[PATCH] wifi: ath11k_pci: add a soft dependency on qrtr-mhi

[PATCH] wifi: ath11k_pci: add a soft dependency on qrtr-mhi

[Christoph Hellwig]

While ath11k_pci can load without qrtr-mhi, probing the actual hardware
will fail when qrtr and qrtr-mhi aren't loaded with

   failed to initialize qmi handle: -517

Add a MODULE_SOFTDEP statement to bring the module in (and as a hint
for kernel packaging) for those cases where it isn't autoloaded already
for some reason.

Signed-off-by: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
---
 drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/pci.c | 2 ++
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)

diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/pci.c b/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/pci.c
index 99cf3357c66e16..9d58856cbf8a94 100644
--- a/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/pci.c
+++ b/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/pci.c
@@ -1037,6 +1037,8 @@ module_exit(ath11k_pci_exit);
 MODULE_DESCRIPTION("Driver support for Qualcomm Technologies 802.11ax WLAN PCIe devices");
 MODULE_LICENSE("Dual BSD/GPL");
 
+MODULE_SOFTDEP("pre: qrtr-mhi");
+
 /* QCA639x 2.0 firmware files */
 MODULE_FIRMWARE(ATH11K_FW_DIR "/QCA6390/hw2.0/" ATH11K_BOARD_API2_FILE);
 MODULE_FIRMWARE(ATH11K_FW_DIR "/QCA6390/hw2.0/" ATH11K_AMSS_FILE);
-- 
2.30.2

Re: [PATCH] wifi: ath11k_pci: add a soft dependency on qrtr-mhi

[Cyril Brulebois]

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Hallo Christoph,

Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de> (2022-12-02):
> While ath11k_pci can load without qrtr-mhi, probing the actual hardware
> will fail when qrtr and qrtr-mhi aren't loaded with
> 
>    failed to initialize qmi handle: -517
> 
> Add a MODULE_SOFTDEP statement to bring the module in (and as a hint
> for kernel packaging) for those cases where it isn't autoloaded already
> for some reason.

That's indeed a very helpful hint, which helped us fix support for this
module in a Debian Installer context (where we don't ship each and every
module built in the linux-image package, but some limited selection).

  https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/-/merge_requests/667


Cheers,
-- 
Cyril Brulebois (kibi@debian.org)            <https://debamax.com/>
D-I release manager -- Release team member -- Freelance Consultant

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Re: [PATCH] wifi: ath11k_pci: add a soft dependency on qrtr-mhi

[Baochen Qiang]

On 12/2/2022 9:06 PM, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> While ath11k_pci can load without qrtr-mhi, probing the actual hardware
> will fail when qrtr and qrtr-mhi aren't loaded with
> 
>    failed to initialize qmi handle: -517
> 
> Add a MODULE_SOFTDEP statement to bring the module in (and as a hint
> for kernel packaging) for those cases where it isn't autoloaded already
> for some reason.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
> ---
>  drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/pci.c | 2 ++
>  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/pci.c b/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/pci.c
> index 99cf3357c66e16..9d58856cbf8a94 100644
> --- a/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/pci.c
> +++ b/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/pci.c
> @@ -1037,6 +1037,8 @@ module_exit(ath11k_pci_exit);
>  MODULE_DESCRIPTION("Driver support for Qualcomm Technologies 802.11ax WLAN PCIe devices");
>  MODULE_LICENSE("Dual BSD/GPL");
>  
> +MODULE_SOFTDEP("pre: qrtr-mhi");
> +
>  /* QCA639x 2.0 firmware files */
>  MODULE_FIRMWARE(ATH11K_FW_DIR "/QCA6390/hw2.0/" ATH11K_BOARD_API2_FILE);
>  MODULE_FIRMWARE(ATH11K_FW_DIR "/QCA6390/hw2.0/" ATH11K_AMSS_FILE);

Do we know why this patch is rejected?

Re: [PATCH] wifi: ath11k_pci: add a soft dependency on qrtr-mhi

[Jeff Johnson]

On 7/22/2025 1:35 AM, Baochen Qiang wrote:
> 
> 
> On 12/2/2022 9:06 PM, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
>> While ath11k_pci can load without qrtr-mhi, probing the actual hardware
>> will fail when qrtr and qrtr-mhi aren't loaded with
>>
>>    failed to initialize qmi handle: -517
>>
>> Add a MODULE_SOFTDEP statement to bring the module in (and as a hint
>> for kernel packaging) for those cases where it isn't autoloaded already
>> for some reason.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
>> ---
>>  drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/pci.c | 2 ++
>>  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)
>>
>> diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/pci.c b/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/pci.c
>> index 99cf3357c66e16..9d58856cbf8a94 100644
>> --- a/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/pci.c
>> +++ b/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/pci.c
>> @@ -1037,6 +1037,8 @@ module_exit(ath11k_pci_exit);
>>  MODULE_DESCRIPTION("Driver support for Qualcomm Technologies 802.11ax WLAN PCIe devices");
>>  MODULE_LICENSE("Dual BSD/GPL");
>>  
>> +MODULE_SOFTDEP("pre: qrtr-mhi");
>> +
>>  /* QCA639x 2.0 firmware files */
>>  MODULE_FIRMWARE(ATH11K_FW_DIR "/QCA6390/hw2.0/" ATH11K_BOARD_API2_FILE);
>>  MODULE_FIRMWARE(ATH11K_FW_DIR "/QCA6390/hw2.0/" ATH11K_AMSS_FILE);
> 
> Do we know why this patch is rejected?

