danctnix-besser README: refresh for pkgrel=3 + Patch I + 5 GHz win

Adds a TL;DR table at top with package name, srcversion, source-of- truth pointers, and the SCS caveat. Extends the patch table with Patch I (5 GHz scan filter, closes besser#1) and the arm64 SCS Makefile workaround. Updates the measured-outcome section with the 2026-05-18 5 GHz benchmark (11.32 MB/s sustained internet download on newton ch.48 — 3.6x the 2.4 GHz baseline of 3.12 MB/s on the same source URL). Refreshes the install + verify instructions to pkgrel=3, expected srcversion BEB625FA, and adds the per-band scan probe commands that demonstrate Patch I working. Adds the kernel-agent mirror to the provenance list and surfaces the Phase 5 reviewer's known residual limitation about multi-band iw scan (mac80211 aborts-on-any-band-fail; per-band scans work normally).
danctnix-besser: pkgrel=3 — refine Patch I, add SCS-off + GCC15 workaround
2026-05-18 16:14:33 +02:00 · 2026-05-18 15:57:05 +02:00 · 2026-05-18 11:28:33 +02:00 · 2026-05-08 17:31:35 +02:00 · 2026-05-08 15:08:16 +02:00 · 2026-05-08 13:59:04 +02:00
18 changed files with 15391 additions and 0 deletions
@@ -0,0 +1,172 @@
+# linux-pinetab2-danctnix-besser
+
+Soft-upstream fork of `linux-pinetab2` (DanctNIX kernel for PineTab2) carrying the **BESser** bes2600 staging-driver patchset.
+
+Drop-in replacement for `linux-pinetab2`. Same kernel version, same config (one toggle aside — see SCS caveat below), same modules — only the `drivers/staging/bes2600/` driver differs.
+
+---
+
+## TL;DR
+
+| | |
+|---|---|
+| **Current package** | `linux-pinetab2-danctnix-besser-7.0.danctnix1-3-aarch64.pkg.tar.zst` |
+| **Module srcversion** | `BEB625FA7443171EA8D55F7` (`bes2600.ko`) |
+| **Kernel base** | DanctNIX [`linux-pinetab2`](https://codeberg.org/DanctNIX/linux-pinetab2) tag `v7.0-danctnix1` |
+| **What it fixes vs upstream** | +73 % TX throughput, the `wsm_generic_confirm 0x0007` dmesg storm (besser#1 closed), the firmware-PSM-not-honored hang, the multi-function SDIO LMAC-wedge recovery |
+| **What it adds today vs pkgrel=1** | **Patch I**: 5 GHz scan filter — `iw scan freq <single-5ghz-channel>` works, multi-channel per-band sweep refused at driver boundary to dodge firmware reject cascade. NM `band=a` profiles associate to 5 GHz cleanly. **Sustained 11.32 MB/s** download (2.54 GB factory image) on `newton` 5 GHz ch.48 — **3.6× the 2.4 GHz baseline of 3.12 MB/s** on the same source. |
+| **Source-of-truth** | `git.reauktion.de/marfrit/bes2600-dkms` — branch `cleanups` for c-stack+A+B, branch `bes2600/scan-filter-5ghz` for Patch I |
+| **This PKGBUILD** | `git.reauktion.de/marfrit/besser` `claude-noether-14` `danctnix-besser-pkgbuild/kernel/` |
+| **Kernel-agent mirror** | `git.reauktion.de/marfrit/kernel-agent` `fleet/ohm.yaml` (manifest) + `patches/driver/bes2600/scan-filter-5ghz-danctnix/` |
+| **Caveat** | `CONFIG_SHADOW_CALL_STACK=n` (security-hardening regression, workaround for a GCC 15.2.1 + arm_neon.h pragma issue — tracked in [besser#20](https://git.reauktion.de/marfrit/besser/issues/20), restore to `=y` when GCC is fixed) |
+
+---
+
+## What's in the patchset
+
+A 17-commit cumulative diff over `v7.0-danctnix1`'s in-tree `drivers/staging/bes2600/`, plus the standalone Patch I (5 GHz scan filter) and an arm64 build-environment workaround for GCC 15.
+
+Individual commits with full rationale + Phase-7 verification logs live on the **`cleanups` branch** of [`marfrit/bes2600-dkms`](https://git.reauktion.de/marfrit/bes2600-dkms/commits/branch/cleanups) and the **`bes2600/scan-filter-5ghz` branch** for Patch I. This PKGBUILD ships them squashed into separate patch files for build atomicity.
+
+| group | what it does |
+|---|---|
+| **c-stack (c5.1–c5.2.1, c6.1, c6.2, c7)** | wifi-stability fixes: scan-defer-on-firmware-reject, scan-defer-backoff-tune, LMAC recover via `mmc_hw_reset`, PM state resync, wake-state consume, firmware-doesn't-honour-PSM self-detect, multi-function SDIO `mmc_hw_reset` rescan |
+| **Patch A** | decrypt-storm fast-recover at `bes2600_rx_cb`: ≥5 `WSM_STATUS_DECRYPTFAILURE` in 5 s → `ieee80211_connection_loss(vif)`. Phase-7 confirmed N=2 (2026-05-07), storms recover ~1 s vs 109 s baseline. |
+| **Patch B** | connection-loss bus-reset: ≥3 driver-side connection-loss decisions in 60 s on the same vif → `mmc_hw_reset` instead of mac80211 reauth. Installed dormant; never tripped in production yet. |
+| **Patch C v3** | structural: drop `sdio_rx_work` workqueue relay; IRQ → bh-direct architecture (matches mainline cw1200). +73 % sustained RX. |
+| **Patch D** | `ba_lock` removed; `ba_acc/ba_cnt/ba_acc_rx/ba_cnt_rx/ba_ena` → `atomic_t`; per-RX-frame spinlock eliminated. |
+| **Patch E** | per-RX-frame `ps_state_lock` skipped when c7's `pm_unsupported` latch is on (steady-state on production firmware). |
+| **Patch F** | cw1200 mainline backports: hw_scan SKB-lifecycle UAF, `init_common` `destroy_workqueue` on error, `atomic_add(1, x) → atomic_inc(x)` cosmetic. |
+| **Patch G** | GPL-2.0 §1 attribution restoration: SPDX-License-Identifier on every file, Tarnyagin/ST-Ericsson copyright restored on cw1200-derived files. |
+| **Patch C2** | `ieee80211_rx_irqsafe → ieee80211_rx_ni` at all 6 sites (kernel.org-clean process-context API; tasklet hop removed). |
+| **Patch H** | `bh.c` hygiene cleanup: 76- and 468-line `#if 0` cw1200-ancestor fossil blocks removed; `__bes2600_irq_enable` stub removed; per-iteration `BUG_ON` → `WARN_ON_ONCE`. |
+| **Patch I** ([besser#1](https://git.reauktion.de/marfrit/besser/issues/1)) | **5 GHz scan filter.** Refuses only **multi-channel** 5 GHz scans (the per-band-sweep mac80211 issues internally) at the driver boundary with `-EOPNOTSUPP`, dodging the firmware's status-2 reject cascade. Single-channel 5 GHz scans pass through so NM/`wpa_supplicant` per-freq BSS discovery (when `802-11-wireless.band=a`) still finds and associates to 5 GHz APs. Net effect: dmesg storm gone, 5 GHz attachment works, 3.6× sustained throughput on 5 GHz HT40 vs 2.4 GHz HT20. |
+| **arm64 SCS Makefile workaround** | Adds `-ffixed-x18` explicitly for `arch/arm64/lib/xor-neon.o` when `CONFIG_SHADOW_CALL_STACK=y`. Dead code in this pkgrel (SCS is off), in place for the day SCS re-enable becomes possible. See [besser#20](https://git.reauktion.de/marfrit/besser/issues/20). |
+
+## Measured outcome
+
+- **Phase 7 (Patch I, 2026-05-18):** Pattern A `wsm_generic_confirm failed for request 0x0007` storm: 14.3/h → **0/h** over 30-min observation. 5 GHz `newton` BSSID `c0:25:06:e6:5b:33` @ 5240 MHz (ch.48), TX bitrate 150 Mbit/s MCS 7 HT40 short-GI. Internet download throughput **11.32 MB/s** (sustained 90.5 Mbit/s, ~60 % of PHY) vs 3.12 MB/s on 2.4 GHz HT20 same source.
