Errors in make defconfig-ath10k .. Slow wifi with qualcomm Atheros QCA9377

Question

The wifi signal is so weak in my laptop with ubuntu boot but works just fine with windows boot: I have tried all the possible ideas and seen a lots of forums but the wifi is still slow. I only get speed of 1 to 3 mbps with ubuntu boot but with windows boot i get roughly 30 mbps of speed. In one forum i have found of backports for a qualcomm modem but every time i try to compile it i get errors.

If anyone can help me with the backports it would be great:

My current kernel is:5.8.0-41-generic

When i run "lspci -nnk | grep -A2 0280" this command i get:

03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0042] (rev 31)
    Subsystem: Lite-On Communications Inc Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [11ad:08a6]
    Kernel driver in use: ath10k_pci

When i run 'make defconfig-ath10k' i get errors like:

Generating local configuration database from kernel ...mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5553’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5555’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5557’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5559’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5561’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5563’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5566’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5568’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5570’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5572’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5574’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5576’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5578’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5580’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5582’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5584’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5586’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5588’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5590’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5592’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5594’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5596’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5598’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5600’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5602’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5604’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5606’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5608’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5610’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5612’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5615’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5617’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5619’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5621’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5623’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5625’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5627’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5629’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5631’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5633’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5635’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5637’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5639’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5641’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5643’: Permission denied
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘.tmp_5645’: Permission denied
 done.
cc -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wstrict-prototypes -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer   -c -o conf.o conf.c
lex -ozconf.lex.c -L zconf.l
yacc -ozconf.tab.c -t -l zconf.y
yacc: e - line 97 of "zconf.y", syntax error
%destructor {
^
make[2]: *** [Makefile:20: zconf.tab.c] Error 1
make[1]: *** [Makefile.real:41: defconfig-ath10k] Error 2
make: *** [Makefile:43: defconfig-ath10k] Error 2

When i run this command with sudo also i get errors similar like this.

If someone can help me with this would be a very great help. I am about to go mad with this slow wifi..

Answer 1

Official info: "The QCA9377 is a single-die wireless local area network (WLAN) and Bluetooth combination solution to support 1 × 1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WLAN standards and Bluetooth 5.0 + HS, designed to deliver superior integration of WLAN/Bluetooth and low-energy technology."

One possible cause for slow wifi is interference between bluetooth and wifi. Before trying an old driver, try configuring your system with a current driver. This is a list of actions by increasing difficulty:

1. Disabling bluetooth. You can do this via CLI with systemctl stop bluetooth, via GUI with Settings -> Bluetooth -> Move the slider at the top right, or perhaps via BIOS configuration.
2. Getting closer to the router (at least to try).
3. Changing firmware. This reports that "removing the /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware-6.bin file and rebooting helped. The system works with the previous firmware-5.bin."
4. Changing WiFi band. Select a different SSID, or select the band via nm-connection-editor. See this and this. See this to show the relevance, even if possibly not your case.
5. Updating to kernel 5.11.
6. Changing WiFi channel. See this and this; requires recompiling the driver.
7. Changing WiFi antenna. For some adapters, it is possible to select the antenna to use. I am not sure yours has more than one antenna. You could check with modinfo ath10k_pci, it will show all parms that can be selected.

Please post the output of the following commands:

$ modinfo ath10k_pci
$ iw dev
$ ifconfig -a
$ inxi -F
$ dmesg | grep ath

As per this recent post, there are not so many options for the driver: irq_mode, reset_mode. Perhaps now there are a few more.

If alternatives above don't work, you could try

1. Using a backport, as you tried. To solve this part, please post more info. In which directory you are compiling? What are the permissions? See this old answer.

Sources:

1. ath10k installation
2. My Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 Wireless adopter is not working in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Vendor: Lenovo Model:E41-25)
3. https://forum.openwrt.org/t/ath10k-pci-firmware-lacks-feature-flag-indicating-a-retry-limit-of-2-is-ok-requested-limit-4/79694
4. More wifi issues - Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 ath10k_pci
5. https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/es-ar/000144425/killer-wireless-firmware-update-guide-for-ubuntu-systems
6. https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2389285&page=2