Linux's Qualcomm Ath10k Driver Getting WoWLAN, WCN3990 Support

The Qualcomm/Atheros "Ath10k" Linux driver coming up in the Linux 4.20~5.0 kernel merge window is picking up two prominent features.

First up, the Ath10k driver is finally having WoWLAN support -- Wake on Wireless LAN. WoWLAN has been supported by the kernel for years and more recently is getting picked up by Linux networking user-space configuration utilities. Ath10k is becoming the latest Linux wireless driver supporting WoWLAN (WIPHY_WOWLAN_NET_DETECT) for automatically waking up the system when within range of an a known SSID.

The other interesting bit with the Ath10k driver for this next Linux kernel cycle is supporting the Qualcomm wcn3990 wireless hardware. Basic support is in place for the Qualcomm WCN3990 WiFi+Bluetooth chip. The Bluetooth patches have already been out there while now the WiFi support is queued. This WiFi chip is used by the likes of the Snapdragon 835 and 660 platforms.

This mainline kernel support for the WCN3990 is prominent with soon potentially having nice ARM-powered Linux laptops and working WiFi support is obviously critical.

These Ath10k Linux WLAN driver improvements were queued in net-next for the Linux 4.20 (or 5.0) cycle kicking off next week.