+- **Phase 7 (Patch C v3 + F + G + D + E + C2 + H, Mobian-flavor):** N=3 stress @ 4 MB/s sender on RK3566/PineTab2 — Patch B baseline 1.36 MB/s → +73 % sustained 2.28 MB/s. Race-fix verified under stress (no `wsm_release_tx_buffer` WARN storm under load).
+- Module loads + associates cleanly; `pm_unsupported` latch fires on boot as expected.
+
+## Building
+
+```sh
+makepkg -s
+```
+
+Identical workflow to upstream `linux-pinetab2`. Produces `linux-pinetab2-danctnix-besser-<ver>-aarch64.pkg.tar.zst` plus a matching `-headers` package. Build host can be aarch64 native (recommended — no cross-toolchain setup) or x86 with an aarch64 cross-compiler.
+
+Build time: ~45–55 min on an 8-core aarch64 host (boltzmann/RPi5-class), most of it the kernel modules phase.
+
+**GCC 15.2.1 note:** This pkgrel ships with `CONFIG_SHADOW_CALL_STACK=n` because GCC 15.2.1's strict pragma validator chokes on `arm_neon.h`'s push/`target("+nothing+aes")`/pop sequences when SCS is on. The `0003-arm64-xor-neon-ffixed-x18-build-fix.patch` is a defensive Makefile-side workaround that's a no-op while SCS is off; it'll silently unblock SCS=y once GCC upstream is fixed. See [besser#20](https://git.reauktion.de/marfrit/besser/issues/20) for the re-enable plan.
+
+## Installing
+
+The package declares `provides=("linux-pinetab2=$pkgver-$pkgrel")` and `conflicts=(linux-pinetab2)`, so `pacman` will cleanly take over from upstream `linux-pinetab2`:
+
+```sh
+sudo pacman -U linux-pinetab2-danctnix-besser-7.0.danctnix1-3-aarch64.pkg.tar.zst
+```
+
+That removes the upstream `linux-pinetab2` package (if installed) and registers the BESser-flavored kernel under the same provides slot. Headers package is optional; install it if you build out-of-tree modules.
+
+The pacman `mkinitcpio` hook auto-generates `/boot/initramfs-linux-pinetab2-danctnix-besser.img`. Modules land in `/usr/lib/modules/<release>-pinetab2-danctnix-besser/`, vmlinuz at `/boot/vmlinuz-linux-pinetab2-danctnix-besser`, DTBs at `/boot/dtbs/rockchip/rk3566-pinetab2-{v0.1,v2.0}.dtb`.
+
+### Bootloader (PineTab2-specific)
+
+PineTab2 boots via U-Boot loading a script `boot.scr` (compiled from `/boot/boot.txt` via `mkscr`). After install, point the script at the new kernel + initramfs:
+
+```sh
+sudo cp /boot/boot.txt /boot/boot.txt.pre-besser
+sudo cp /boot/boot.scr /boot/boot.scr.pre-besser
+sudo sed -i \
+  -e 's|/vmlinuz-linux-pinetab2$|/vmlinuz-linux-pinetab2-danctnix-besser|' \
+  -e 's|/initramfs-linux-pinetab2\.img|/initramfs-linux-pinetab2-danctnix-besser.img|' \
+  /boot/boot.txt
+cd /boot && sudo ./mkscr
+sudo systemctl reboot
+```
+
+Backups (`*.pre-besser`) let you revert without touching the U-Boot console: `sudo cp /boot/boot.scr.pre-besser /boot/boot.scr` and reboot.
+
+## Verifying
+
+After reboot:
+
+```sh
+uname -r
+# expected: <kver>-pinetab2-danctnix-besser
+
+lsmod | grep -i bes2600
+# expected: bes2600 (loaded), bes2600_btuart (loaded if Bluetooth in use)
+
+cat /sys/module/bes2600/srcversion
+# expected: BEB625FA7443171EA8D55F7 for pkgrel=3
+```
+
+`dmesg | grep bes2600` should show clean firmware load, no SDIO TX panic, no `wsm_release_tx_buffer` WARN storm under load, no `wsm_generic_confirm failed for request 0x0007` storm.
+
+For the 5 GHz fix specifically:
+```sh
+sudo iw dev wlan0 scan freq 5180
+# expected: completes, no "Operation not supported"
+
+sudo iw dev wlan0 scan freq 5180 5200 5220 5240
+# expected: "Operation not supported (-95)" — multi-channel 5 GHz refused
+```
+
+## Rolling back
+
+If the new kernel misbehaves:
+
+```sh
+sudo cp /boot/boot.scr.pre-besser /boot/boot.scr
+sudo systemctl reboot
+```
+
+That returns you to whatever kernel `boot.scr` was pointing at before the install (typically upstream `linux-pinetab2` or the previous `linux-pinetab2-danctnix-besser`). The package itself can be removed with `sudo pacman -R linux-pinetab2-danctnix-besser` and the original `linux-pinetab2` re-installed via `sudo pacman -S linux-pinetab2`.
+
+## Provenance
+
+- Mobian-flavor source-of-truth: <https://git.reauktion.de/marfrit/bes2600-dkms> (`cleanups` branch for c-stack + Patches A/B, `bes2600/scan-filter-5ghz` for Patch I)
+- Per-patch breakdown, Phase 0–7 logs, follow-up issues: <https://git.reauktion.de/marfrit/besser>
+- Upstream cw1200 mainline (architectural reference): `drivers/net/wireless/st/cw1200/` in linux-rockchip
+- Kernel base: <https://codeberg.org/DanctNIX/linux-pinetab2> tag `v7.0-danctnix1`
+- Kernel-agent mirror of the patch tree + per-host manifest: <https://git.reauktion.de/marfrit/kernel-agent>
+
+## Why it's "BESser"
+
+"Besser" = German for "better." Patch series ID across both DKMS (Mobian) and in-tree (Danctnix) trees. Single source-of-truth lives in `marfrit/bes2600-dkms`; this PKGBUILD is the danctnix-flavor consumption surface.
+
+## Soft-upstream intent
+
+Submitting this PKGBUILD to DanctNIX for review. If accepted as a replacement for `linux-pinetab2` (or sidegrade), the BESser patchset ships to all PineTab2 users via the regular danctnix package update channel. The bes2600 driver gets:
+
+- ~2× sustained RX throughput on 2.4 GHz
+- ~3.6× sustained RX throughput on 5 GHz (via Patch I + correctly using HT40)
+- Race-correctness on the hot path
+- GPL-2.0 §1 attribution compliance
+- Modern kernel API (no deprecated `from_timer`, no `_irqsafe` from process context, no `BUG_ON` in steady-state)
+
+Drop-in compatibility: same kernel version, same module names, no userspace ABI change. SCS off is the one config caveat, tracked in [besser#20](https://git.reauktion.de/marfrit/besser/issues/20).
+
+## Maintenance plan
+
+- New danctnix kernel release → rebase BESser patches onto the new tag, regenerate cumulative diff, bump pkgver.
+- New BESser patch on Mobian DKMS → re-overlay + re-flavor + regenerate cumulative diff.
+- Both flavors continue to be maintained in lockstep via `marfrit/bes2600-dkms` source-of-truth.
+- GCC 15 SCS issue → periodically re-test build with `CONFIG_SHADOW_CALL_STACK=y` against current Arch ARM GCC. When the build succeeds, flip the config and re-deploy.
+
+## Known gaps
+
+- Cumulative diff (squashed) for the c-stack + Patches A/B; Patch I as a separate `0002-` file. Per-patch series can be regenerated if danctnix maintainers prefer.
+- Bluetooth-side `bes2600_btuart` is independent and untouched by this patchset.
+- `bes2600_switch_bt` orchestration removed (Mobian-only entry point; not used in danctnix tree).
+- Multi-band `iw scan` (no `freq` filter) still reports aborted scan because mac80211 aggregates per-band results and marks the whole scan aborted when any leg returns negative (mac80211 contract, not bes2600). Single-band scans (`iw scan freq 2462` or `iw scan freq 5180`) work normally; `nmcli connection up` with `band=bg` or `band=a` profile works normally. This is the Phase 5 reviewer's predicted residual limitation; userspace tools that need full multi-band BSS discovery should issue per-band scans.
+
+## Author
+
+Markus Fritsche <fritsche.markus@gmail.com>
+
+Built collaboratively with Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context).
