Atheros wireless slow speeds

[ericrhenry]

I know this is a topic that comes up periodically. I am running a newly installed kernel, with /proc/version output

Linux version 5.4.38-gentoo (root@ericsacer1) (gcc version 9.2.0 (Gentoo 9.2.0-r2 p3)) #1 SMP Sun Jun 7 14:31:56 EDT 2020

with linux-firmware version 20200519

My laptop has an Atheros QCA9377 adaptor, with lspci -v output

02:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 31)
Subsystem: Lite-On Communications Inc QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 55
Memory at e0200000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2M]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/8 Maskable+ 64bit-
Capabilities: [70] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [148] Virtual Channel
Capabilities: [168] Device Serial Number 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
Capabilities: [178] Latency Tolerance Reporting
Capabilities: [180] L1 PM Substates
Kernel driver in use: ath10k_pci
Kernel modules: ath10k_pci

Running speedtest-cli on this setup results in both upload and download speeds of 6-8 Mbit/s, Running speedtest on a tablet on the same network (with admittedly a different detected server) gives values 2-4 times as large. I have had issues with Atheros speeds in the past, but these values strike me as dramatically below what should be expected. To be fair, I am running on an old-ish Verizon FIOS router, which AFAIK does not even support 802.11ac, but even 802.11n should be able to do better.
So I am just wondering if there are known or possible issues with this combination of kernel and firmware for this device. Just for completeness, the output of 'dmesg | grep ath10k' is

[ 10.841249] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: pci irq msi oper_irq_mode 2 irq_mode 0 reset_mode 0
[ 11.356587] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: qca9377 hw1.1 target 0x05020001 chip_id 0x003821ff sub 11ad:08a6
[ 11.356589] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: kconfig debug 1 debugfs 1 tracing 0 dfs 0 testmode 0
[ 11.357111] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: firmware ver WLAN.TF.2.1-00021-QCARMSWP-1 api 6 features wowlan,ignore-otp crc32 42e41877
[ 11.611808] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: board_file api 2 bmi_id N/A crc32 8aedfa4a
[ 11.688278] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: unsupported HTC service id: 1536
[ 11.706629] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: htt-ver 3.56 wmi-op 4 htt-op 3 cal otp max-sta 32 raw 0 hwcrypto 1
[ 12.103005] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0 wlp2s0: renamed from wlan0
[ 13.066082] Modules linked in: snd_hda_codec_realtek snd_hda_codec_hdmi snd_hda_codec_generic snd_hda_intel snd_intel_nhlt snd_hda_codec amdgpu(+) snd_hwdep snd_hda_core ath10k_pci snd_pcm snd_timer ath10k_core snd gpu_sched rtsx_pci ttm k10temp mfd_core ath soundcore
[ 13.067325] Modules linked in: snd_hda_codec_realtek snd_hda_codec_hdmi snd_hda_codec_generic snd_hda_intel snd_intel_nhlt snd_hda_codec amdgpu(+) snd_hwdep snd_hda_core ath10k_pci snd_pcm snd_timer ath10k_core snd gpu_sched rtsx_pci ttm k10temp mfd_core ath soundcore
[ 13.068523] Modules linked in: snd_hda_codec_realtek snd_hda_codec_hdmi snd_hda_codec_generic snd_hda_intel snd_intel_nhlt snd_hda_codec amdgpu(+) snd_hwdep snd_hda_core ath10k_pci snd_pcm snd_timer ath10k_core snd gpu_sched rtsx_pci ttm k10temp mfd_core ath soundcore
[ 13.069716] Modules linked in: snd_hda_codec_realtek snd_hda_codec_hdmi snd_hda_codec_generic snd_hda_intel snd_intel_nhlt snd_hda_codec amdgpu(+) snd_hwdep snd_hda_core ath10k_pci snd_pcm snd_timer ath10k_core snd gpu_sched rtsx_pci ttm k10temp mfd_core ath soundcore
[ 13.070912] Modules linked in: snd_hda_codec_realtek snd_hda_codec_hdmi snd_hda_codec_generic snd_hda_intel snd_intel_nhlt snd_hda_codec amdgpu(+) snd_hwdep snd_hda_core ath10k_pci snd_pcm snd_timer ath10k_core snd gpu_sched rtsx_pci ttm k10temp mfd_core ath soundcore
[ 13.072139] Modules linked in: snd_hda_codec_realtek snd_hda_codec_hdmi snd_hda_codec_generic snd_hda_intel snd_intel_nhlt snd_hda_codec amdgpu(+) snd_hwdep snd_hda_core ath10k_pci snd_pcm snd_timer ath10k_core snd gpu_sched rtsx_pci ttm k10temp mfd_core ath soundcore
[ 19.818193] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0: unsupported HTC service id: 1536
[ 24.887939] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0 wlp2s0: disabling HT as WMM/QoS is not supported by the AP
[ 24.887940] ath10k_pci 0000:02:00.0 wlp2s0: disabling VHT as WMM/QoS is not supported by the AP

Thanks,
Eric

[Ant P.]

Those last two lines suggest it's a misconfiguration on the router. HT is a required part of 802.11n, without it you get 11g speeds.

[ericrhenry]

Thanks for the response. I am running dual-boot Linux/Windows, and my recollection is that the QoS was disabled because, with it enabled, transfer speeds slowed to a trickle under Windows. Whether this was a quirk of the specific router, or just the bad state of Atheros Windows drivers, was never clear. I may have to dig a little deeper, because other devices seem to perform much better with the same router. (But I still lack a consistent quantification of this...)