Rock 5C - WiFi stops working after system upgrade

[oqewipobin]

I'm having an issue where the prebuilt images dowloaded from https://www.armbian.com/radxa-rock-5c/ (released on Oct 12, 2024) works fine, including WiFi connectivity, even after reboots, but the moment I updgrade the packages (apt update && apt upgrade) and reboot the system, the WiFi network interface (wlan0) simply disappears and can I no longer search or connect to any wireless network.I've flashed both Bookworm Minimal/IOT and Server/CLI Bookworm, e the issue always occur after upgradin packages.

 

the wlan0 does not appear on iwctl neither ip address commands, but the device (AIC Wlan) still appears on lsusb command:

$ lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 004: ID a69c:8d80 aicsemi AIC Wlan
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 1a40:0101 Terminus Technology Inc. Hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

armbianmonitor output:
https://paste.armbian.com/oqewipobin

 

I don't know if there is an issue with the newest kernel update, or if there is some overlay or kernel module for the AIC Wlan chip that is being erased/disabled during the kernel update process.

Is there something I can try to reenable the wlan0 interface? or is it just a bronken update?

Edited November 4 by oqewipobin
Fix hyperlink

[oqewipobin]

Looks like installing/reinstalling the Radxa provided packages for aic8800 (https://github.com/radxa-pkg/aic8800/releases) kernel modules AFTER the kernel update makes the WiFi module work again.

[Vlastimil Menšík]

What packages did you install? The release page from Radxa contains several packages and I am not sure, which should I use.

[tom_i]

Same for me.

Installed

Quote

Armbian_24.8.4_Rock-5c_bookworm_vendor_6.1.75-backported-mesa.img

to eMMc card, installation / configuration for 1st time without problem also with using WIFI connection.

List of modules after installation:

 

Then after apt update/upgrade wifi stop working, module was not found or somehow broken.

What I found out, that upgrade Armbian deletes all aic8800 modules:

 

After rebooting system, modules were not loaded and modprobe of them don't work either.

 

Upgrade installs newer versions of

Quote

linux-headers-vendor-rk35xx

linux-image-vendor-rk35xx

linux-dtb-vendor-rk35xx

to version 24.11.1 from 24.8.4

Edited November 18 by tom_i

[tom_i]

dmesg found it.. but 

[   12.854279] usb 7-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=a69c, idProduct=8d80, bcdDevice= 1.00
[   12.854323] usb 7-1.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[   12.854353] usb 7-1.3: Product: AIC Wlan
[   12.854378] usb 7-1.3: Manufacturer: aicsemi
[   12.854403] usb 7-1.3: SerialNumber: 20220103

...

[   14.555712] aicbsp_init
[   14.555720] RELEASE_DATE:2024_0109_ec460377
[   14.555724] aicbsp_resv_mem_init
[   14.557550] systemd[1]: Starting systemd-sysusers.service - Create System Users...
[   14.567717] aicbsp: aicbsp_set_subsys, subsys: AIC_WIFI, state to: 1
[   14.567736] aicbsp: aicbsp_set_subsys, power state change to 1 dure to AIC_WIFI
[   14.567741] aicbsp: aicbsp_platform_power_on

[Igor]

7 hours ago, tom_i said:

Installed

Test most recent builds: (still in testing)
https://rsync.armbian.com/incoming/schwar3kat/rock-5c/archive/

[ChrisO]

I've just tried Armbian_24.11.1_Rock-5c_bookworm_edge_6.11.7_minimal.img
wlan works.

No ZFS, however. Building zfs-dkms fails, from /var/lib/dkms/zfs/2.2.5/build/make.log: 

   93 | #error "Unsupported kernel"

According to https://github.com/openzfs/zfs/releases:

zfs-2.2.5 is compatible with 4.18 - 6.9 kernels
zfs-2.2.6 is compatible with 4.18 - 6.10 kernels
zfs-2.3.0 would be compatible with Linux kernels 4.18 - 6.11

Armbian_24.8.4_Rock-5c_bookworm_vendor_6.1.75_minimal.img - ZFS OK, wlan after 'apt upgrade' not anymore.

 

But
$ /sudo dkms install aic8800-usb/3.0+git20240327.3561b08f-2
does the trick.
-------
Sign command: /lib/modules/6.1.75-vendor-rk35xx/build/scripts/sign-file
Binary /lib/modules/6.1.75-vendor-rk35xx/build/scripts/sign-file not found, modules won't be signed
Creating symlink /var/lib/dkms/aic8800-usb/3.0+git20240327.3561b08f-2/source -> /usr/src/aic8800-usb-3.0+git20240327.3561b08f-2

Building module:
Cleaning build area...(bad exit status: 2)
make -j8 KERNELRELEASE=6.1.75-vendor-rk35xx -C /lib/modules/6.1.75-vendor-rk35xx/build M=/var/lib/dkms/aic8800-usb/3.0+git20240327.3561b08f-2/build/USB/driver_fw/drivers/aic8800 && make -C /lib/modules/6.1.75-vendor-rk35xx/build M=/var/lib/dkms/aic8800-usb/3.0+git20240327.3561b08f-2/build/USB/driver_fw/drivers/aic_btusb.......
....
depmod...
--------

root@rock-5c:~# iw phy0 info
Wiphy phy0
    wiphy index: 0
    max # scan SSIDs: 3
    max scan IEs length: 200 bytes
    max # sched scan SSIDs: 0
    max # match sets: 0
    Retry short limit: 7
    Retry long limit: 4
    Coverage class: 0 (up to 0m)
    Device supports RSN-IBSS.
    Device supports AP-side u-APSD.
    Supported Ciphers:
        * WEP40 (00-0f-ac:1)
        * WEP104 (00-0f-ac:5)
        * TKIP (00-0f-ac:2)
....

Regards,
Chris
 

[Sander de Leeuw]

I can confirm this issue. Tested on the following images:

* Armbian_24.11.1_Rock-5c_noble_vendor_6.1.75_gnome-kisak_desktop.img.xz

* Custom build image (vendor kernel 6.1 + GNOME)

 

When updating the kernel, the aic8800-usb DKMS driver is removed from the old kernel, but not reinstalled on the new kernel.

This can easily be fixed afterwards by running the following command: `sudo dpkg-reconfigure aic8800-usb-dkms`, which will recompile and install the kernel module again.

 

I was playing around with Radxa's own Debian based image as well. When compiling a custom kernel with their `bsp` tool and installing it, the same thing happens. Therefore I believe this to be an upstream issue with the aic8800 deb packages. Maybe with the way they register the driver using DKMS...

 

Edited December 8 by Sander de Leeuw