Re: [PATCH v2] wifi: ath12k: skip hardware rfkill setup on Microsoft Surface devices

[Dale Whinham <daleyo@gmail.com>]

On 06/10/2026 07:27, François Roux wrote:
> On the Microsoft Surface Pro 11 and Surface Laptop 7 (X1E80100), the
> WCN7850 hardware rfkill input reads as "radio off" and the OS has no
> way to control it. ath12k enables hardware rfkill handling, so Wi-Fi
> stays hard-blocked:
> 
>    iwd: Error bringing interface 4 up: Operation not possible due to RF-kill
> 
> ACPI platforms can opt out through ath12k_acpi_get_disable_rfkill(),
> but DT platforms cannot. A DT property was proposed for this and
> rejected, because it describes what the OS should do rather than the
> hardware. The suggested alternative was to handle these machines in
> the driver until a connector binding can describe a broken rfkill line.
> 
> Add a table of board compatibles and hardware revisions on which
> hardware rfkill is known to be unusable, and skip the rfkill setup
> there. Other affected machines then only need a new table entry.
> 
> Tested on a Surface Pro 11 (microsoft,denali) with next-20260929,
> booted with the unmodified mainline DTB: the interface is no longer
> blocked and connects. The Surface Laptop 7 entries (microsoft,romulus13
> and microsoft,romulus15) are based on reports from Jérôme de Bretagne
> and Dale Whinham. I have not tested them.
> 
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/2ixwny6hzumlqmok5cjwutvtk7nzmx4t3dhxc44ao4l2u755pj@n6m7jyxf2o62/
> Suggested-by: Manivannan Sadhasivam <mani@kernel.org>
> Assisted-by: LLM
> Signed-off-by: François Roux <franzelfranzel@gmail.com>
> ---
> Changes in v2:
> - Use a table of board compatibles and hardware revisions, as suggested
>    by Jeff, so that other affected machines only need a new entry.
> - Add the Surface Laptop 7 (microsoft,romulus13/15), which Dale and
>    Jérôme report as affected too. These entries are untested by me;
>    a Tested-by from someone with that machine would be welcome.
> - Retested on the Surface Pro 11.
> 
> v1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20261004165132.4313-1-franzelfranzel@gmail.com/
> 
>   drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath12k/core.c | 32 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>   1 file changed, 32 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath12k/core.c b/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath12k/core.c
> index 0c72948f3..67d4c98fb 100644
> --- a/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath12k/core.c
> +++ b/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath12k/core.c
> @@ -72,6 +72,35 @@ ath12k_mem_profile_based_param ath12k_mem_profile_based_param[] = {
>   	},
>   };
>   
> +/*
> + * On these machines the OS cannot control the WCN7850 hardware rfkill
> + * input, which reads as "radio off", so hardware rfkill must stay
> + * disabled. Ideally this would come from the connector node of the board
> + * DT, but that binding does not exist yet.
> + */
> +static const struct ath12k_core_broken_rfkill_table {
> +	enum ath12k_hw_rev hw_rev;
> +	const char *compatible;
> +} ath12k_core_broken_rfkill_table[] = {
> +	{ ATH12K_HW_WCN7850_HW20, "microsoft,denali" },
> +	{ ATH12K_HW_WCN7850_HW20, "microsoft,romulus13" },
> +	{ ATH12K_HW_WCN7850_HW20, "microsoft,romulus15" },
> +	{ /* Sentinel */ }
> +};
> +
> +static bool ath12k_core_rfkill_is_broken(struct ath12k_base *ab)
> +{
> +	const struct ath12k_core_broken_rfkill_table *entry;
> +
> +	for (entry = ath12k_core_broken_rfkill_table; entry->compatible; entry++) {
> +		if (ab->hw_rev == entry->hw_rev &&
> +		    of_machine_is_compatible(entry->compatible))
> +			return true;
> +	}
> +
> +	return false;
> +}
> +
>   static int ath12k_core_rfkill_config(struct ath12k_base *ab)
>   {
>   	struct ath12k *ar;
> @@ -83,6 +112,9 @@ static int ath12k_core_rfkill_config(struct ath12k_base *ab)
>   	if (ath12k_acpi_get_disable_rfkill(ab))
>   		return 0;
>   
> +	if (ath12k_core_rfkill_is_broken(ab))
> +		return 0;
> +
>   	for (i = 0; i < ab->num_radios; i++) {
>   		ar = ab->pdevs[i].ar;
>   
> 
> base-commit: 6474fa070f2b8013b4b87350b775b8c3be6e8aac
> prerequisite-patch-id: aafe3fac38f4020441979665509928f8cc832095

Tested successfully on Surface Pro 11 X1E/OLED/WiFi model.

Tested-by: Dale Whinham <daleyo@gmail.com>