Refusing to associate station: too many connected already (32)

[jrn]

Hi,

I tried to follow the instruction provided in this thread to bump the numbers of allowed peers to 100.

I am running OpenWRT 21.02.03 on a Linksys MR8300. I added one wifi on radio0 Qualcomm Atheros QCA9886 802.11nac and another one on for radio1 Qualcomm Atheros IPQ4019 802.11bgn. The third radio (radio2) Qualcomm Atheros IPQ4019 802.11nac is not in use.

One thing I noticed was, that despite having radio0 being listed as QCA9886, in the software tab the board and firmware for QCA9888 was installed. I kept going with QCA9888 and didn't switch to QCA9886. I installed CT-HTT for both radios: radio0 and radio1:

opkg remove ath10k-firmware-qca4019-ct  && opkg remove ath10k-firmware-qca9888-ct && opkg install ath10k-firmware-qca4019-ct-htt && opkg install ath10k-firmware-qca9888-ct-htt && opkg install kmod-ath10k-ct

I added the file fwcfg-pci-0000:01:00.0.txt to directory /lib/firmware/ath10k with the following content:

vdevs = 4
peers = 100
active_peers = 100
stations = 100
rate_ctrl_objs = 7
regdom = 840
#fwname = firmware-5-htt-mgt-b.bin
fwver = 5
nohwcrypt = 0
ct_sta_mode = 0
tx_desc = 2200
#max_nss = 3
tids = 256
skid_limit = 360
max_amsdus = 3

After a reboot I see the following output for dmesg | grep ath10k:

[   11.995503] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: vdevs  val: 4
[   11.995547] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: peers  val: 100
[   12.000285] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: active_peers  val: 100
[   12.005971] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: stations  val: 100
[   12.012596] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: rate_ctrl_objs  val: 7
[   12.018730] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: regdom  val: 840
[   12.025254] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: fwver  val: 5
[   12.031416] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: nohwcrypt  val: 0
[   12.037046] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: ct_sta_mode  val: 0
[   12.043135] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: tx_desc  val: 2200
[   12.049197] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: tids  val: 256
[   12.055475] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: skid_limit  val: 360
[   12.061291] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: max_amsdus  val: 3

However, after some time I am still seeing this warning:

[39808.870198] ath10k_ahb a000000.wifi: refusing to associate station: too many connected already (32)
[39817.744651] ath10k_ahb a000000.wifi: refusing to associate station: too many connected already (32)
[39830.545958] ath10k_ahb a000000.wifi: refusing to associate station: too many connected already (32)
[39849.241843] ath10k_ahb a000000.wifi: refusing to associate station: too many connected already (32)
[39867.952368] ath10k_ahb a000000.wifi: refusing to associate station: too many connected already (32)
...

Do you see anything obvious what I might have done wrong? Does it look strange to you as well that QCA9886 is listed in my wireless configuration but QCA9888 firmware was installed for the Linksys MR8300 OpenWRT image? I am not sure if this could already be the culprit. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts
Thanks a lot in advance!

[anon89577378]

You might go through the suggestions in this thread -

Ath10k-ct driver supports only 32 devices

Hi there, I have posted a question to the OpenWRT mailing list: http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/openwrt-devel/2019-July/017937.html In short, we have problems with ath10k driver on 5GHz when there are more than 60 (approximately) devices connected to the AP based on IPQ4019 SoC. We tried to use ath10k-ct driver and the firmware. We did not see any problems there, but we noticed that this driver only allows up to 32 devices to connect. Any reason for this? Can this be increased? BR, …

[jrn]

Hi @anon89577378 ,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, that is the thread I was referring to. I am not sure which step I did wrong. I’ll try again tomorrow but I am not quite sure what I am going to do different than the steps listed above. I tried to summarize the steps found in the thread you and I mentioned.
Again, thank you very much for you help!! Very much appreciated!!

