Re: [BUG] wifi: rtw88: Hard system freeze on RTL8821CE when power_save is enabled (LPS/ASPM conflict)

[Bitterblue Smith <rtl8821cerfe2@gmail.com>]

On 28/03/2026 13:41, LB F wrote:
> Hi Bitterblue,
> 
> Apologies for the delayed response. I applied your diagnostic patch
> right away but held off on replying because the NULL pointer crash
> has not reproduced since — it has been over 36 hours now with no
> oops, which is unusual (previously it occurred in 4 out of 7 boots,
> typically within 2 minutes to 24 hours).
> 
> I wanted to wait and collect the hex dumps from the crash-time burst
> (the 50+ "unused phy status page" events that always preceded the
> oops), as those would be the most valuable. Unfortunately, the crash
> hasn't happened yet during this session. If/when it does, I will
> follow up immediately with those dumps.
> 
> In the meantime, here is what I have so far. The patch is working
> and producing output. I collected 76 "unused phy status page" events
> during this boot, with the following time distribution:
> 
>   14:01       1 event  (isolated)
>   16:33       1 event
>   16:57-17:00 73 events (burst over ~3 minutes, no crash followed)
>   00:03       1 event  (isolated)
> 
> Page number distribution (no page 0 or 1, all are "garbage" pages):
> 
>   page 10: 10    page  7:  8    page  8:  7    page 13:  7
>   page 11:  7    page  9:  6    page 15:  6    page 12:  6
>   page  4:  5    page  2:  5    page 14:  4    page  5:  2
>   page  3:  2    page  6:  1
> 
> Here are representative hex dumps. I'm showing the byte-level dump
> (second print_hex_dump) since it is easier to read:
> 
> Isolated event (page 9):
> 
>   rtw_8821ce 0000:13:00.0: unused phy status page (9)
>   00000000: c7 5e 9c 9d 91 69 4d dc b0 67 c2 09 84 33 00 00  .^...iM..g...3..
>   00000010: 00 1e fe 3f cf f2 f0 08 01 29 00 00 00 11 2a 01  ...?.....)....*.
>   00000020: 0e 00 00 00 00 00 00 20                           .......
> 
> Burst event (page 14):
> 
>   rtw_8821ce 0000:13:00.0: unused phy status page (14)
>   00000000: bd 2c e0 3d 00 00 00 11 87 0a 40 80 88 33 00 00  .,.=......@..3..
>   00000010: 00 1e fe 3f 3e b6 9b 44 01 2e 00 00 00 11 2a 01  ...?>..D......*.
>   00000020: 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 20                            ......
> 
> Burst event (page 12) — byte 0x10 is 0x7e instead of usual 0x00:
> 
>   rtw_8821ce 0000:13:00.0: unused phy status page (12)
>   00000000: 1c b3 7f 15 d1 94 95 7e 70 5e f4 e3 b4 a1 bf 10  .......~p^......
>   00000010: 7e 1e fe 3f 2e f1 62 44 01 2c 00 00 00 11 2a 01  ~..?..bD.,....*.
>   00000020: 14 00 00 00 00 00 00 20                           .......
> 
> Burst event (page 2) — contains MAC addresses:
> 
>   rtw_8821ce 0000:13:00.0: unused phy status page (2)
>   00000000: 88 55 51 95 d1 66 ad 50 2f 25 3f 89 ae 35 ef 77  .UQ..f.P/%?..5.w
>   00000010: 00 1e fe 3f 89 68 62 4d 88 42 40 00 8c c8 4b 68  ...?.hbM.B@...Kh
>   00000020: d1 63 6c 68 a4 1c 97 5b                           .clh...[
> 
>   Note: bytes 0x1a-0x1f are 8c:c8:4b:68:d1:63 — my adapter's MAC.
>         bytes 0x20-0x25 are 6c:68:a4:1c:97:5b — the AP's BSSID (partially,
>         the dump is only 40 bytes so it cuts off after 0x25).
> 
> Burst event (page 15) — completely random, no recognizable structure:
> 
>   rtw_8821ce 0000:13:00.0: unused phy status page (15)
>   00000000: c6 a1 92 1c a7 68 6b 97 12 bd ad 89 30 98 ab 94  .....hk.....0...
>   00000010: 00 1e fe 3f ec 3f 3e 44 1f c2 91 41 0e 9b 54 5f  ...?.?>D...A..T_
>   00000020: 30 eb 40 18 6f d3 25 62                           0.@.o.%b
> 
> Burst event (page 10) — offset 0x10 is completely different pattern:
> 
>   rtw_8821ce 0000:13:00.0: unused phy status page (10)
>   00000000: cb 1c 2a df f1 69 d0 05 58 c0 e8 0e d0 59 87 6e  ..*..i..X....Y.n
>   00000010: 63 7e 56 f0 95 fa b8 d3 d5 4b 3e fa b0 0c 0e be  c~V......K>.....
>   00000020: 42 28 14 89 15 c1 fd ad                           B(......
> 
> Last isolated event (page 4):
> 
>   rtw_8821ce 0000:13:00.0: unused phy status page (4)
>   00000000: 97 ee fa 4e 04 90 00 21 c0 0f 89 80 b3 33 00 00  ...N...!.....3..
>   00000010: 00 1e fe 3f 97 7e 64 90 5d 3e 74 fa 70 e0 39 65  ...?.~d.]>t.p.9e
>   00000020: 48 a4 40 d3 de a9 85 15                           H.@.....
> 
> Observations:
> 
>   - Bytes at offset 0x0e-0x0f are usually 00 00 or have low values
>     in most dumps, but some are completely random.
>   - Bytes 0x11-0x13 are almost always 1e fe 3f (with byte 0x10
>     being 00 or 7e), suggesting this is a consistent part of the
>     RX descriptor that is not corrupted.
>   - The "page 2" dump at 17:00:23 clearly contains the adapter
>     and AP MAC addresses, confirming this is real RX frame data.
>   - Some dumps (page 10, page 5, page 15) have completely random
>     data with no recognizable RX descriptor structure at all.
>   - The 73-event burst at 16:57-17:00 happened over ~3 minutes but
>     did NOT result in a crash this time. Previously, similar bursts
>     of 50+ events within ~1 second always led to the NULL pointer
>     dereference in rtw_fw_c2h_cmd_handle+0x127.
> 
> I will keep monitoring and will send the crash-time dumps as soon as
> the oops reproduces.
> 
> Thanks for looking into this.
> 
> Best regards,
> Oleksandr Havrylov

The other print_hex_dump is important too, so please attach the
full dmesg.

You don't need to wait for a crash. It appears to be caused by
random data, so I don't expect those dumps to be more useful than
these. Of course, adding a NULL check like you said before is a
good idea.

The one dump that contains your MAC addresses has them 24 bytes
lower than they are supposed to be.