Bug#1093469: installation-reports: ThinkPad T14s Gen6 AMD fails to load network modules and it hangs up (d-i trixie alpha1)

[Hideki Yamane]

Package: installation-reports
Severity: important
X-Debbugs-Cc: ***@debian.org

Boot method: CD
Image version: daily
Date: 16th Jan 2025

Machine: Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen6 AMD


Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it

Initial boot: [O]
Detect network card: [E]
Configure network: [ ]
Detect media: [ ]
Load installer modules: [ ]
Clock/timezone setup: [ ]
User/password setup: [ ]
Detect hard drives: [ ]
Partition hard drives: [ ]
Install base system: [ ]
Install tasks: [ ]
Install boot loader: [ ]
Overall install: [ ]

Comments/Problems:

During loading network modules, it hangs and just blinks CapLk LED...
Ubuntu 24.10 live works fine.


-- Package-specific info:

See attached txt files on Ubuntu 24.10 and d-i trixie alpha1.

[Pascal Hambourg]

Post by Hideki Yamane
During loading network modules, it hangs and just blinks CapLk LED...

Kernel panic ? If so, I guess you could not grab /var/log/syslog or run
dmesg.
Can you switch to tty4 before (if normal install) or right after (if
expert install) entering "Detect network hardware" ?

This reminds me of #1032140 with MediaTek MT7921 wireless controller.

[Pascal Hambourg]

Post by Pascal Hambourg

Post by Hideki Yamane
During loading network modules, it hangs and just blinks CapLk LED...

Kernel panic ? If so, I guess you could not grab /var/log/syslog or run
dmesg.
Can you switch to tty4 before (if normal install) or right after (if
expert install) entering "Detect network hardware" ?
This reminds me of #1032140 with MediaTek MT7921 wireless controller.

Oops ! Wrong bug number. I meant #1029116 (hw-detect:
check-missing-firmware fails will attempting to reload kernel module on
MT7922 WiFi card).

[Pascal Hambourg]

Thank you, I've switched to tty4 and got some messages as the image
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPpfBNPwubDytT9WHMJpmeQx8s-31Abd7IJWB23f00-NNUZLtmkRDhVQMKGQ1VCLw/photo/AF1QipOFOwU57-BdpsXJH5fyVs-S682M9VjeKbR6MCC2?key=WU9tRDdRUjRnekxWd0dOYVJkMGxhV2oySHJ3ZldB

No more messages ?

and below lines seem to be suspicious.
ath12k_pci 0000:c2:00.0: firmware failed to load ath12k/WCN7850/hw2.0/firmware-2.bin (-2)
(snip)
ath12k_pci 0000:c2:00.0: firmware failed to load ath12k/WCN7850/hw2.0/amss.bin (-2)

Missing firmware messages are expected. But I expected more kernel
messages if there is a kernel panic or other serious error. I guess the
syslog process which writes to tty4 is already dead when that happens.

You can try to switch to tty2, run

echo "7 4 1 7" > /proc/sys/kernel/printk

and watch kernel messages in tty2.

amss.bin is included in firmware-atheros
firmware-atheros: /usr/lib/firmware/ath12k/WCN7850/hw2.0/amss.bin
firmware-atheros: /usr/lib/firmware/ath12k/WCN7850/hw2.0/board-2.bin
firmware-atheros: /usr/lib/firmware/ath12k/WCN7850/hw2.0/m3.bin
and firmware-atheros_20241210-1_all.deb in d-i has those.
$ dpkg-deb --contents firmware-atheros_20241210-1_all.deb |grep ath12k
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2024-12-20 06:13 ./usr/lib/firmware/ath12k/
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2024-12-20 06:13 ./usr/lib/firmware/ath12k/WCN7850/
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2024-12-20 06:13 ./usr/lib/firmware/ath12k/WCN7850/hw2.0/
-rw-r--r-- root/root 6000704 2024-12-20 06:13 ./usr/lib/firmware/ath12k/WCN7850/hw2.0/amss.bin
-rw-r--r-- root/root 1897968 2024-12-20 06:13 ./usr/lib/firmware/ath12k/WCN7850/hw2.0/board-2.bin
-rw-r--r-- root/root 299660 2024-12-20 06:13 ./usr/lib/firmware/ath12k/WCN7850/hw2.0/m3.bin
Upstream repo also does not have firmware-2.bin
https://git.codelinaro.org/clo/ath-firmware/ath12k-firmware
Then I did is copying /usr/lib/firmware/ath12k/* before hardware detection
, ln -s board-2.bin firmware-2.bin and it works without hang up! :)
However, I cannot specify WLAN setting (SSID, password).

Why not ?

[Nick Douma]

My experience matches that of Hideki Yamane, also on a fresh Thinkpad
T14s Gen6 AMD. On Mon, 20 Jan 2025 11:00:44 +0900 Hideki Yamane

amss.bin is included in firmware-atheros
firmware-atheros: /usr/lib/firmware/ath12k/WCN7850/hw2.0/amss.bin
firmware-atheros: /usr/lib/firmware/ath12k/WCN7850/hw2.0/board-2.bin
firmware-atheros: /usr/lib/firmware/ath12k/WCN7850/hw2.0/m3.bin
and firmware-atheros_20241210-1_all.deb in d-i has those.
$ dpkg-deb --contents firmware-atheros_20241210-1_all.deb |grep ath12k
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2024-12-20 06:13 ./usr/lib/firmware/ath12k/
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2024-12-20 06:13

./usr/lib/firmware/ath12k/WCN7850/

drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2024-12-20 06:13

./usr/lib/firmware/ath12k/WCN7850/hw2.0/

-rw-r--r-- root/root 6000704 2024-12-20 06:13

./usr/lib/firmware/ath12k/WCN7850/hw2.0/amss.bin

-rw-r--r-- root/root 1897968 2024-12-20 06:13

./usr/lib/firmware/ath12k/WCN7850/hw2.0/board-2.bin

-rw-r--r-- root/root 299660 2024-12-20 06:13

./usr/lib/firmware/ath12k/WCN7850/hw2.0/m3.bin

Upstream repo also does not have firmware-2.bin
https://git.codelinaro.org/clo/ath-firmware/ath12k-firmware

There is a firmware-2.bin in the QCN9274/hw2.0 folders, but I guess they
are for another chip?
QCN9274 doesn't seem to be present in the current package in the trixie repo, just WCN7850.

Then I did is copying /usr/lib/firmware/ath12k/* before hardware

detection

, ln -s board-2.bin firmware-2.bin and it works without hang up! :) I

can confirm this works and it seems that the symlink persisted after
installation so the system also had working wifi. > However, I cannot
specify WLAN setting (SSID, password). If I was able to figure out
wpa_supplicant during setup I probably could've gotten it working, but I
opted to not select NTP and just install from the Debian testing DVD1.
Kind regards, Nick