Atheros QCA6174 Wireless Firmware for Debian Buster/Bullseye/Sid (and probably Ubuntu).

Master provides support for kernel version 5.5.

Check the branches for support of kernel versions 4.15 through 5.3 (Check out the appropriate branch).

SPECIAL THANKS

Special thanks to @jeremyb31 (his profile on ubuntuforums) for having provided the modified source and instructions on ubuntuforums for getting the Atheros QCA6174 Wireless working on Ubuntu/Debian linux in kernel versions 4.15 and 4.16.

Special thanks to @waveletlet (their profile on github) for having provided the merge request to add support for changes made to the kernel sources in version(s) 5.3, 5.5, and for noticing that the linux-headers-amd64 dependency could be noted in this README.

From what I understand the issue has to do with a few things, from a tweak to regulatory domain - to support for the EEPROM chipset used in devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Book 12.

The original source (for kernel versions up to 4.18) was simply a modified version of jeremyb31's - updated for 4.17+ by replacing the wil6210 directory with the updated one found in the latest linux kernel source tree.

The latest is based on the respective kernel's sources. This update is still functional with kernel version 5.5.0-1.

The following instructions will guide you through building and installing the Atheros QCA6174 Wireless Firmware in Debian and probably Ubuntu

Ensure you have all the required tools

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install git build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)

NOTE

You could substitue linux-headers-amd64 for linux-headers-$(uname -r) to have apt auto-select a candidate.

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/devrikx/atheros

Enter the newly checked out repository

cd atheros

Check out the branch for your kernel version. If you are using the latest kernel version available in Debian Buster (or from the buster-backports channel at the time of this writing), you can just use master. Otherwise, run the following command, replacing the X with your MAJOR kernel version (i.e. 4, 5, etc), and the y with your minor kernel version (i.e. 15, 16, or 3).

git checkout X-y-stable

The remaining process depends upon whether this is your first time building the source, or whether you're rebuilding due to a kernel patch version update (i.e. 4.18.0 to 4.18.0-3, or 5.3.0 to 5.5.0-1).

If you are updating due to a kernel patch (or packaging) version update, you'll need to clean your working directory first [1]:

make -C /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build M=$(pwd) clean

Now you are ready to continue as if it is your first run through this process

We start by copying some configuration to the working directory [1]:

cp /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build/.config ./
cp /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build/Module.symvers ./

Then we build the source

make -C /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build M=$(pwd) modules

Great! You're ready to install.

To install the firmware, copy the compiled kernel driver to the appropriate system path [1]:

sudo cp ath.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath

Finally, reboot your system:

sudo shutdown -r now

Please note that on Ubuntu, you probably need to prepend /usr to the paths used in the commands above.

After you've rebooted your PC, you should have working wifi!

This works for me (and other contributors) on the Samsung Galaxy Book 12, running Debian Buster with kernel version 5.5.0-1 (At the time this README.md was last updated.)

Feel free to let me know how it works for you - though for serious issues I'd recommend you seek help by posting to the forums where @jeremyb31 provides the original source and solution

I claim no ownership nor authorship of anything within this repository other than this README.md. Any significant licenses may be found within the preferred directory.

The instructions and source used to get working atheros wifi on linux kernel version 4.17+ is entirely based upon @jeremyb31's solution given on ubuntuforumns, and provided on @jeremyb31's github repository, respectively.

Thanks!