[GUIDE] Successful Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) on Framework 13 AMD with Qualcomm QCNCM865 and Arch Linux

Should I hold out or return my NMC865?

I would say you should keep it. the ath12k git repository is very active, that mean the driver is getting a lot of attention from qualcomm. imho it will be better and better at each linux release (each 2 months)

I find it tiring holding onto hope that something would materialise. Personally, Iā€™d return and come back when itā€™s ready.

New commercial products from Qualcomm like QCN9274 and QCN6274 also use the same driver. Given this, they should be fixing the driver soon. Hopefully, things will start moving faster now.

Using the same driver doesnā€™t necessary mean the runtime behaviour and stability of another chipset would be identical though. Iā€™d come back to it when itā€™s proven, especially from a consumer perspective, not from an engineering / trailblazer view. Money in your pocket means the power of choice is still in your court.

You're right that using the same driver doesnā€™t guarantee identical behavior across different chipsets. Since I don't have an easy return option, I'll be keeping the device for now. It's performing well under normal conditions. Additionally, a patch has been proposed that addresses alignment issues in the PCIe transmit path for the WCN7850 (QCNCM865 Wi-Fi chipset) as some have cited before. You can find more details in the kernel archives.

And still not in the rc2 :confused:

This is big sad. :frowning:

How do you know if they rolled the fixed ath12 driver into the kernel?

If I recall, you were testing on Arch, so the ath12 fixed driver is in the 6.11 kernel on Arch?

And neither in the rc3.
I checks log to see if the patch is in it. For exemple here : kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git - Linux kernel source tree
I can see that the dp_tx.c isnā€™t changed.
I assume that they will try to send it into 6.11 but well maybe it will be 6.12.
I think they donā€™t push it because they still improves it : [PATCH] wifi: ath12k: fix the stack frame size warning in ath12k_mac_op_hw_scan

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Iā€™m starting to think I should return for refund and wait until it an be confirmed.

The download speed increase (and performance in Windows) is minor over the AX210 for now. Plus I tried to not do heavy uploads but there was a point that caused an inconvenience when I needed to upload some files to my NAS, so I ended up swapping my WIFI cards yesterday.

I also want to make sure I donā€™t get stuck with the card in case we find out we canā€™t use in Fedora.

Donā€™t get me wrong, I appreciate the community working on the project. Iā€™m actually really amazed by the work even though I donā€™t understand any of it, lol. I just donā€™t want to be stuck with a bad $60 hardware (tax and shipping) if the driver is ready and it turns out the card is defective.

Even though i tested in Windows 11, I have to swap drives to use Windows to test so I didnā€™t really get a chance to test the card in Windows for long term.

Still not in rc4.

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FYI, I still have the card. Gonna see this through. :melting_face:

However, I did put my AX210 back in for now. The NCM865 is on the shelf.

Check this out to install ath12k driver manually:

sudo apt install git
git clone https://git.codelinaro.org/clo/ath-firmware/ath12k-firmware
cd ath12k-firmware
wget https://github.com/qca/qca-swiss-army-knife/raw/master/tools/scripts/ath12k/ath12k-fw-repo
chmod 755 ./ath12k-fw-repo
./ath12k-fw-repo --install /lib/firmware

and you do not have to wait for a new kernel

Hello, thank you for the information, but it seems you confuse the driver and the firmware. Weā€™re interested in the driver, not the firmware, which is already stable, up to date, and hasnā€™t changed in months.

Thanks for the information ā€¦ sorry for the confusion. Now Kernel 6.11rc5 is out. How can I see if the new driver is part of the Kernel?

Driver should already be in your kernel, except you have some exotic configuration.
Here itā€™s working good (but the upload bug)
dmesg | grep ath12k
should give you

[    5.354031] ath12k_pci 0000:01:00.0: BAR 0 [mem 0x90600000-0x907fffff 64bit]: assigned
[    5.354917] ath12k_pci 0000:01:00.0: MSI vectors: 16
[    5.354927] ath12k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Hardware name: wcn7850 hw2.0
[    5.903957] ath12k_pci 0000:01:00.0: chip_id 0x2 chip_family 0x4 board_id 0xff soc_id 0x40170200
[    5.903972] ath12k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fw_version 0x100301e1 fw_build_timestamp 2023-12-06 04:05 fw_build_id QC_IMAGE_VERSION_STRING=WLAN.HMT.1.0.c5-00481-QCAHMTSWPL_V1.0_V2.0_SILICONZ-3

Yes, driver is part of Kernel 6.11rc5 in my configuration as well.
I have exactly the same output than you have.
Waiting for the new driver ā€¦

So you have it and it should work as expected. Now we basically are waiting for a fix for the upload issue. Iā€™m afraid weā€™ll have to wait for mainline 6.12rc1, hopefully

AFAIK, itā€™s been working since 6.9, just having issues with heavy uploads crashing. So itā€™s still an issue with 6.11 rc6, huh? Yikes.

Maybe I should have returned my card after all.

Well, my FW16 is now being sent back to FW for an RMA (panel and bezel alignment issues). According to a user in Reddit, it takes about a month before they got their RMA laptop back. :frowning:

btw you can compile yourself the patch. then youā€™ll have the fix

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