This predates me becoming a maintainer, and I don't see any comment from Kalle
to the patch, however he did have the following comment in a separate thread
where the issue was being discussed:
https://lore.kernel.org/all/87cz8v2xb2.fsf@kernel.org/

> Though I am happy to take your MODULE_SOFTDEP() patch, just wondering if
> there is a better way to solve this. For example net/mac80211 (the
> 802.11 stack) has a lot of crypto dependencies:
>
> 	select CRYPTO
> 	select CRYPTO_LIB_ARC4
> 	select CRYPTO_AES
> 	select CRYPTO_CCM
> 	select CRYPTO_GCM
> 	select CRYPTO_CMAC
> 	select CRC32
>
> And it's not using MODULE_SOFTDEP() at all.

So I'm guessing he considered this to be an issue that should be solved
external to the individual drivers.

/jeff

Re: [PATCH] wifi: ath11k_pci: add a soft dependency on qrtr-mhi

[Johannes Berg]

On Tue, 2025-07-22 at 07:37 -0700, Jeff Johnson wrote:
> 
> This predates me becoming a maintainer, and I don't see any comment from Kalle
> to the patch, however he did have the following comment in a separate thread
> where the issue was being discussed:
> https://lore.kernel.org/all/87cz8v2xb2.fsf@kernel.org/
> 
> > Though I am happy to take your MODULE_SOFTDEP() patch, just wondering if
> > there is a better way to solve this. For example net/mac80211 (the
> > 802.11 stack) has a lot of crypto dependencies:
> > 
> > 	select CRYPTO
> > 	select CRYPTO_LIB_ARC4
> > 	select CRYPTO_AES
> > 	select CRYPTO_CCM
> > 	select CRYPTO_GCM
> > 	select CRYPTO_CMAC
> > 	select CRC32
> > 
> > And it's not using MODULE_SOFTDEP() at all.
> 
> So I'm guessing he considered this to be an issue that should be solved
> external to the individual drivers.

I just happened to see this and never saw the other discussion from Dec
2022, but it's somewhat interesting ... for some of those modules
mac80211 has a hard dependency (such as lib_arc3, crc32) but for the
other crypto modules it instantiates the algorithms via the string
descriptions (such as "gcm(aes)") so it has no hard dependency.

Maybe crypto modules are treated specially by installers and the like?

johannes

Re: [PATCH] wifi: ath11k_pci: add a soft dependency on qrtr-mhi

[Baochen Qiang]

On 7/22/2025 10:37 PM, Jeff Johnson wrote:
> On 7/22/2025 1:35 AM, Baochen Qiang wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 12/2/2022 9:06 PM, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
>>> While ath11k_pci can load without qrtr-mhi, probing the actual hardware
>>> will fail when qrtr and qrtr-mhi aren't loaded with
>>>
>>>    failed to initialize qmi handle: -517
>>>
>>> Add a MODULE_SOFTDEP statement to bring the module in (and as a hint
>>> for kernel packaging) for those cases where it isn't autoloaded already
>>> for some reason.
>>>
>>> Signed-off-by: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
>>> ---
>>>  drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/pci.c | 2 ++
>>>  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)
>>>
>>> diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/pci.c b/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/pci.c
>>> index 99cf3357c66e16..9d58856cbf8a94 100644
>>> --- a/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/pci.c
>>> +++ b/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/pci.c
>>> @@ -1037,6 +1037,8 @@ module_exit(ath11k_pci_exit);
>>>  MODULE_DESCRIPTION("Driver support for Qualcomm Technologies 802.11ax WLAN PCIe devices");
>>>  MODULE_LICENSE("Dual BSD/GPL");
>>>  
>>> +MODULE_SOFTDEP("pre: qrtr-mhi");
>>> +
>>>  /* QCA639x 2.0 firmware files */
>>>  MODULE_FIRMWARE(ATH11K_FW_DIR "/QCA6390/hw2.0/" ATH11K_BOARD_API2_FILE);
>>>  MODULE_FIRMWARE(ATH11K_FW_DIR "/QCA6390/hw2.0/" ATH11K_AMSS_FILE);
>>
>> Do we know why this patch is rejected?
> 
> This predates me becoming a maintainer, and I don't see any comment from Kalle
> to the patch, however he did have the following comment in a separate thread
> where the issue was being discussed:
> https://lore.kernel.org/all/87cz8v2xb2.fsf@kernel.org/
> 
>> Though I am happy to take your MODULE_SOFTDEP() patch, just wondering if
>> there is a better way to solve this. For example net/mac80211 (the
>> 802.11 stack) has a lot of crypto dependencies:
>>
>> 	select CRYPTO
>> 	select CRYPTO_LIB_ARC4
>> 	select CRYPTO_AES
>> 	select CRYPTO_CCM
>> 	select CRYPTO_GCM
>> 	select CRYPTO_CMAC
>> 	select CRC32
>>
>> And it's not using MODULE_SOFTDEP() at all.
> 
> So I'm guessing he considered this to be an issue that should be solved
> external to the individual drivers.
> 

Thanks for finding the thread, it really helps.

Hmm, I agree that we should not blame this on the driver as all dependencies have been
clearly documented in the Kconfig file. However seems the userspace tool (e.g. depmod on
Ubuntu) does not care about it but just looks into ko files under /lib/modules. So if we
currently does not have a better solution, maybe we can take the MODULE_SOFTDEP way?

> /jeff