ath6kl_sdio does not support unbinding

[Oliver Grawert]

[Impact]
Atheros users -- some of our users with wireless devices driven by the ath6kl_sdio driver; when running 'netplan apply' may wedge the wireless driver in an unrecoverable state.

[Test case]
-- requires ath6kl_sdio hardware --
1) Run 'sudo netplan apply'
2) Ensure the wireless interface still responds and can connect to wireless.

[Regression potential]
Renaming the interface is already broken since the interface cannot respond correctly after it has been "replugged", because the driver is not supporting the replug operation. The same applies to configuring an MTU for the interface.

If existing installations depend on current netplan behavior to rename / set the device MTU, and then follow up with manual configuring of the device, they will regress in that the MTU setting or renaming may not take place. This is an unavoidable side-effect of this hardware's driver not supporting the required operation.

--

like the brcmfmac*, ath9k_htc and mwifiex_pcie modules, the ath6kl_sdio module does not support unbind/bind operations.

https://code.launchpad.net/~ogra/netplan/+git/netplan/+merge/335824 works around this issue

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package nplan - 0.33

---------------
nplan (0.33) bionic; urgency=medium

  * replug: Do not unbind ath9kl_sdio. Thanks Oliver! (LP: #1741910)
  * doc: fix syntax for IPv6 example addresses. IPv6 needs to be escaped in
    YAML. (LP: #1735317)
  * debian/postinst: Write breadcrumbs on disk in /etc/network/interfaces to
    denote the migration to using netplan. (LP: #1744968)
  * bridge: implement port-priority support for the NM and networkd backends.
    (LP: #1735821)
  * doc: routes are not top-level but per-interface. (LP: #1726695)
  * Rework CLI parsing / code layout to better handle subcommands.

 -- Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre <email address hidden> Tue, 23 Jan 2018 11:32:47 -0500

[Łukasz Zemczak (sil2100)]

Accepted for xenial-proposed. Please test the package and set the verification-done-xenial on success. Thank you!

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

Verification-done for xenial (nplan 0.32~16.04.4):

I am unable to validate ath6kl_sdio behavior directly on hardware (I do not have such hardware available), but the right stanza is present in the netplan script to skip over ath6kl_sdio.

[Oliver Grawert (ogra)]

seems to work as expected in Ubuntu Core 16

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package nplan - 0.32~16.04.4

---------------
nplan (0.32~16.04.4) xenial; urgency=medium

  [ Oliver Grawert ]
  * Prevent unbinding ath6kl_sdio, driver does not support it correctly.
    (LP: #1741910)

  [ Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre ]
  * Re-add snap support patch. (LP: #1747714)
  * Fix syntax for IPv6 addresses in doc. (LP: #1735317)
  * doc: routes are not top-level but per-interface. (LP: #1726695)
  * Implement bridge port-priority parameter. (LP: #1735821)
  * Implement "optional: true" to correctly write systemd network definitions
    with "RequiredForOnline=false", such that these networks do not block boot.
    (LP: #1664844)
  * Various documentation fixes. (LP: #1751814)

 -- Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre <email address hidden> Fri, 02 Mar 2018 17:02:03 -0500

[Łukasz Zemczak (sil2100)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for nplan has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.