@@ -0,0 +1,168 @@
+From 093a5038b8b68f316d976b7cb69609ca7f24f322 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: Markus Fritsche <fritsche.markus@gmail.com>
+Date: Mon, 18 May 2026 11:27:40 +0200
+Subject: [PATCH 1/2] bes2600: filter 5 GHz scans at the driver boundary
+ (besser#1)
+
+The BES2600 firmware refuses WSM start-scan for 5 GHz with status 2
+("rejected by policy").  This shows up in dmesg as the recurring
+
+    wsm_generic_confirm failed for request 0x0007.
+    [SCAN] Scan failed (-22).
+
+pattern (besser issue #1, ~14-16/h on ohm/PineTab2 baseline).
+
+Trace shows every reject is the second of a back-to-back pair: mac80211
+splits multi-band hw_scan requests per band when the driver does not
+set IEEE80211_HW_SINGLE_SCAN_ON_ALL_BANDS (we don't), then re-invokes
+drv_hw_scan from __ieee80211_scan_completed for each subsequent band.
+The 2.4 GHz iteration succeeds; the 5 GHz iteration is what the
+firmware rejects.  See ieee80211_prep_hw_scan in net/mac80211/scan.c
+for the loop, and the existing memory reference_bes2600_5ghz_scan_reject
+for the firmware behaviour.
+
+The 056a71a defer-on-reject patch already in this tree handles the
+BT-A2DP-coex branch and the consecutive-reject backoff, but it cannot
+prevent the per-band-loop reject: by the time defer_should_scan is
+consulted, the per-band call is already in flight, and the reject_count
+gets reset on every successful 2.4 GHz scan in between (which is
+~36% of attempts), so the threshold never trips.
+
+The fix: refuse the 5 GHz iteration upfront in bes2600_hw_scan.  The
+2.4 GHz scan still runs normally.  The 5 GHz portion is reported as
+aborted to userspace -- same outcome as today, minus the dmesg storm
+and the wsm_generic_confirm WARN cascade.
+
+5 GHz band registration is intentionally left in place: direct-BSSID
+association to a known 5 GHz AP still works (no scan is needed for
+that path), and a future firmware update that fixes the scan behaviour
+should not be foreclosed by changing band advertisement.
+
+Contract: per include/net/mac80211.h ieee80211_ops.hw_scan, a negative
+return aborts the scan without requiring ieee80211_scan_completed().
+-EOPNOTSUPP is the semantically accurate code (operation is legal,
+driver can't service it on this band today).
+
+Phase 3 evidence:
+- baseline N=3: rate ~14.3-23.6/h converged at 14.3/h (matches OP)
+- back-to-back scan gap: 6/6 rejected pairs <200us, 1/1 successful
+  pair was 114ms (single-band-only, no 5 GHz leg)
+- defer log fires: 0/9 in 30-min window (056a71a structurally bypassed)
+
+Predicted Phase 7 delta: Pattern A 14/h -> 0/h.
+---
+ bes2600/scan.c | 22 ++++++++++++++++++++++
+ 1 file changed, 22 insertions(+)
+
+diff --git a/drivers/staging/bes2600/scan.c b/drivers/staging/bes2600/scan.c
+index fb1d298..a81afb6 100644
+--- a/drivers/staging/bes2600/scan.c
+++ b/drivers/staging/bes2600/scan.c
+@@ -238,6 +238,28 @@ int bes2600_hw_scan(struct ieee80211_hw *hw,
+ 	/* Scan when P2P_GO corrupt firmware MiniAP mode */
+ 	if (priv->join_status == BES2600_JOIN_STATUS_AP)
+ 		return -EOPNOTSUPP;
+
+	/*
+	 * Firmware refuses WSM start-scan for 5 GHz with status 2 ("rejected
+	 * by policy"); see besser issue #1.  mac80211 splits multi-band
+	 * hw_scan requests per-band when the driver does not set
+	 * IEEE80211_HW_SINGLE_SCAN_ON_ALL_BANDS (we don't -- see
+	 * ieee80211_hw_set() calls in bes2600_main.c), so each per-band call
+	 * has req->channels[] from one band only (see ieee80211_prep_hw_scan
+	 * in net/mac80211/scan.c).  Refuse the 5 GHz iteration at the driver
+	 * boundary so userspace gets a clean aborted-scan for that portion
+	 * rather than waiting for the firmware reject to cascade up.  5 GHz
+	 * band registration stays intact so direct-BSSID association to a
+	 * known 5 GHz AP still works (no scan needed for that path).
+	 *
+	 * Contract: per include/net/mac80211.h struct ieee80211_ops.hw_scan
+	 * documentation, a negative return aborts the scan without requiring
+	 * ieee80211_scan_completed().
+	 */
+	if (req->n_channels > 0 &&
+	    req->channels[0]->band == NL80211_BAND_5GHZ)
+		return -EOPNOTSUPP;
+
+ #if 0
+ 	if (work_pending(&priv->offchannel_work) ||
+ 			(hw_priv->roc_if_id != -1)) {
+-- 
+2.54.0
+
+
+From 8cd10f487c8144d462a510812ba0fa717b3e24df Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: Markus Fritsche <fritsche.markus@gmail.com>
+Date: Mon, 18 May 2026 15:56:34 +0200
+Subject: [PATCH 2/2] bes2600: scan-filter-5ghz: allow targeted single-channel
+ scans (besser#1 follow-up)
+
+The original Patch I refused EVERY 5 GHz scan request unconditionally
+(req->n_channels > 0 && band == NL80211_BAND_5GHZ).  This eliminated
+the Pattern A storm but also broke 5 GHz association entirely:
+NM / wpa_supplicant iterates a freq_list when a connection profile
+specifies 802-11-wireless.band=a, issuing per-frequency single-channel
+scans to find the BSS before associating.  Those single-channel scans
+were also refused by our guard, so the BSS was never seen and
+'Wi-Fi network could not be found' was the only outcome.
+
+Tighten the guard: refuse only multi-channel 5 GHz scans (n_channels
+> 1), which is the per-band-sweep pattern mac80211 issues internally
+and the only one that triggers the firmware storm at the per-band
+loop boundary.  Single-channel 5 GHz scans pass through to firmware,
+which generally accepts them -- and when they happen to be rejected,
+the failure is isolated and doesn't cascade.
+
+Verified on ohm with pkgrel=3 (srcversion BEB625FA7443171EA8D55F7):
+  - Pattern A count since boot: 0 (Phase 7 prediction still holds)
+  - iw dev wlan0 scan freq 5180          -> allowed
+  - iw dev wlan0 scan freq 5180 5200 ... -> refused -EOPNOTSUPP
+  - NM 'nmcli connection up' with band=a -> associated to BSSID
+    c0:25:06:e6:5b:33 on 5240 MHz / ch.48 in ~1 second
+  - TX bitrate 150 Mbit/s MCS 7 40MHz short-GI (vs 72.2 Mbit/s
+    HT20 on 2.4 GHz) -- ~2x throughput recovered
+
+The change is a single byte (> 0 -> > 1) plus comment update; the
+test confirmation above is what motivates it.
+
+Refs: besser#1 (closed but tracked for follow-up like this), original
+Patch I sha 093a503.
+---
+ bes2600/scan.c | 16 ++++++++++++----
+ 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
+
+diff --git a/drivers/staging/bes2600/scan.c b/drivers/staging/bes2600/scan.c
+index a81afb6..497523b 100644
+--- a/drivers/staging/bes2600/scan.c
+++ b/drivers/staging/bes2600/scan.c
+@@ -248,15 +248,23 @@ int bes2600_hw_scan(struct ieee80211_hw *hw,
+ 	 * has req->channels[] from one band only (see ieee80211_prep_hw_scan
+ 	 * in net/mac80211/scan.c).  Refuse the 5 GHz iteration at the driver
+ 	 * boundary so userspace gets a clean aborted-scan for that portion
+-	 * rather than waiting for the firmware reject to cascade up.  5 GHz
+-	 * band registration stays intact so direct-BSSID association to a
+-	 * known 5 GHz AP still works (no scan needed for that path).
+	 * rather than waiting for the firmware reject to cascade up.
+	 *
+	 * Only the multi-channel case is refused (n_channels > 1): that's
+	 * the per-band-sweep pattern mac80211 issues internally and the
+	 * one that triggers the firmware storm at the per-band loop
+	 * boundary.  Single-channel 5 GHz scans (BSS verification, NM's
+	 * per-freq iteration when 802-11-wireless.band=a is set) pass
+	 * through to firmware, which generally accepts them since the
+	 * storm is the back-to-back per-band issue, not a blanket 5 GHz
+	 * reject.  This preserves 5 GHz association via the
+	 * "wpa_supplicant iterates freq_list per channel" path.
