Re: [PATCH 00/11] wifi: ath12k: Fix endianness handling in QMI

[Alexander Wilhelm <alexander.wilhelm@westermo.com>]

Am Sat, Jul 19, 2025 at 11:24:51PM -0500 schrieb Bjorn Andersson:
> On Wed, Jul 16, 2025 at 08:13:20AM -0700, Jeff Johnson wrote:
> > On 7/16/2025 12:50 AM, Alexander Wilhelm wrote:
> > > Fix endianness handling in QMI firmware transfer on big-endian
> > > platforms. Without this fix, the firmware download fails due to
> > > misinterpreted data structures exchanged between the host and the
> > > wireless module.
> > > 
> > > The issue occurs during early bring-up on big endian systems, where QMI
> > > messages are not correctly parsed by the driver, leading to failed
> > > initialization sequences. Ensure all relevant fields are properly
> > > converted between CPU and little-endian format in request and response
> > > messages, as expected by the firmware. Attached logs showing the failure
> > > before the fix:
> > > 
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: BAR 0: assigned [mem 0xc00000000-0xc001fffff 64bit]
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: boot pci_mem 0xcd4148e9
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: pci probe 17cb:1109 17cb:1109
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: pci tcsr_soc_hw_version major 2 minor 0
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: request MSI one vector
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: MSI vectors: 1
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: msi base data is 0
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: Hardware name: qcn9274 hw2.0
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: boot firmware request ath12k/QCN9274/hw2.0/firmware-2.bin size 15134776
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: found fw timestamp 1722934582
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: found m3 image ie (421880 B)
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: found fw image ie (7229440 B)
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: found dualmac fw image ie (7483392 B)
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: found firmware features ie (1 B)
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: features
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: using fw api 2
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: dualmac fw selected for board id: 1005
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: Assign MSI to user: MHI, num_vectors: 3, user_base_data: 0, base_vector: 0
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: Number of assigned MSI for MHI is 3, base vector is 0
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: Assign MSI to user: CE, num_vectors: 1, user_base_data: 0, base_vector: 0
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: Assign MSI to user: DP, num_vectors: 1, user_base_data: 0, base_vector: 0
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: irq:18 group:0
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: irq:18 group:1
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: irq:18 group:2
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: irq:18 group:3
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: irq:18 group:4
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: irq:18 group:5
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: irq:18 group:6
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: irq:18 group:7
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: pci after request_irq msi_ep_base_data 0
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: cookie:0x0
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: WLAON_WARM_SW_ENTRY 0x2
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: WLAON_WARM_SW_ENTRY 0x2
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: soc reset cause:0
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: MHISTATUS 0xff04
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: pci link_ctl 0x0000 L0s 0 L1 0
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: pci reg 0x3164 instance 0x11 read val 0x11
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: setting mhi state: INIT(0)
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: setting mhi state: POWER_ON(2)
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: mhi notify status reason UNKNOWN
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: mhi notify status reason MHI_CB_EE_MISSION_MODE
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: qmi wifi fw qmi service connected
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: phy capability resp valid 1 num_phy 2 valid 1 board_id 84934656 valid 1 single_chip_mlo_support 0
> > >     ath12k_pci 0001:01:00.0: intra device MLO is disabled hence skip QMI MLO cap
> > > 
> > > Alexander Wilhelm (11):
> > >   wifi: ath12k: fix endianness handling in QMI host capability request
> > >   wifi: ath12k: fix endianness handling in QMI phy capability response
> > >   wifi: ath12k: fix endianness handling in QMI firmware indication
> > >   wifi: ath12k: fix endianness handling in QMI firmware memory indication
> > >   wifi: ath12k: fix endianness handling in QMI respond firmware memory
> > >   wifi: ath12k: fix endianness handling in QMI firmware capabilities
> > >   wifi: ath12k: fix endianness handling in QMI bdf download
> > >   wifi: ath12k: fix endianness handling in QMI firmware m3 info
> > >   wifi: ath12k: fix endianness handling in QMI firmware wlan mode
> > >   wifi: ath12k: fix endianness handling in QMI wlan configuration
> > >   wifi: ath12k: fix endianness handling in QMI response
> > > 
> > >  drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath12k/qmi.c | 149 ++++++++++++++------------
> > >  drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath12k/qmi.h | 106 +++++++++---------
> > >  include/linux/soc/qcom/qmi.h          |   4 +-
> > >  3 files changed, 136 insertions(+), 123 deletions(-)
> > > 
> > 
> > Frankly I'm shocked that the low-level QMI encode/decode is not doing the
> > endian conversion. Since the Qualcomm internal tool that generates the data
> > structures has always generated structs with cpu endianess (i.e. u8, u16, u32,
> > etc) I just assumed that endian conversion was handled at a low level.
> > 
> 
> I'm suspecting that those tools, just like this implementation, is
> exclusively tested on little endian machines...
> 
> > So should this issue be pushed down to the QMI encode/decode rather than foist
> > it upon every client's read & write?
> > 
> 
> It's been a while since I looked at the implementation, but conceptually
> I'm in favor of this.

I could certainly implement the endianness fixes in the QMI code. However, I’m
concerned that other drivers might depend on the current behavior. These changes
could potentially introduce regressions, which I would want to avoid.
Additionally, I’m already seeing some Sparse warnings, and I’m not entirely sure
how to handle them properly at this point.


Best regards
Alexander Wilhelm