Wi-Fi Speed is severely limited (~31 Mbps)

[denysvitali]

It seems like, no matter what I try, the Wi-Fi speed of my 5GHz + 2.4 GHz networks is limited to ~ 31 Mbps (as reported by fast.com). For comparison, my Google Pixel 7 reaches ~860Mbps at the same location and connected to the same network.

NetworkManager reports the link to be equal to 6 Mb/s:

[  606.541461] ath10k_snoc 18800000.wifi: chan info: invalid frequency 0 (idx 41 out of bounds)
[  607.433258] ath10k_snoc 18800000.wifi: chan info: invalid frequency 0 (idx 41 out of bounds)
[  607.588867] ath10k_snoc 18800000.wifi: chan info: invalid frequency 0 (idx 41 out of bounds)
[  607.770395] ath10k_snoc 18800000.wifi: chan info: invalid frequency 0 (idx 41 out of bounds)
[  608.210963] ath10k_snoc 18800000.wifi: chan info: invalid frequency 0 (idx 41 out of bounds)
[  608.366546] ath10k_snoc 18800000.wifi: chan info: invalid frequency 0 (idx 41 out of bounds)
[  610.374137] ath10k_snoc 18800000.wifi: chan info: invalid frequency 0 (idx 41 out of bounds)
[  614.203116] ath10k_snoc 18800000.wifi: chan info: invalid frequency 0 (idx 41 out of bounds)
[  626.211827] ath10k_snoc 18800000.wifi: chan info: invalid frequency 0 (idx 41 out of bounds)

My regulatory domain seems to be OK (switching between DE and CH depending on which router I'm connecting to):

[  146.589350] wlan0: authenticate with c0:00:00:00:00:00
[  146.589378] wlan0: 80 MHz not supported, disabling VHT
[  287.324318] wlan0: capabilities/regulatory prevented using AP HT/VHT configuration, downgraded
// ...
[  591.084938] remoteproc remoteproc0: powering up 4080000.remoteproc
[  591.121721] remoteproc remoteproc0: Booting fw image qcom/msft/surface/pro-x-sq2/qcmpss8180.mbn, size 75470832
[  591.564064] remoteproc remoteproc0: remote processor 4080000.remoteproc is now up
[  605.898774] ath10k_snoc 18800000.wifi: wcn3990 hw1.0 target 0x00000008 chip_id 0x00000000 sub 0000:0000
[  605.898783] ath10k_snoc 18800000.wifi: kconfig debug 0 debugfs 1 tracing 0 dfs 0 testmode 0
[  605.898785] ath10k_snoc 18800000.wifi: firmware ver  api 5 features wowlan,mgmt-tx-by-reference,non-bmi crc32 b3d4b790
[  605.923623] ath10k_snoc 18800000.wifi: htt-ver 3.96 wmi-op 4 htt-op 3 cal file max-sta 32 raw 0 hwcrypto 1
[  606.213945] ath10k_snoc 18800000.wifi: invalid MAC address; choosing random
[  606.213956] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x406c
[  606.213957] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a direct regpair map
[  606.213960] ath: Country alpha2 being used: 00
[  606.213961] ath: Regpair used: 0x6c
[  606.214117] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x8114
[  606.214118] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a country code
[  606.214119] ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
[  606.214120] ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x37
[  606.214121] ath: Country alpha2 being used: DE
[  606.214122] ath: Regpair used: 0x37
[  606.214122] ath: regdomain 0x8114 dynamically updated by country element

My /var/lib/rmtfs looks like following:

$ sha256sum modem_fs*
bdce9d9d4a5a808368eda0a1ad2f3bf4da9c04663442fcc721a8e6b5bdaa2b98  modem_fs1
afb42b49efcb52092c7dc031189ba74f13d92922fd10fad3c64df77e793d08c5  modem_fs2
5647f05ec18958947d32874eeb788fa396a05d0bab7c1b71f112ceb7e9b31eee  modem_fsc
5647f05ec18958947d32874eeb788fa396a05d0bab7c1b71f112ceb7e9b31eee  modem_fsg

but the same behaviour happens w/ modem_fs1 and modem_fs2 zeroed.

Does anyone have any clue on what's happening here?

[denysvitali]

I still think there is something wrong with the EEPROM / firmware. I noticed that the MAC Address is always random - and this is because the mac_addr field is zeroed. My assumption here is that the firmware can't read the EEPROM (why?) and thus both things fail.

@qzed have you had time to look into this?

[denysvitali]

Following a similar approach to https://github.com/twisteroidambassador/arch-linux-ath-user-regd/issues/1 (especially @PaulGrandperrin 's / OpenWRT patch), I was able to get ~100Mbps over Wi-Fi.

Unfortunately this is nowhere close to the 700+ Mbps I can reach with other devices.

My patch changed the regdomain from being the most restrictive (since the EEPROM tells the driver to use that) to a regdomain that also allows 5GHz.

Despite all of this, the driver says that it doesn't have the capabilities to use the 160 MHz band (Wi-Fi 6) and thus I'm stuck at ~100Mbps.

Something is still strange though: that 100 Mbps is the peak that I've been able to reach after many tests and reboots - it looks like there might be something else going on that might limit the Wi-Fi speed as the average is usually 50 Mbps.

[qzed]

Sorry, haven't had any time to look into this. But your observations regarding the regdomain match my experience with it refusing to connect to certain bands that aren't available in all regions.