Wireless 8265 IBSS mode iwlwifi failure

[vince_fr]

Hello
I have an IBSS mode problem with a 8265 card in a NUC running linux:

Intel NUC (NUC7i7BNB (bios version BNKBL357.86A.0082.2020.0505.1614)) with 8265 network chipset (lscpi: Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 8265 / 8275 (rev 78))

Linux kernel version 5.6.18, custom self built linux distribution
wifi firmware: https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/_media/en/users/drivers/iwlwifi-8265-ucode-22.361476.0.tgz

mode managed works like a charm

mode ibss has a weird behavior, only works after another station pings the NUC. On my other computer (dell xps13) with an atheros card I do not have this problem. Also, I get a bunch of errors in dmesg.

steps to reproduce (I have a raspberry pi creating the ibss network first)

ifconfig wlan0 down
iw wlan0 set type ibss
ifconfig wlan0 up
iw wlan0 ibss join RpiNet 2437

with this code followed by static IP assignment an atheros card can ping another station. The intel card can't, and these iwlwifi errors keep repeating in dmesg:

[ 2043.314260] wlan0: Selected IBSS BSSID f2:ab:d5:4e:aa:76 based on configured SSID
[ 2054.263036] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: Queue 3 is active on fifo 1 and stuck for 10000 ms. SW [0, 19] HW [0, 19] FH TRB=0x059fec9fa
[ 2054.263337] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: Microcode SW error detected.  Restarting 0x2000000.
[ 2054.263570] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: Start IWL Error Log Dump:
[ 2054.263571] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: Status: 0x00000040, count: 6
[ 2054.263572] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: Loaded firmware version: 22.361476.0 8265-22.ucode
[ 2054.263573] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00000084 | NMI_INTERRUPT_UNKNOWN       
[ 2054.263573] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x000002B0 | trm_hw_status0
[ 2054.263574] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00000000 | trm_hw_status1
[ 2054.263575] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x0000E258 | branchlink2
[ 2054.263575] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x0002730C | interruptlink1
[ 2054.263576] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x0000094E | interruptlink2
[ 2054.263576] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00000000 | data1
[ 2054.263577] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00000080 | data2
[ 2054.263577] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x07830000 | data3
[ 2054.263578] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x1AC16E35 | beacon time
[ 2054.263579] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0xC37E61DA | tsf low
[ 2054.263579] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00000EB0 | tsf hi
[ 2054.263580] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00000000 | time gp1
[ 2054.263580] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x01D7C2EC | time gp2
[ 2054.263581] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00000000 | uCode revision type
[ 2054.263581] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00000016 | uCode version major
[ 2054.263582] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00058404 | uCode version minor
[ 2054.263582] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00000230 | hw version
[ 2054.263583] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00C89000 | board version
[ 2054.263583] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x0037011C | hcmd
[ 2054.263584] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00022000 | isr0
[ 2054.263584] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00800000 | isr1
[ 2054.263585] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x08001802 | isr2
[ 2054.263585] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00415CC0 | isr3
[ 2054.263586] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00000000 | isr4
[ 2054.263586] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00000110 | last cmd Id
[ 2054.263587] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00000000 | wait_event
[ 2054.263587] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00000080 | l2p_control
[ 2054.263588] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00010020 | l2p_duration
[ 2054.263588] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x0000003F | l2p_mhvalid
[ 2054.263589] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x000000CA | l2p_addr_match
[ 2054.263589] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x0000000D | lmpm_pmg_sel
[ 2054.263590] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x03071928 | timestamp
[ 2054.263590] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00343038 | flow_handler
[ 2054.264031] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: Start IWL Error Log Dump:
[ 2054.264031] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: Status: 0x00000040, count: 7
[ 2054.264032] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00000070 | NMI_INTERRUPT_LMAC_FATAL
[ 2054.264033] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00000000 | umac branchlink1
[ 2054.264033] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0xC0082F64 | umac branchlink2
[ 2054.264034] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0xC0081000 | umac interruptlink1
[ 2054.264034] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0xC0081000 | umac interruptlink2
[ 2054.264035] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00000800 | umac data1
[ 2054.264035] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0xC0081000 | umac data2
[ 2054.264036] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0xDEADBEEF | umac data3
[ 2054.264036] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00000016 | umac major
[ 2054.264037] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00058404 | umac minor
[ 2054.264037] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0xC0886280 | frame pointer
[ 2054.264037] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0xC0886280 | stack pointer
[ 2054.264038] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x0041019C | last host cmd
[ 2054.264038] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00000000 | isr status reg
[ 2054.264165] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: Fseq Registers:
[ 2054.264169] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x466AB1FC | FSEQ_ERROR_CODE
[ 2054.264173] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x89031EDE | FSEQ_TOP_INIT_VERSION
[ 2054.264178] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x90BCAE1C | FSEQ_CNVIO_INIT_VERSION
[ 2054.264182] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x0000A10B | FSEQ_OTP_VERSION
[ 2054.264186] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0xA25D0947 | FSEQ_TOP_CONTENT_VERSION
[ 2054.264190] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0xCCDBB460 | FSEQ_ALIVE_TOKEN
[ 2054.264194] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x93A054DC | FSEQ_CNVI_ID
[ 2054.264199] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x7B815EA2 | FSEQ_CNVR_ID
[ 2054.264203] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x00000010 | CNVI_AUX_MISC_CHIP
[ 2054.264210] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x0BADCAFE | CNVR_AUX_MISC_CHIP
[ 2054.264217] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x0BADCAFE | CNVR_SCU_SD_REGS_SD_REG_DIG_DCDC_VTRIM
[ 2054.264224] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: 0x0BADCAFE | CNVR_SCU_SD_REGS_SD_REG_ACTIVE_VDIG_MIRROR
[ 2054.264228] iwlwifi 0000:3a:00.0: Collecting data: trigger 2 fired.
[ 2054.264231] ieee80211 phy0: Hardware restart was requested

I can do any kind of test or report you ask.

