linux-kernel - Re: ath10k_pci logs errors about missing pre-cal and cal firmware on a laptop

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Message-ID: <73921857.09T0xDi13r@bagend>
Date:   Tue, 14 Nov 2023 22:49:50 +0100
From:   Diederik de Haas <didi.debian@...ow.org>
To:     Jeff Johnson <quic_jjohnson@...cinc.com>,
        debian-kernel@...ts.debian.org, Paul Menzel <pmenzel@...gen.mpg.de>
Cc:     Kalle Valo <kvalo@...nel.org>, linux-wireless@...r.kernel.org,
        LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>, ath10k@...ts.infradead.org,
        Ben Hutchings <ben@...adent.org.uk>
Subject: Re: ath10k_pci logs errors about missing pre-cal and cal firmware on a laptop

FTR: I do NOT speak on behalf of the Debian kernel team.

On Tuesday, 14 November 2023 20:58:58 CET Paul Menzel wrote:
> > Based upon the message:
> > [   14.401143] firmware_class: See https://wiki.debian.org/Firmware
> > for information about missing firmware
> > 
> > it seems you are not running a stock kernel. So perhaps Debian has
> > modified the firmware loading such that it ignores the FW_OPT_NO_WARN
> > flag and warns even when told not to do so? This does not appear to be
> > an upstream kernel issue.
> 
> Thank you very much for the analysis. It seems to be indeed a Debian
> specific patch [1].
> 
> Dear Debian Linux kernel team, is my observation about the error log a
> result of the patch and intended?
> 
> [1]:
> debian/patches/debian/firmware_class-refer-to-debian-wiki-firmware-page.patch

There are a number of Debian patches wrt firmware and *I* think they should get 
a (serious) review. In https://bugs.debian.org/1040738 I requested a review of 
the firmware related patches and described one of the issues I encountered 
myself. I've also been involved in triaging Debian kernel bug issues and there 
I've encountered several more such cases.

AFAIK quite a bit of work has happened upstream to make the firmware messages 
more appropriate and I think the Debian patches haven't been (properly) 
adjusted for those changes.

So they are (very) likely caused by the Debian patches and thus expected, but 
I'm hesitant to call them intended ;-)
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