+ 	 *
+ 	 * Contract: per include/net/mac80211.h struct ieee80211_ops.hw_scan
+ 	 * documentation, a negative return aborts the scan without requiring
+ 	 * ieee80211_scan_completed().
+ 	 */
+-	if (req->n_channels > 0 &&
+	if (req->n_channels > 1 &&
+ 	    req->channels[0]->band == NL80211_BAND_5GHZ)
+ 		return -EOPNOTSUPP;
+ 
+-- 
+2.54.0
+
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+From: Markus Fritsche <fritsche.markus@gmail.com>
+Date: Mon, 18 May 2026 11:42:00 +0200
+Subject: [PATCH] arm64: xor-neon: restore -ffixed-x18 when SHADOW_CALL_STACK=y
+ (GCC 15+ build fix)
+
+GCC 15.2.1 enforces that -fsanitize=shadow-call-stack requires
+-ffixed-x18 inside arm_neon.h's #pragma GCC target() blocks.  The
+existing CFLAGS_REMOVE_xor-neon.o line strips the kernel-wide
+-ffixed-x18 (it's part of CC_FLAGS_NO_FPU) and CC_FLAGS_FPU does not
+restore it, so xor-neon.c fails to build on stricter GCC versions
+when CONFIG_SHADOW_CALL_STACK=y.
+
+Add an explicit -ffixed-x18 just for this object, gated on the
+SCS config so non-SCS builds are unaffected.
+
+Build environment workaround; not a kernel-runtime bug.
+---
+ arch/arm64/lib/Makefile | 4 ++++
+ 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+)
+
+diff --git a/arch/arm64/lib/Makefile b/arch/arm64/lib/Makefile
+index 1234567..2345678 100644
+--- a/arch/arm64/lib/Makefile
+++ b/arch/arm64/lib/Makefile
+@@ -9,6 +9,10 @@ ifeq ($(CONFIG_KERNEL_MODE_NEON), y)
+ obj-$(CONFIG_XOR_BLOCKS)	+= xor-neon.o
+ CFLAGS_xor-neon.o		+= $(CC_FLAGS_FPU)
+ CFLAGS_REMOVE_xor-neon.o	+= $(CC_FLAGS_NO_FPU)
+# GCC 15+ enforces that -fsanitize=shadow-call-stack requires -ffixed-x18
+# even after a #pragma GCC pop_options inside arm_neon.h.  CC_FLAGS_REMOVE
+# above strips the kernel-wide -ffixed-x18 (part of CC_FLAGS_NO_FPU); add
+# it back here so xor-neon.c still compiles when SHADOW_CALL_STACK=y.
+CFLAGS_xor-neon.o		+= $(if $(CONFIG_SHADOW_CALL_STACK),-ffixed-x18)
+ endif
+ 
+ lib-$(CONFIG_ARCH_HAS_UACCESS_FLUSHCACHE) += uaccess_flushcache.o
@@ -0,0 +1,236 @@
+# Maintainer: Markus Fritsche <fritsche.markus@gmail.com>
+# Forked from: linux-pinetab2 by Danct12 <danct12@disroot.org>
+# Original Contributor: Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig) <heftig@archlinux.org>
+#
+# linux-pinetab2-danctnix-besser: linux-pinetab2 + the BESser
+# bes2600 driver patchset (race-fix, lock-removal, attribution-restore,
+# fossil-cleanup; +73% throughput vs the in-tree baseline).  Soft-upstream
+# fork of linux-pinetab2 — drop-in replacement, same kernel version, only
+# the bes2600 staging driver differs.  See git.reauktion.de/marfrit/besser
+# and git.reauktion.de/marfrit/bes2600-dkms for full provenance.
+
+pkgbase=linux-pinetab2-danctnix-besser
+pkgver=7.0.danctnix1
+pkgrel=3
+pkgdesc='PineTab2 (BESser bes2600 driver patchset)'
+_srcname=linux-pinetab2
+_srctag=v${pkgver%.*}-${pkgver##*.}
+arch=(aarch64)
+_url_git="https://codeberg.org/DanctNIX/${_srcname}"
+url="${_url_git}/commits/tag/$_srctag"
+license=(GPL-2.0-only)
+makedepends=(
+  bc
+  cpio
+  gettext
+  git
+  libelf
+  pahole
+  perl
+  python
+  tar
+  xz
+)
+options=(
+  !debug
+  !strip
+)
+source=(
+  https://cdn.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v${pkgver%%.*}.x/linux-${pkgver%.*}.tar.{xz,sign}
+  ${_url_git}/releases/download/${_srctag}/${_srctag}.patch.zst{,.sig}
+  0001-bes2600-besser-cumulative-series.patch
+  0002-bes2600-filter-5ghz-scan.patch
+  0003-arm64-xor-neon-ffixed-x18-build-fix.patch
+  0003-arm64-xor-neon-ffixed-x18-build-fix.patch
+  config  # the main kernel config file
+)
+validpgpkeys=(
+  ABAF11C65A2970B130ABE3C479BE3E4300411886  # Linus Torvalds
+  647F28654894E3BD457199BE38DBBDC86092693E  # Greg Kroah-Hartman
+  F09A933C0FE0331E558CA4E166CAB7EAA45DD781  # Danct12
+)
+b2sums=('3d9795083c8938f80f480de0d10bfd9c525640e59d5c7f22983de3f12ee42c84c31be902cafb05579ddb1c32bac5ed06b0d4953f9705450be185bd2d9ab08f89'
+        'SKIP'
+        '71fe98221e802b315e54b4b10d3e8c8f376695a36bae3541d876e5776a37f3fa33c8f8dfa6e51fcbd6f5396add02e5166634165f2351836a0ea0453c172fe56c'
+        'SKIP'
+        'fca0a5badf762d5dbc085261cccc07ddeef96384d2ae0a426fb0412acd7a180e068cabd59f01342b7575d41889afc0f47dfbc9256801ab809f746278e6dab510'
+        '396acbdcf570eada62533c0b8f505ed18077e8432249bab5b8ac8d1107cabc9489bdb91a5780446237ec4fd9ba5fc57a49dff34c16ddab60dc30513fc535f00f'
+        '2714e3c0cd8ec978ce9431418f44f578220886fcabb738c9a0c43fc3c043753960b7c47ae96e1780154d8b266a2add6098407de4ffa7aee40d77ce17e8c70df9'
+        '2714e3c0cd8ec978ce9431418f44f578220886fcabb738c9a0c43fc3c043753960b7c47ae96e1780154d8b266a2add6098407de4ffa7aee40d77ce17e8c70df9'
+        '656a998ab40cb85ee4c00f087b071a91632a6c091da2c84b0f74236b51d2dea6e9db6886625f80ad81dc249d8494ec47cd79d6dd9ea4f5e44f3cde857f861e10')
+
+export KBUILD_BUILD_HOST=archlinux
+export KBUILD_BUILD_USER=$pkgbase
+export KBUILD_BUILD_TIMESTAMP="$(date -Ru${SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH:+d @$SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH})"
+
+prepare() {
+  cd linux-${pkgver%.*}
+
+  echo "Setting version..."
+  echo "-$pkgrel" > localversion.10-pkgrel
+  echo "${pkgbase#linux}" > localversion.20-pkgname
+
+  local src
+  for src in "${source[@]}"; do
+      src="${src%%::*}"
+      src="${src##*/}"
+      src="${src%.zst}"
+      [[ $src = *.patch ]] || continue
+      echo "Applying patch: $src..."
+      patch -Np1 < "../$src"
+  done
+
+  echo "Setting config..."
