Bugzilla – Bug 1222132
kernel-firmware-20240322 breaks iwlwifi
Last modified: 2024-03-28 14:35:30 UTC
Created attachment 873903 [details] Kernel logs for the described situation This is on TW snapshot 20240326; when I run "iwlist wlan0 scanning", the kernel issues a "Microcode SW error" resulting in a full Call Trace. See the attached file for all details. FWIW, this error happens with both kernels, ie. kernel-default and kernel-longterm!
Could you confirm that downgrading the previous kernel-firmware(-iwlwifi) package fixes the problem again? The old package is found in TW history repo http://download.opensuse.org/history/
I asked it because there was no change in iwlwifi-* firmware files in the previous update of kernel-firmware packages. If any, I suspect rather it's a kernel code change that broke. The same breakage may happen on slowroll just because the upstream stable tree can take the same backport.
This appears to be really strange... When I installed the last snapshot, it was the first time I saw a kernel trace regarding iwlwifi during boot - please note I'm using kernel-longterm as my default. When I rebooted in kernel-default, the same trace did not happen, so I suspected it was something which affected kernel-longterm, but not kernel-default, of which both where unchanged by the snapshot. I now tried the same, both with the old kernel-firmware-20240312-1.1 installed on both kernels, but ensured it was a real cold start, i.e. I switched off the computer. After powering on I saw the same kernel trace with kernel-longterm, but no trace with kernel-default. It really appears to be caused by some different code paths between the two kernels. Upgrading to kernel-firmware-20240322-1.1 did not change anything in that behaviour. So, something in the updated firmware still has an effect on whether the kernel produces a kernel trace after a cold boot or not. I'll add two log files for the boot with kernel-longterm and both kernel-firmware packages installed in a minute.
Created attachment 873904 [details] Boot logs for kernel-firmware-20240312-1.1 after a cold boot
Created attachment 873905 [details] Boot logs for kernel-firmware-20240322-1.1 after a cold boot
Then it's likely no regression, but it's triggered casually by some other reason. The error you've seen is basically a firmware error, and it happens occasionally via periodic scanning, AFAIK. If you have a proper way to reproduce the problem, at best, report it to the upstream (e.g. linux-wireless ML). There are quite a few similar report on the upstream bugzilla.kernel.org, and you can join there, too (although I doubt it would help).
Thx, Takashi. FWIW, what I've reported here for TW also happens with kernel-longterm and kernel-firmware on Leap from their corresponding Backport projects.