Bug 73441 - iwlwifi module not loading correct firmware
Summary: iwlwifi module not loading correct firmware
Status: CLOSED INVALID
Alias: None
Product: Drivers
Classification: Unclassified
Component: network-wireless (show other bugs)
Hardware: x86-64 Linux
: P1 normal
Assignee: drivers_network-wireless@kernel-bugs.osdl.org
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2014-04-03 09:46 UTC by Mike Cloaked
Modified: 2015-11-22 07:28 UTC (History)
0 users

See Also:
Kernel Version: 3.13.8
Subsystem:
Regression: No
Bisected commit-id:

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Description Mike Cloaked 2014-04-03 09:46:22 UTC 
After trying to debug issues with wireless speed by chance it was discovered that the iwlwifi module seems not to load the latest firmware microcode despite it being present in the /lib/modules directory.

The system is archlinux fully up to date.

Package version(s)
core/linux-firmware 20140316.dec41bc-1
kernel - 3.13.8-1-ARCH

Steps to reproduce:

Ensure latest kernel and linux-firmware are installed.

Then check as follows:

# pacman -Ss linux-firmware
core/linux-firmware 20140316.dec41bc-1 [installed]
Firmware files for Linux
# ls /lib/firmware/iwlwifi*
/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-1000-3.ucode /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-5000-2.ucode
/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-1000-5.ucode /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-5000-5.ucode
/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-100-5.ucode /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-5150-2.ucode
/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-105-6.ucode /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode
/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-135-6.ucode /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-6000g2a-5.ucode
/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-2000-6.ucode /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-6000g2a-6.ucode
/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-2030-6.ucode /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-6000g2b-5.ucode
/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-3160-7.ucode /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-6000g2b-6.ucode
/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-3160-8.ucode /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-6050-4.ucode
/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-3945-2.ucode /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-6050-5.ucode
/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-4965-2.ucode /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-7260-7.ucode
/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-5000-1.ucode /lib/firmware/iwlwifi-7260-8.ucode
# modinfo iwlwifi | grep firmware
firmware: iwlwifi-100-5.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-1000-5.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-135-6.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-105-6.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-2030-6.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-2000-6.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-5150-2.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-5000-5.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-6000g2b-6.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-6000g2a-5.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-6050-5.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-3160-7.ucode
firmware: iwlwifi-7260-7.ucode
parm: fw_restart:restart firmware in case of error (default true) (bool)

So in /lib/firmware there are several files for which there are two versions, but in the module not always the latest is loaded!

7260 is the older one, 3160 also, 6000g2a-5 also - but some are OK.
Comment 1 Mike Cloaked 2014-04-03 09:53:16 UTC 
I had some feedback from one of the developers in arch linux who clarified this in that Intel chooses to list the oldest usable firmware even though the later firmware is loaded, which means this is not actually a bug despite the output being confusing!  So I will close this bug.
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