+  cp ../config .config
+  make olddefconfig
+  diff -u ../config .config || :
+
+  make -s kernelrelease > version
+  echo "Prepared $pkgbase version $(<version)"
+}
+
+build() {
+  cd linux-${pkgver%.*}
+  make DTC_FLAGS="-@" all
+  make -C tools/bpf/bpftool vmlinux.h feature-clang-bpf-co-re=1
+}
+
+_package() {
+  pkgdesc="The $pkgdesc kernel and modules"
+  depends=(
+    coreutils
+    kmod
+    mkinitcpio
+  )
+  optdepends=(
+    'wireless-regdb: to set the correct wireless channels of your country'
+    'linux-firmware: firmware images needed for some devices'
+  )
+  provides=(
+    KSMBD-MODULE
+    WIREGUARD-MODULE
+    "linux-pinetab2=$pkgver-$pkgrel"
+  )
+  conflicts=(linux-pinetab2)
+  replaces=(
+    wireguard-arch
+  )
+
+  cd linux-${pkgver%.*}
+  local modulesdir="$pkgdir/usr/lib/modules/$(<version)"
+
+  echo "Installing boot image..."
+  # systemd expects to find the kernel here to allow hibernation
+  # https://github.com/systemd/systemd/commit/edda44605f06a41fb86b7ab8128dcf99161d2344
+  install -Dm644 "$(make -s image_name)" "$modulesdir/vmlinuz"
+
+  # Used by mkinitcpio to name the kernel
+  echo "$pkgbase" | install -Dm644 /dev/stdin "$modulesdir/pkgbase"
+
+  echo "Installing modules..."
+  ZSTD_CLEVEL=19 make INSTALL_MOD_PATH="$pkgdir/usr" INSTALL_MOD_STRIP=1 \
+    DEPMOD=/doesnt/exist modules_install  # Suppress depmod
+
+  echo "Installing device trees..."
+  make INSTALL_DTBS_PATH="$pkgdir/boot/dtbs" dtbs_install
+
+  # Removing unnecessary device trees (keep only pinetab2 variants).
+  # Use find -delete instead of a bash for-loop: the previous for-loop
+  # silently no-op'd in the makepkg environment, leaving 234 unrelated
+  # board DTBs in the package.  find is robust to nullglob/cwd quirks.
+  find "$pkgdir"/boot/dtbs/rockchip/ -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type f \
+       ! -name 'rk3566-pinetab2-*' -delete
+
+  # remove build link
+  rm "$modulesdir"/build
+}
+
+_package-headers() {
+  pkgdesc="Headers and scripts for building modules for the $pkgdesc kernel"
+  depends=(pahole)
+
+  cd linux-${pkgver%.*}
+  local builddir="$pkgdir/usr/lib/modules/$(<version)/build"
+
+  echo "Installing build files..."
+  install -Dt "$builddir" -m644 .config Makefile Module.symvers System.map \
+    localversion.* version vmlinux tools/bpf/bpftool/vmlinux.h
+  install -Dt "$builddir/kernel" -m644 kernel/Makefile
+  install -Dt "$builddir/arch/arm64" -m644 arch/arm64/Makefile
+  cp -t "$builddir" -a scripts
+
+  # required when DEBUG_INFO_BTF_MODULES is enabled
+  install -Dt "$builddir/tools/bpf/resolve_btfids" tools/bpf/resolve_btfids/resolve_btfids
+
+  echo "Installing headers..."
+  cp -t "$builddir" -a include
+  cp -t "$builddir/arch/arm64" -a arch/arm64/include
+  install -Dt "$builddir/arch/arm64/kernel" -m644 arch/arm64/kernel/asm-offsets.s
+
+  install -Dt "$builddir/drivers/md" -m644 drivers/md/*.h
+  install -Dt "$builddir/net/mac80211" -m644 net/mac80211/*.h
+
+  # https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/13146
+  install -Dt "$builddir/drivers/media/i2c" -m644 drivers/media/i2c/msp3400-driver.h
+
+  # https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/20402
+  install -Dt "$builddir/drivers/media/usb/dvb-usb" -m644 drivers/media/usb/dvb-usb/*.h
+  install -Dt "$builddir/drivers/media/dvb-frontends" -m644 drivers/media/dvb-frontends/*.h
+  install -Dt "$builddir/drivers/media/tuners" -m644 drivers/media/tuners/*.h
+
+  # https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/71392
+  install -Dt "$builddir/drivers/iio/common/hid-sensors" -m644 drivers/iio/common/hid-sensors/*.h
+
+  echo "Installing KConfig files..."
+  find . -name 'Kconfig*' -exec install -Dm644 {} "$builddir/{}" \;
+
+  echo "Removing unneeded architectures..."
+  local arch
+  for arch in "$builddir"/arch/*/; do
+    [[ $arch = */arm64/ ]] && continue
+    echo "Removing $(basename "$arch")"
+    rm -r "$arch"
+  done
+
+  echo "Removing documentation..."
+  rm -r "$builddir/Documentation"
+
+  echo "Removing broken symlinks..."
+  find -L "$builddir" -type l -printf 'Removing %P\n' -delete
+
+  echo "Removing loose objects..."
+  find "$builddir" -type f -name '*.o' -printf 'Removing %P\n' -delete
+
+  echo "Stripping build tools..."
+  local file
+  while read -rd '' file; do
+    case "$(file -Sib "$file")" in
+      application/x-sharedlib\;*)      # Libraries (.so)
+        strip -v $STRIP_SHARED "$file" ;;
+      application/x-archive\;*)        # Libraries (.a)
+        strip -v $STRIP_STATIC "$file" ;;
+      application/x-executable\;*)     # Binaries
+        strip -v $STRIP_BINARIES "$file" ;;
+      application/x-pie-executable\;*) # Relocatable binaries
+        strip -v $STRIP_SHARED "$file" ;;
+    esac
+  done < <(find "$builddir" -type f -perm -u+x ! -name vmlinux -print0)
+
+  echo "Stripping vmlinux..."
+  strip -v $STRIP_STATIC "$builddir/vmlinux"
+
+  echo "Adding symlink..."
+  mkdir -p "$pkgdir/usr/src"
+  ln -sr "$builddir" "$pkgdir/usr/src/$pkgbase"
+}
+
+pkgname=(
+  "$pkgbase"
+  "$pkgbase-headers"
+)
+for _p in "${pkgname[@]}"; do
+  eval "package_$_p() {
+    $(declare -f "_package${_p#$pkgbase}")
+    _package${_p#$pkgbase}
+  }"
+done
@@ -0,0 +1,180 @@
+# BES2600 architecture review — Bug #5
+
+Date assembled: 2026-05-07
+Reviewer: Claude Sonnet (general-purpose subagent, model=sonnet)
+Driver source: `~/src/besser/bes2600-dkms-mobian/bes2600/` on boltzmann
+
+This is the architect-review pass requested in `notes/observed-bugs.md` after the Phase 0 measurement showed the throughput floor is set by per-SDIO-transaction workqueue dispatch overhead. The reviewer was given the measurement summary, source location, and a focused brief; output is a ranked restructuring map with file:line citations for every concrete claim.
+
+---
+
+## Measurement context (input to the reviewer)
+
+```
+Reproduction:                pv -L 4M < /dev/zero | nc ohm 12345
+Module under test:           bes2600.ko srcversion 1B3B3ED0...  (cleanups + Patch A + Patch B)
+Hardware:                    PineTab2, RK3566 Cortex-A55 ARMv8.5, kernel 6.19.10-danctnix1
+Link rate:                   65 Mb/s ≈ 8 MB/s theoretical
+Observed throughput:         725 KB/s  (Phase 0 anchor at N=3)
+                             rep 3 cascaded into beacon-loss disconnect at ~9 min in
+
+Per-second event rates (3-min capture under 4 MB/s pv-cap):
+  workqueue_execute_start:  5,643/sec    ← architectural floor
+  bes2600_rx_cb:              611/sec
+  bes2600_bh_wakeup:          267/sec
+  wsm_cmd_send:                13/sec    (host-to-chip command rate, surprisingly low)
+  lock contention_begin:       50/sec    (modest)
+  mmc_request_start:        ~5,800/sec   (matches workqueue rate — every SDIO transaction is its own work item)
+
+perf record top symbol:      _raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore  (~20 % CPU samples)
+Dominant callstack:          process_one_work → wsm_configuration → wsm_cmd_send → bes2600_bh.isra.0
+```
+
+The implication: ~9 workqueue dispatches fire per frame delivered to mac80211. Items below address that ratio in descending order of predicted leverage.
+
+---
+
+## Item 1 — Two-hop workqueue relay: SDIO IRQ → `sdio_rx_work` → BH loop → mac80211
+
+**File:line:** `bes2600_sdio.c:416` (IRQ handler dispatches `rx_work`); `bes2600_sdio.c:829` (`sdio_rx_work` body); `bh.c:1330–1538` (BH main loop, `BES2600_RX_IN_BH` path); `bes2600_sdio.c:1267` (`bes_sdio` workqueue, `max_active=2`).
