Weekly Development report(Jan 29 ~ Feb 02) on the iwlwifi WiFi project

From: Cheng Cui <cc_at_freebsd.org>
Date: Tue, 06 Feb 2024 14:24:11 UTC
I was still focusing on the problem in PR 276083
<https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=276083> last week, which
caused a timeout in iwlwifi firmware during 802.11n (11ng, 11na)
association, thus failing 11n association. But this problem may need a
second help after I have to move it to a lower priority.

   1. Given the problem could be in an earlier command or a missing
   command, or a flag, (a needle in a haystack), etc, I am narrowing down the
   problem/learning scope.
   - In discussion, Bjoern reached out in his contact and found some
      feedback about the problem which may be caused by a short hcmd size.
      - With the help of trace-cmd and some hex raw data dump in
      Linux/FreeBSD, in comparison we found the raw data in the specific hcmd
      (grp=5, cmd=22) was intact. So the hcmd size problem is highly likely
      ruled-out.
      - Further investigation from Bjoern showed the hcmd had reached the
      firmware and at least processed to some extent, but the answer
didn't come
      back.
      - We decided to reach out to the contact again and hope there is some
      help/feedback.
   2. Meanwhile, I am lowering down the priority of PR 276083
   <https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=276083>, and focusing
   on remaining tasks. After discussion, I will work on some other TX/data
   path after disabling the ampdu_rx* case.
   3. Finished reviewing D43646, D43635, D43512.


-- 
Best Regards,
Cheng Cui