Thanks for reading this!

Vino

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello vince_fr

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.

We understand that you are experiencing a weird behavior when using the Intel® NUC in "IBSS mode", meaning this an Ad-Hoc Network or Peer-to-Peer mode.

We would like to mention that at this point the Intel® NUCs models built with the Intel® NUC Board NUC7i7BNB have only been validated for Windows® operating system.

Linux Operating systems have not been validated yet. Intel® NUCs reported as compatible by Linux users and additional details for Linux support can be found in the below link:

Linux* Support for Intel® NUC: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005499/intel-nuc.html

For users trying to create an ad-hoc network using Linux, we recommend searching for the following websites:

• Linux* Support for Intel® Wireless Adapters: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005511/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking.html?wapkw=wireless+linux

• Linux Wireless: https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/iwlwifi

However, we will do our best to check this behavior. Please provide the following information:

1- Do you own only the Intel® NUC Board NUC7i7BNB? I mean, only the board without the chassis?

Or do you have an Intel® NUC Kit or Mini PC? For instance: NUC7i7BNH, NUC7i7BNKQ, NUC7i7BNHX1?

2- How many Intel® NUCs do you have that are affected by this behavior?

3- Is the Linux Kernel up to date? Please provide the /var/log/kern.log

4- Full Log file: /var/log/dmesg:

5- Intel® System Support Utility for the Linux* Operating System

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/26735/

Please refer to the Release Notes for details on how to run the tool:

https://downloadmirror.intel.com/26735/eng/ReleaseNotes.txt

Note: To upload and attach a file, use the "Drag and drop here or browse files to attach" dialog below the edit box.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello vince_fr

We are checking this thread and we would like to know if you need further assistance. Should you have additional inquiries, please let us know.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[vince_fr]

Hello Andrew

Thank you for your reply. I am having a hard time trying to find time to answer all the questions you asked in the last post, but I will, hopefully, at some point in the near future... (a bit overwhelmed by all the work I have, running a business on my own, I admit...).

In summary, though... a few notes:

I am using ssh over ibss on a daily basis these days, between a raspberry pi zero and a laptop (dell XPS13) equiped with an atheros ath10k driven nic, so I know I have no problem for the ibss software part.

I have two NUCs: the bios report for both of them (so you can identify them): 

NUC7i7BNB (bios version BNKBL357.86A.0082.2020.0505.1614), but actually it has a chassis, and I just looked at the bill from the shop when I bought it: it says NUCi7BNH
NUC6i7KYB (bios version KYSKLi70.86A.0067.2020.0325.1553). This one has a skull on the case.

I run the exact same software on both of them (and it is the same that runs on my laptop, too...).

I checked the behavior on the NUC6, it is the same than for the NUC7, that I described in the first post (errors in the printk as soon as the connexion starts).

Thank you for your concern

Kindly yours

Vince

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello vince_fr

Thank you for your response.

We understand you are not able to provide all the information requested. No problems. As soon as you have more details available please feel free to update the thread.

In the meantime, we will do our best to check the behavior you described.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello vince_fr

In order to have a baseline and for reference purposes, we would like to know if you are able to connect the Intel® NUCs to a regular DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) wireless network without issues?

Do the Intel® NUCs work fine if they are connected to normal router/access point using regular wireless networks?

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[vince_fr]

Andrew

Thank you SO MUCH for this easy-to-answer question...

-The short version: YES!

-The long version: I have been using Intel NUCs on a daily basis for years now, so of course the regular managed/station mode works like a charm. I built my own distro and try to keep things as light as possible, so my current script to connect to my router is as simple as:

ifconfig wlan0 up
wpa_supplicant -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -B 
udhcpc -i wlan0 #https://udhcp.busybox.net/

I never had any wifi network issue using both of my NUCs in the regular "managed" mode.

Regards

Vince

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello vince_fr

Thank you for your response and for all the details.

We will continue checking this behavior. Please keep in mind that it might take more time for us to provide more details. However, we will do our best and as soon as we have any update we will be updating this thread.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[vince_fr]

Thanks Andrews

No worries, patience is my best ally these days ...

Cheers

Vince

[AndrewG_Intel]

Hello vince_fr

Thank you for your patience in this matter.

We are still working regarding this inquiry; however, we would like to gather more details and information about this behavior.

We are going to send you an email to the email account associated with your profile in order to provide you with additional steps and to request some logs and information about your environment.

Best regards,

Andrew G.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[vince_fr]

Hello

I just received another NUC: BXNUC10i7FNK2 which has the following network device: (lspci):

Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless-AC 9462

I am very happy to report that with this hardware, along with exactly the same software I used before (on NUC6 and NUC7, see OP), wifi IBSS (ad-hoc) mode actually works as expected!

cheers

Vincent