100016c chip_id 0x043222ff sub 0000:0000
[    7.467644] ath10k_pci 0000:05:00.0: kconfig debug 0 debugfs 1 tracing 0 dfs 1 testmode 1
[    7.476883] ath10k_pci 0000:05:00.0: firmware ver 10.2.4-1.0-00037 api 5 features no-p2p,raw-mode,mfp,allows-mesh-bcast crc32 a4a52adb
[    7.521838] ath10k_pci 0000:05:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/board-2.bin failed with error -2
[    7.532515] ath10k_pci 0000:05:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[    7.540163] firmware ath10k!QCA988X!hw2.0!board-2.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[    7.549298] ath10k_pci 0000:05:00.0: board_file api 1 bmi_id N/A crc32 bebc7c08
[    8.686238] ath10k_pci 0000:05:00.0: htt-ver 2.1 wmi-op 5 htt-op 2 cal otp max-sta 128 raw 0 hwcrypto 1
[    8.801047] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x0
[    8.801050] ath: EEPROM indicates default country code should be used
[    8.801051] ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
[    8.801054] ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x3a
[    8.801056] ath: Country alpha2 being used: US
[    8.801057] ath: Regpair used: 0x3a
[    8.802679] kmodloader: done loading kernel modules from /etc/modules.d/*
[    9.176161] 8021q: adding VLAN 0 to HW filter on device eth0
[    9.182241] br-lan: port 1(eth0) entered blocking state
[    9.187638] br-lan: port 1(eth0) entered disabled state

My mini pc it's qotom Q350G4 (8GB RAM 64GB SSD + I5-4200U)
By the way first card works fine.

Any help, please ?

With ath10k drivers, you might be better off with either 19.07 or master.

19.07 had newer ath10k firmwares and drivers than the old 18.06. master has still newer stuff and has switched to ath10k-ct drivers (from the mainline drivers)

1 Like

Hi, thanks for info. Do you know what kind of 19.07 firmware suits to qotom Q350G4 mini computer ? Unfortunately there is no qotom brand on firmware download page for dev snapshot installation
Br
Tom

No idea.
I guess that something similar as you are using with 18.06.
Some generic x86_64 build?

Thanks a lot , I've found it ... silly me :slight_smile:

Hi,

I've checked all on latest build 19.07 but doesn't work. Basically wifi card doesn't work on first pci-mini port (SSD disk works fine). It's not recognized at all. On second pci-mini wifi works fine. I've checked all drivers too. So impossible to have two wifi cards recognized as radio0 and radio1. Only radio0 is on.
Any help, please ? Is possible that problem lies on BIOS ? or maybe I should build/compile system differently ?
Best Regards
Tom

Some of the mini PCs do not have a full PCIe bus wired to all the slots. The incomplete slots support only cards that are not really PCIe, such as LTE modems which are technically USB.

Does it work to put only one card in the first slot which didn't work?

1 Like

First mini pci slot works because ssd drive is connected to it and all system now boot from it. In my configuration with 2 wifi, Open WRT boots from sata-3 SSD and 2 wifi cards are connected to mini pci slots where wifi only on second mini pci slot is recognized and works.

As I said I've tested also sata3 ssd as OS and first mini pci with wifi card. That configuraion doesn't work.

I've also sent info to qotom support team, maybe new bios will help ?

Hi,
Problem solved. Basically I cannot use two wifi cards connected to mini pci ports on my mini computer. Qotom support sent me below picture. Anyway, thanks for all your help chaps.

Sadly mainboards that take two or more (mini-)PCIe cards (and >=2 ethernet cards) are rare, unless you go µATX or (expensive) server class Atom devices.

well, qotom mini pc is absolutely fine, small power consumption, fanless is exactly I need for home router ... but I would never thought that pci slots will be limited... Anyway I can live with that and not need any more modification. I hope that info will be usefull for other members who decide use qotom or similar mini boxes.

The laptop chipsets that most mini-PCs are built from have only a few PCIe port lanes available. Most of them get connected to the Ethernet chips.

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