+
+**Current shape:** Every SDIO interrupt fires `queue_work(sdio_wq, &rx_work)`. `sdio_rx_work` reads up to `BES_SDIO_RX_MULTIPLE_NUM=16` frames (`hwio.h:294`) into per-frame SKBs, enqueues each onto `sbus_priv.rx_queue` under `rx_queue_lock`, then returns. Meanwhile the BH kthread (one work item queued at boot in `bh.c:93`, running an infinite loop inside `bes2600_bh()`) calls `pipe_read()` → `spin_lock(rx_queue_lock)` → `skb_dequeue()` → `wsm_handle_rx()` → `ieee80211_rx_irqsafe()` one frame at a time. When `pipe_read()` returns NULL and pending TX exists, `bes2600_sdio_pipe_read()` at `bes2600_sdio.c:941` re-dispatches `rx_work` — so a sustained RX stream fires **one `queue_work` per BH wakeup, not per burst**. That explains why `bh_wakeup` events are only 267/sec while `workqueue_execute_start` is 5,643/sec: the SDIO layer is firing a new `rx_work` item for every frame the BH loop drains.
+
+**Proposed shape:** Collapse `sdio_rx_work` and `pipe_read()` into the BH loop directly. The BH already runs in a dedicated `WQ_HIGHPRI | WQ_CPU_INTENSIVE` workqueue (`bh.c:66`) and (with `BES2600_RX_IN_BH` defined per `Makefile:159`) `bes2600_bh_rx_helper()` already dequeues from `rx_queue`. Merge `sdio_rx_work` into a function called synchronously from `bes2600_bh_rx_helper()` before the dequeue, guarded by a trylock so re-entry is safe. This eliminates O(N) `queue_work` calls per burst while keeping the BH as the single SDIO-access context.
+
+**Predicted delta vs Phase 1 metric:** Eliminates ~5 of the ~9 redundant workqueue dispatches per frame. 2–4× throughput improvement and a proportional drop in `_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore` CPU cost.
+
+**Effort:** Medium. SDIO host-lock protocol (`sdio_claim_host`/`sdio_release_host`) is already managed inside `sdio_rx_work`; moving the body is mechanical but requires care around the `sdio_wq` `max_active=2` concurrency assumption.
+
+**Risks:** `sdio_rx_work` runs with `sdio_claim_host` held for the entire burst. Inside the BH it serialises all SDIO access fine. Watch `bes2600_sdio.c:1889` — flushes `rx_work` during teardown; that path must remain.
+
+---
+
+## Item 2 — `ieee80211_rx_irqsafe` instead of `ieee80211_rx` (pre-NAPI cw1200 ancestor pattern)
+
+**File:line:** `txrx.c:1947`, `txrx.c:1950`, `ap.c:99`, `sta.c:1487`, `wsm.c:2416`.
+
+**Current shape:** Every RX frame is delivered via `ieee80211_rx_irqsafe()`. This function enqueues the SKB onto a per-cpu `tasklet_rx` list and schedules a software IRQ. Under sustained load: one softirq wakeup per frame — 611 softirq wakeups/sec on top of the workqueue overhead.
+
+**Proposed shape:** Switch to `ieee80211_rx_ni()` (process context, which `wsm_handle_rx` is already in) or, better, batch-deliver frames using `ieee80211_rx_list()` (introduced in kernel 5.12, available in 6.19). Accumulate frames from a single `sdio_rx_work` burst into a `list_head`, then call `ieee80211_rx_list()` once per burst.
+
+**mac80211 contract:** `ieee80211_rx_list()` is safe from process context with the same `ieee80211_rx_status` rules as `ieee80211_rx_ni()`. Per `include/net/mac80211.h` — kerneldoc states it takes the RX path atomically only when called from softirq context; from process context it uses the same path as `ieee80211_rx_ni()`.
+
+**Predicted delta:** Reduces per-frame softirq overhead. Hard to isolate independently of item 1, but combined the two deliver the < 10 % CPU-in-lock target.
+
+**Effort:** Small (once item 1 is done — the batch list naturally exists at the burst boundary).
+
+**Risks:** Must hold `rcu_read_lock()` at call site; `skb->cb` (`IEEE80211_SKB_RXCB`) must be filled before the call, as today. The `early_data` path at `txrx.c:1942` uses `skb_queue_tail` into a per-link queue before calling `ieee80211_rx_irqsafe` — that path must be excluded from batch collection.
+
+---
+
+## Item 3 — Per-frame `queue_work(sdio_wq, &tx_work)` in the TX send path
+
+**File:line:** `bes2600_sdio.c:1236` (inside `bes2600_sdio_pipe_send()`).
+
+**Current shape:** Every call to `bes2600_sdio_pipe_send()` appends one descriptor to `tx_bufferlist` and immediately calls `queue_work(sdio_wq, &tx_work)`. `sdio_tx_work` then drains the list with scatterlist batching (up to `BES_SDIO_TX_MULTIPLE_NUM=16` frames per SDIO transfer). At low rates the workqueue's pending-but-not-started dedup means only one dispatch fires; at high TX rates — especially after `atomic_add(1, &hw_priv->bh_tx)` in `bh.c` reschedules TX — successive `pipe_send` calls each hit `queue_work` before the previous fires, multiplying dispatches.
+
+**Proposed shape:** Stage all frames into `tx_bufferlist` in the BH TX loop, then flush `sdio_tx_work` synchronously (call the work function body directly) before returning to the wait-event. The TX mirror of item 1.
+
+**Predicted delta:** Removes redundant TX-side `queue_work` calls. Lower priority than RX side given current TX rate (13 `wsm_cmd_send`/sec is host→chip control plane; data-plane TX is also limited by firmware buffer count `numInpChBufs`), but it does remove one source of the 5,643/sec workqueue count.
+
+**Effort:** Small.
+
+**Risks:** `sdio_tx_work` calls `sdio_claim_host`/`sdio_release_host` internally. Running directly from BH context requires confirming no deadlock with the SDIO bus claim that `sdio_rx_work` (now merged per item 1) holds. The TX flush must happen after the RX burst, matching the existing BH loop structure (`rx:` → `tx:` ordering in `bh.c:1444`).
+
+---
+
+## Item 4 — `ba_lock` per-frame acquisition in the RX path
+
+**File:line:** `txrx.c:998–1005` (`bes2600_rx_h_ba_stat()`); `txrx.c:1159–1164` and `txrx.c:1682–1698` (`tsm_lock`, `CONFIG_BES2600_TESTMODE`-gated).
+
+**Current shape:** `bes2600_rx_cb()` calls `bes2600_rx_h_ba_stat()` for every non-multicast data frame. That function acquires `ba_lock` under BH (`spin_lock_bh`) to increment `ba_acc_rx` and `ba_cnt_rx`, then sets a timer. At 611 frames/sec that's 611 lock acquisitions/sec on `ba_lock` alone.
+
+**Proposed shape:** Replace per-frame `ba_lock` with a per-cpu counter (or `atomic64_t`) for `ba_acc_rx` and `ba_cnt_rx`. The timer arm (`mod_timer`) is the actual reason for the lock — a `READ_ONCE`/`cmpxchg` on a flag to detect first-frame-in-interval is sufficient.
+
+**Predicted delta:** Removes 611 lock acquisitions/sec from the RX hot path. Not the dominant cost but the next bottleneck after items 1–2 land.
+
+**Effort:** Small.
+
+**Risks:** `ba_lock` also serialises TX-side block-ack accounting (`txrx.c:1632`). The per-cpu approach requires a fold step in the timer callback — cheap.
+
+---
+
+## Item 5 — Skip `ps_state_lock` acquisitions when PSM is known-disabled
+
+**File:line:** `bes2600.h:320` (decl); `txrx.c:1340–1365` (`vif_lock`); `txrx.c:1415–1426` (`ps_state_lock`); `txrx.c:1942–1948` (RX-side `ps_state_lock`).
+
+**Current shape:** `ps_state_lock` is taken on every TX frame if powersave is active. Per memory `reference_bes2600_firmware_no_psm.md`, **PSM is non-functional on this firmware** — c7 already self-detects this and latches `pm_unsupported = true`. The `ps_state_lock` guards in the RX callback and TX path are therefore taking dead overhead.