[jrn]

I did try the steps again, mentioned in https://forum.openwrt.org/t/ath10k-ct-driver-supports-only-32-devices/40444 but I am still seeing this warning message:

kern.warn kernel: [  121.789126] ath10k_ahb a000000.wifi: refusing to associate station: too many connected already (32)

Even though I am seeing this:

kern.warn kernel: [   12.155456] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: vdevs  val: 4
kern.warn kernel: [   12.155499] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: peers  val: 100
kern.warn kernel: [   12.160192] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: active_peers  val: 100
kern.warn kernel: [   12.165927] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: stations  val: 100
kern.warn kernel: [   12.172542] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: rate_ctrl_objs  val: 7
...
kern.warn kernel: [   14.781404] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: 10.4 wmi init: vdevs: 4  peers: 100  tid: 96

However, I am also seeing this after the messages from above:

...
kern.warn kernel: [   22.011655] ath10k_ahb a000000.wifi: 10.4 wmi init: vdevs: 16  peers: 48  tid: 96
...
kern.warn kernel: [   24.709692] ath10k_ahb a800000.wifi: 10.4 wmi init: vdevs: 16  peers: 48  tid: 96 

So, I am not sure why I am still seeing the 32 peers limit. Maybe @greearb has an idea?

[anon89577378]

@jrn

vdevs: 16 peers: 48 tid: 96

As a test, plug these numbers into fwcfg-pci-0000:01:00.0.txt

[jrn]

@jrn

vdevs: 16 peers: 48 tid: 96

Thanks @OldNavyGuy! Is tid it's own parameter or would I use tids? I will be using tids = 96 for my test.

I tried this one and I would comment out the ones you didn't list:

vdevs = 16
peers = 48
active_peers = 48
tids = 96
#stations = 100
#rate_ctrl_objs = 7
#regdom = 840
##fwname = firmware-5-htt-mgt-b.bin
#fwver = 5
#nohwcrypt = 0
#ct_sta_mode = 0
#tx_desc = 2200
##max_nss = 3
#tids = 256
#skid_limit = 360
#max_amsdus = 3

I am now seeing this in my logread:

Tue May 10 10:10:42 2022 kern.warn kernel: [   11.905478] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: vdevs  val: 16
Tue May 10 10:10:42 2022 kern.warn kernel: [   11.905523] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: peers  val: 48
Tue May 10 10:10:42 2022 kern.warn kernel: [   11.910254] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: active_peers  val: 48
Tue May 10 10:10:42 2022 kern.warn kernel: [   11.916034] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: tids  val: 96
Tue May 10 10:10:42 2022 kern.warn kernel: [   11.922570] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key:   val:
Tue May 10 10:10:42 2022 kern.warn kernel: [   11.928269] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Unknown fwcfg key name -::-, val:

...but unfortunately, I am still getting:

kern.warn kernel: [  515.183849] ath10k_ahb a000000.wifi: refusing to associate station: too many connected already (32)

[jrn]

@anon89577378, I finally figured it out. I was using fwcfg-pci-0000:01:00.0.txt the entire time. It was also loading without any complaints but it kept being overwritten.

As this is my output for my ath10k directory:

-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         12064 Apr 18 13:41 pre-cal-ahb-a000000.wifi.bin
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         12064 Apr 18 13:41 pre-cal-ahb-a800000.wifi.bin
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         12064 Apr 18 13:41 pre-cal-pci-0000:01:00.0.bin

... I removed the initial fwcfg-pci-0000:01:00.0.txt added two more files:

-rw-r--r--    1 root     root            53 May 10 10:25 fwcfg-ahb-a000000.wifi.txt
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root            53 May 10 10:25 fwcfg-ahb-a800000.wifi.txt

I started a bit more conservative with just these parameters in each file:

vdevs = 4
peers = 64
active_peers = 64
stations = 64

I am successfully having more than 32 peers connected right now.

Since this is working, I'll now start tweaking these above values a bit to see how many more devices I could possibly connect.

I am not quite sure why I needed to add it for both wifi.bin's but I am happy it's working.

As always, I appreciate all your help and feedback! Thank you very much Jim!

~jrn

[anon89577378]

Nice work.

[jrn]

Thanks Jim