QCA9300 RX fails

[WillyWonka321]

QCA9300 RX fails with "RxSBasicSegment cannot parse the segment with version v256" — TX (injector) works fine on same NIC

Summary

When using QCA9300 (AR9380 / AR5BXB112) as a receiver (logger), every frame fails with:

Error occurs during Rx frame parsing:RxSBasicSegment cannot parse the segment with version v256.. Error skipped

The same QCA9300 NIC works perfectly as a transmitter (injector) — packets are injected without any errors. AX210 works correctly in both TX and RX roles.

This error occurs on every single received frame, not sporadically.

This error also occurred before the build expired.

Test Scenarios

Scenario	TX Board	TX NIC	RX Board	RX NIC	Result
AX210 → AX210	Board A	AX210 (-i 0)	Board B	AX210 (-i 0)	✅ Works correctly
QCA9300 → QCA9300	Board A	QCA9300 (-i 1)	Board B	QCA9300 (-i 1)	❌ TX OK, RX fails with v256
QCA9300 TX only	Board A	QCA9300 (-i 1)	—	—	✅ Injection works, packets transmitted

Commands Used

TX (Board A) — works fine:

PicoScenes -d debug -i 1 --channel "2417e6 20e6 2417e6" \
  --mode injector --repeat 500 --delay 10000 --format HT --mcs 0

Screenshot — QCA9300 injector transmitting packets successfully:

RX (Board B) — fails with v256 on every frame:

PicoScenes -d debug -i 1 --channel "2417e6 20e6 2417e6" \
  --mode logger --output captura

Screenshot — QCA9300 logger failing with repeated v256 parsing errors:

Hardware

Both boards are identical:

• Board: UP Squared
• NIC #0: Intel AX210 (PCI ID 8086:2725, subsystem 8086:0020)
• NIC License Checking Failure #1: Qualcomm Atheros AR9380 — AR5BXB112 (PCI ID 168c:0030, subsystem 106b:009a, FCC ID: PPD-AR5BXB112, IC: 4104A-AR5BXB112)

01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros AR93xx Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0030] (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Apple Inc. AirPort Extreme [106b:009a]
        Kernel driver in use: ath9k
        Kernel modules: ath9k
04:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Wi-Fi 6 AX210/AX211/AX411 160MHz [8086:2725] (rev 1a)

Subsystem: Intel Corporation Wi-Fi 6 AX210 160MHz [8086:0020]

Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi

Kernel modules: iwlwifi

Software Versions (identical on both boards)

$ uname -r
6.5.0-15-generic
$ lsb_release -d

Description:    Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS
$ apt-cache policy picoscenes-platform picoscenes-driver-modules-$(uname -r)

picoscenes-platform:

Installed: 2025.1217.1547

Candidate: 2025.1217.1547

picoscenes-driver-modules-6.5.0-15-generic:

Installed: 20240210

Candidate: 20240210

Full package list:

$ dpkg -l | grep picoscenes
iU  picoscenes-all                             20200715       amd64
ii  picoscenes-driver-modules-6.5.0-15-generic 20240210       amd64
ii  picoscenes-platform                        2025.1217.1547 amd64
ii  picoscenes-source-updater                  1.3            amd64

Questions for the Developer

1. Is the driver version 20240210 compatible with platform version 2025.1217.1547 for the ath9k (QCA9300) RX path? The driver is from February 2024 and the platform is from December 2025 — could the platform's RxSBasic segment parser have been updated without a corresponding driver update?

2. Why are no newer builds available in the apt repository? The current build (2025.1217.1547) is expired, and apt-cache policy shows no newer candidate for either the platform or the driver.

Related Issues — This is NOT an isolated case

• 无法正常利用9300接收CSI #37 — Another user reports the exact same v256 error when using QCA9300 for CSI reception (May 2025). A commenter in that issue confirmed: "There are currently some problems with QCA9300 support, CSI extraction indeed does not work." The original author then asked if QCA9300 support would be restored in the future — no answer was given.

• 使用Intel 5300网卡，能够发但是接收不到 #66 — A very similar pattern with the Intel 5300 (IWL5300): the user reports that TX (injection) works, but RX (reception) does not. This suggests the RX parsing issue may affect multiple non-AX210 NIC types, not just QCA9300.

Key Observation

The QCA9300 transmits correctly — the ath9k driver can initialize the hardware, enter monitor mode, and inject packets without issues. The failure is only in the RX parsing path, which suggests the driver writes RxSBasic segments in a format version that the platform 2025.1217.1547 no longer recognizes.

The AX210 (iwlwifi) works in both TX and RX, suggesting the iwlwifi driver's segment format is still compatible with this platform version while the ath9k driver's format is not.