+
+**Proposed shape:** Add a `READ_ONCE()` check on `powersave_enabled` before taking `ps_state_lock`; if false, skip the lock and the PSM state update entirely. Since c7's `pm_unsupported` latches, this is safe.
+
+**Predicted delta:** Small absolute gain at current TX rate, but prevents fast path from regressing as throughput improves.
+
+**Effort:** Small.
+
+**Risks:** `powersave_enabled` is written from process context (`bh.c:403`). `READ_ONCE` without lock is safe — at worst one spurious PSM notification, not a state corruption.
+
+---
+
+## Item 6 — Firmware block-read size cap (`EFFECTIVE_BUF_SIZE = 8190 bytes`)
+
+**File:line:** `bh.c:33–36` (defines); `bes2600_sdio.c:721–783` (`bes2600_sdio_extract_packets()`); `hwio.h:294` (`BES_SDIO_RX_MULTIPLE_NUM=16`).
+
+**Current shape:** `BES_SDIO_RX_MULTIPLE_NUM=16` and `BES_SDIO_OPTIMIZED_LEN` both defined (`Makefile:90,92`). The RX burst reads `PACKET_TOTAL_LEN(ctrl_reg)` bytes in a single CMD53; each sub-packet bounded by `EFFECTIVE_BUF_SIZE = (0x1000-4)*2 - 2 = 8190` bytes. At 611 frames/sec ÷ 267 BH wakeups/sec ≈ **2.3 frames per wakeup** — well under the 16-frame limit. **Not the bottleneck today.**
+
+**Proposed shape:** No change needed now. Re-evaluate after items 1–3 land if throughput rises past ~3 MB/s. Verify ctrl_reg `PACKET_TOTAL_LEN` field values during high load — requires firmware-trace observation we don't currently have.
+
+**Effort:** N/A.
+
+**Risks:** Increasing beyond 16 requires a larger DMA allocation (currently `1632 × 16 = 26 KB`). Cortex-M4F firmware side is opaque.
+
+---
+
+## Item 7 — Duplicate workqueues (`hw_priv->workqueue` vs `hw_priv->bh_workqueue` vs `sbus_priv->sdio_wq`)
+
+**File:line:** `bes2600.h:323` (`workqueue`); `bes2600.h:385` (`bh_workqueue`); `bes2600_sdio.c:63` (`sdio_wq`). `txrx.c` has 10 `queue_work(hw_priv->workqueue, ...)` calls for control-plane work.
+
+**Current shape:** Three distinct workqueues. The 5,643 `workqueue_execute_start`/sec are dominated by `sdio_wq` items, not `workqueue`. `workqueue` items are control-plane events at rates well below the data-plane.
+
+**Proposed shape:** After item 1 (merging `sdio_rx_work` into BH), `sdio_wq` only carries `tx_work`. After item 3 (synchronous TX flush from BH), `sdio_wq` is idle during normal data-plane and could be replaced with `system_highpri_wq`.
+
+**Effort:** Small (follow-on to items 1 and 3).
+
+**Risks:** None if items 1 and 3 land first.
+
+---
+
+## Item 8 — `BH_RX_CONT_LIMIT=3` cap on RX burst per BH wakeup
+
+**File:line:** `bh.c:1380–1405` (timeout detection); `bh.c:1330` (`BH_RX_CONT_LIMIT=3`); `bh.c:1331` (`BH_TX_CONT_LIMIT=20`).
+
+**Current shape:** BH loop limits RX burst to 3 consecutive iterations before breaking back to wait-event. At 611 frames/sec ÷ 267 wakeups/sec ≈ 2.3 frames per wakeup → not the bottleneck today. **After items 1–3 land**, per-burst frame rate will rise and `BH_RX_CONT_LIMIT=3` becomes the ceiling.
+
+**Proposed shape:** Raise to 16 (matching `BES_SDIO_RX_MULTIPLE_NUM`) after items 1–3 are deployed and re-measured.
+
+**Effort:** Trivial (constant change), but must wait for Phase 7 measurements post 1–3.
+
+**Risks:** Too high a limit under firmware anomaly (corrupted ctrl_reg) can spin BH long enough to miss beacon ACK deadline. Bound to `BES_SDIO_RX_MULTIPLE_NUM` as safe ceiling.
+
+---
+
+## Ranking summary
+
+| Rank | Item | Predicted gain | Effort |
+|------|------|----------------|--------|
+| 1 | Collapse `sdio_rx_work` relay into BH loop | ~5x workqueue dispatch reduction | Medium |
+| 2 | Batch deliver via `ieee80211_rx_list()` | Removes per-frame softirq | Small |
+| 3 | Synchronous TX flush from BH | Removes TX-side dispatch noise | Small |
+| 4 | Replace `ba_lock` per-frame with atomic/per-cpu | Removes 611 lock/sec from RX hot path | Small |
+| 5 | Skip `ps_state_lock` when PSM-known-disabled | Removes dead overhead | Small |
+| 6 | Raise `BH_RX_CONT_LIMIT` after 1–3 land | Unlocks residual throughput | Trivial |
+| 7 | Consolidate workqueues post-items 1&3 | Cleanup | Small |
+| 8 | Firmware block-read size | Not bottleneck at current rates | N/A |
+
+**Items 1 + 2 together are the structural answer to the measurement**: ~9 workqueue events per delivered frame collapse to ~1, and the per-frame softirq cost disappears. Items 3–5 clean up the next layer. The beacon-loss cascade at 9 minutes is almost certainly starvation of the BH wait-event under the per-frame workqueue storm — item 1 removes the mechanism that makes the cascade possible.
+
+---
+
+## Next campaign step
+
+A Phase 4 plan locking item 1 (and possibly item 2) follows in a separate PR. The remaining items go on the campaign backlog as follow-on patches once the Phase 7 verification of item-1-or-1-plus-2 confirms the predicted delta.
@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
+# Bug #5 RX-degradation campaign — Phase 0
+
+**Date:** 2026-05-07
+**Module under test:** v3 + F (`bes2600.ko` srcversion `371C6606B73AF19299228CA`)
+**Hardware:** ohm (PineTab2, RK3566 + BES2600 SDIO), wired enu1 fallback path live.
+
+---
+
+## Research question (locked)
+
+> **Why does the bes2600 RX path collapse from ~2 MB/s sustained @ fresh-chip uptime to ~180 B/s @ ~28-min uptime, with periodic `wsm_generic_confirm failed for request 0x0007` + `ieee80211 phy0: [SCAN] Scan failed (-22)` every 300 s in the intervening window?**
+
+Reproduces on Patch B, Patch F, and Patch C v3 alike — independent of the relay/race issues v3 addressed. Side-effect that was masked by the throughput floor while v2's race was the dominant variable.
+
+## Predecessor data (reference, not anchor)
+
+| source | observation |
+|---|---|
+| Patch C v3 N=3 (uptime 200/391/582 s) | mean 2.352 MB/s @ 4 MB/s sender |
+| v3 single rep at uptime ~28 min (rep 2 of 2026-05-07 22:23) | 180 KB / 5 min = 600 B/s, sender saw "Connection reset by peer" |
+| v3 single rep at uptime ~47 min (N=3 first attempt 22:42) | 55 KB / 5 min = 180 B/s, sender timed out (exit 124) |
+| dmesg pattern observed at 47-min uptime | scan failures every 301-302 s starting at uptime 778 s (~13 min) |
+
+The shape: **fresh chip → linear data flow at ~2 MB/s sustained → sometime around 13 min uptime, NetworkManager-triggered scans start failing → sometime around 28 min uptime, data throughput collapses to <1 KB/s while link still shows associated.**
+
+Predecessor data is reference. Phase 0 will re-anchor at N=1 long-trace + 5 in-window stress probes; if the pattern doesn't reproduce, that's the campaign result.
+
+## Mechanism candidates (Phase 4 will discriminate)
+
+1. **Firmware-side resource exhaustion.** Per-scan or per-WSM-event accumulation in chip-side state. Scan-failed -22 (EINVAL) suggests firmware refusing the request — possibly out of scan handles, scan-buffer slots, or some other limit.
+2. **NetworkManager scan-fail recovery loop.** Each failed scan triggers NM retry. If retry overhead dominates the bh thread, data path starves. Verifiable by suppressing NM scans.
+3. **AP-side rate limiting.** Newton (AVM) AP could be applying QoS / fairness / probation after sustained 4 MB/s burst. Verifiable by Fritz!Box log access (Markus has it) or by switching to a different AP.
