ath11k_pci firmware crashes under regular usage on Dell XPS 13 9310 (no suspend and resume)

[linuxmonk]

While I was normally working on my Dell XPS 13 9310 Laptop, noticed that WiFi suddenly got disconnected. Looking at dmesg, noticed that the firmware crashed.

(I am also attaching the entire dmesg output as a file to this bug. )

$ dmesg | grep ath11_k

[ 13.826871] ath11k_pci 0000:72:00.0 wlp114s0: renamed from wlan0
[35908.890709] ath11k_pci 0000:72:00.0: firmware crashed: MHI_CB_SYS_ERROR
[36170.055770] ath11k_pci 0000:72:00.0: wmi command 12290 timeout
[36170.055776] ath11k_pci 0000:72:00.0: failed to send WMI_STOP_SCAN_CMDID
[36170.055783] ath11k_pci 0000:72:00.0: failed to stop wmi scan: -11
[36170.055786] ath11k_pci 0000:72:00.0: failed to stop scan: -11
[36170.055788] ath11k_pci 0000:72:00.0: failed to start hw scan: -110
...
...
[36305.230431] ath11k_pci 0000:72:00.0: wmi command 16387 timeout
[36305.230436] ath11k_pci 0000:72:00.0: failed to send WMI_PDEV_SET_PARAM cmd
[36305.230445] ath11k_pci 0000:72:00.0: failed to enable PMF QOS: (-11

I had to reboot the machine at least 2 times before WiFi started working. In the past, I had noticed WiFi would not work after boot a couple of times, but this is the first time I am seeing it breaking under normal, continuous usage. This is a major reliability issue if WiFi connection keeps breaking in the middle of work like this.

Also, this is somewhat similar to the following bugs, but not exactly the same:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-oem-5.10/+bug/1944018 (here there is no message 'firmware crashed' but rather some failures from ath11k_pci. Moreover it occurred during suspend and resume. Whereas in my case, the last suspend + resume was at least 3 and half hours before the firmware crash)

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-signed-oem-5.10/+bug/1942060 (here there is 'firmware crashed' message, but all the error messages after that seem to be different. Moreover it seems to have occurred 56 seconds after system booted, when WiFi network was connected. Whereas I had a uptime of 9 hours and about 6 hours after the last WiFi connection).

[linuxmonk (linuxmonk21)]

It has been just 1 week since I got the laptop and I am using it. So I didn't do anything out of sorts. Below is my linux kernel version (the laptop itself came with OEM Kernel and Ubuntu pre-installed)

$ uname -a
Linux vivek-dev-linux 5.10.0-1049-oem #51-Ubuntu SMP Mon Sep 27 11:01:10 UTC 2021 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS (fossa-bulbasaur X55.1)
Release: 20.04
Codename: focal

$ lspci -v
...
72:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Device 1101 (rev 01)
 Subsystem: Bigfoot Networks, Inc. Device a501
 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 178
 Memory at a2500000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: ath11k_pci
 Kernel modules: ath11k_pci
...

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Rob Robertson (rob-rob)]

happens to me too. Here's my info:

$ uname -a
Linux ssss 5.15.0-41-generic #44-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jun 22 14:20:53 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[ 7806.157472] wlp114s0: cannot understand ECSA IE operating class, 5, ignoring
[ 7806.260003] wlp114s0: cannot understand ECSA IE operating class, 5, ignoring
[ 7806.362401] wlp114s0: cannot understand ECSA IE operating class, 5, ignoring
[ 7806.464785] wlp114s0: cannot understand ECSA IE operating class, 5, ignoring
[ 7806.567221] wlp114s0: cannot understand ECSA IE operating class, 5, ignoring
[ 7806.669552] wlp114s0: cannot understand ECSA IE operating class, 5, ignoring
[ 7806.771745] wlp114s0: cannot understand ECSA IE operating class, 5, ignoring
[ 7806.874260] wlp114s0: cannot understand ECSA IE operating class, 5, ignoring
[ 7806.976683] wlp114s0: cannot understand ECSA IE operating class, 5, ignoring
[ 7807.079210] wlp114s0: cannot understand ECSA IE operating class, 5, ignoring
[ 7807.181602] wlp114s0: cannot understand ECSA IE operating class, 5, ignoring
[ 7807.284062] wlp114s0: cannot understand ECSA IE operating class, 5, ignoring
[ 7807.386275] wlp114s0: cannot understand ECSA IE operating class, 5, ignoring
[ 7807.488507] wlp114s0: cannot understand ECSA IE operating class, 5, ignoring
[ 7807.591494] wlp114s0: cannot understand ECSA IE operating class, 5, ignoring
[ 7817.827571] ath11k_pci 0000:72:00.0: firmware crashed: MHI_CB_SYS_ERROR
[ 7817.904043] ath11k_pci 0000:72:00.0: failed to transmit frame -108
[ 7818.086914] ath11k_pci 0000:72:00.0: failed to transmit frame -108
[ 7818.148464] ath11k_pci 0000:72:00.0: failed to send WMI_PDEV_GET_TEMPERATURE cmd
[ 7818.148468] ath11k_pci 0000:72:00.0: failed to read temperature -108