+4. **PSM state machine deadlock.** c7's `pm_unsupported` self-detect was supposed to handle this, but the latch state could become stale if a real PM_IND arrives mid-operation. Verifiable by `chip_pm_state` debugfs read at degradation onset.
+5. **SDIO bus clock degradation / mmc retune.** SDIO retune with `retune_protected` flag interacts with bes2600's data path. Verifiable by ftrace `mmc/mmc_request_*` event correlation with throughput drop.
+6. **Power-management busy-event accumulation.** `bes2600_pwr_set_busy_event` counters might leak — busy events not cleared lock the chip awake (no PSM) but also exhaust event capacity. Verifiable by `bes2600_pwr_busy_event_record` dump.
+
+## Phase 0 measurement protocol (rig armed 2026-05-07 23:18:58 CEST, T0=1778188738)
+
+Capturing for 35 minutes from fresh boot. All capture lives in `/root/bes2600-samples/run-20260507-bug5-degradation-rig/` on ohm.
+
+### Always-on streams
+
+| stream | tool | output |
+|---|---|---|
+| ftrace events | per-event `enable=1` | `trace.log` (via `trace_pipe`) |
+| cfg80211 events | `iw event -t -f` | `iw-event.log` |
+| kernel printks | `dmesg -wT` | `dmesg.log` |
+| netdev counters | per-30s shell loop | `snap.log` |
+
+### ftrace event set
+
+- `workqueue/workqueue_execute_start` — work dispatches
+- `workqueue/workqueue_queue_work` — work submissions
+- `mac80211/api_beacon_loss` — driver beacon-loss events
+- `mac80211/api_connection_loss` — driver-side conn-loss
+- `mac80211/api_disconnect` — driver-side disconnect
+- `mac80211/drv_hw_scan` — mac80211 → driver scan dispatch
+- `mac80211/drv_set_key` — key state changes
+- `cfg80211/rdev_assoc` — assoc requests
+- `cfg80211/rdev_deauth` — deauth requests
+- `cfg80211/rdev_disassoc` — disassoc requests
+- `cfg80211/cfg80211_assoc_comeback` — AP-side assoc-busy throttling
+- `cfg80211/cfg80211_send_auth_timeout` — auth timeouts
+- `cfg80211/cfg80211_scan_done` — scan completions
+- `power/suspend_resume` — PM transitions
+- `mmc/mmc_request_start` / `mmc_request_done` — bus-level transactions
+
+### Scheduled stress probes
+
+Sender on boltzmann (`/tmp/bug5-probe-loop.sh`) fires `pv -L 4m | nc ohm 12345` for 30 s at T+5/10/15/20/25 min. Each probe brackets uptime, RX-bytes pre, RX-bytes post, elapsed. Throughput-vs-uptime curve falls out of the snap.log + probe boundaries.
+
+Probe markers logged via `logger -t bes2600-bug5 PROBE_N_START/END` so they appear in dmesg.log timeline.
+
+## Anti-theatre receipts (must tick before claiming Phase 0 done)
+
+- [ ] In-session baseline: long-capture across degradation window, N=1 for now; re-run if anomalous
+- [ ] ftrace events actually firing (verify by tail of trace.log mid-capture)
+- [ ] dmesg captures the scan-failure pattern timestamp (expected ~uptime 778 s)
+- [ ] Probes actually transferred data at fresh chip (T+5 should be > 1 MB/s)
+- [ ] At least one probe in-window after scan-failure onset (expected: T+15 or T+20)
+- [ ] Snap.log shows monotonic counter behaviour (no rx_bytes going backwards)
+
+## Phase 1 hypothesis (provisional, refine after Phase 3 data)
+
+Metric candidate: **probe throughput as function of uptime, with state-transition markers (first `wsm_generic_confirm 0x0007 failed`, first `[SCAN] Scan failed (-22)`, first NetworkManager-deauth-and-reassociate)**.
+
+Discriminator question: does throughput collapse abruptly at the first scan failure, or gradually over a window? Abrupt = single-event causation; gradual = accumulator.
+
+## Phase 4 candidates (post-Phase-3)
+
+Depending on which mechanism (1-6) Phase 3 surfaces:
+- (1) firmware resource exhaustion: report to upstream; possibly disable NetworkManager scans pending firmware fix.
+- (2) NM scan-fail loop: configure `wpa_supplicant` to skip scans; or add scan-failure handling in driver to dampen retry cascade.
+- (3) AP-side: switch APs for testing; report to AVM if reproducible.
+- (4) PSM deadlock: extend c7 latch with timeout-or-progress recovery.
+- (5) SDIO retune: ftrace correlation guides the lock-ordering fix.
+- (6) PWR busy-event leak: audit set/clear pairs; add a warning-when-stale.
+
+## Out-of-scope
+
+- Patch C v3 closure (PR #5 merged, Phase 7 done).
+- Patch C2 (`ieee80211_rx_list` batch) — gated on Task #19 kerneldoc.
+- Patch D / E independent.
+- Reproduction at higher rates (8 MB/s ramp) — defer to Phase 4 once mechanism identified.
+
+---
+
+*Phase 0 plan written 2026-05-07 23:21 CEST by Claude (noether), at the close of Patch C v3 Phase 7.  Rig armed; long capture in flight; probes scheduled at T+5/10/15/20/25 min.  Post-capture analysis will populate Phase 3 results before Phase 4 plan branches off.*
@@ -82,6 +82,91 @@ without board power-cycle").
 **Status**: task c3 (indirectly, via bes_chardev removal which currently
 gates the signal/nosignal mode switch path).

+## Architect review — now BUG-#5-blocking (was backlog)
+
+The Phase 0 perf trace for Bug #5 first exposed a "when in doubt, add a
+lock" pattern (~20 % CPU in `_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore`). The
+follow-up ftrace measurement (2026-05-07 17:00) refined the root cause
+to an architectural problem: **the bes2600 driver dispatches every
+SDIO transaction through the kernel workqueue**. Numbers from a 3-min
+4 MB/s ohm capture (post-reboot, srcversion `1B3B3ED0`):
+
+```
+wsm_cmd_send:               13/sec    (host-to-chip command rate, surprisingly low)
+bes2600_rx_cb:             611/sec
+bes2600_bh_wakeup:         267/sec
+lock contention_begin:      50/sec
+workqueue_execute_start: 5,643/sec    ← DOMINATES; matches the mmc
+                                       transaction rate from earlier perf
+```
+
+5.6 k workqueue dispatches per second is the throughput floor — not a
+specific lock, not WSM-command rate, not decrypt-state. A surgical fix
+to any single function won't move the floor; the architecture needs
+to be restructured to amortise SDIO transactions across fewer work-
+items (or move SDIO RX out of the workqueue entirely).
+
+This is where the **Claude Sonnet architect review** belongs: a
+top-to-bottom assessment of `~/src/besser/bes2600-dkms-mobian/bes2600/`
+focused on:
+
+- the workqueue dispatch shape (most actionable)
+- needless lock proliferation (the original signal)
+- BH / RX scheduling boundaries
+- error-handling coverage and dead-code from the cw1200 ancestor
+- API contract violations relative to mainline mac80211
+
+Output: ranked list of restructuring targets, with predicted-delta
+estimates against the Phase 1 metric (≥ 2 MB/s sustained @ 4 MB/s cap,
+< 10 % CPU in lock-cycling, no link cascade in 30 min).
+
+**Status**: now blocking on Bug #5 (was independent track). Surgical
+patches B5-1, B5-2, B5-3 from the original Phase 4 candidate list are
+all DEFERRED until the architect review's restructuring map is in.
+
+## Bug #5 — RX path degrades under attempted-throughput pressure
+
+**Suspect file**: bes2600 RX path (`txrx.c bes2600_rx_cb`, `bh.c bes2600_bh_work`,
+SDIO RX scheduling) — pinpoint pending.
+
+**Symptom (observed 2026-05-07 13:43, srcversion `1B3B3ED0` = c-stack +
+Patch A + Patch B, ohm @ -57 dBm 2.4GHz ch11 5b:32, idle save for the
+netcat load):**
+
+```
+sender cap 1 MB/s  →  ohm receives 1015 KB/s,  signal -57 dBm,  RX MCS 4
+sender cap 4 MB/s  →  ohm receives  563 KB/s,  signal -67 dBm,  RX MCS 3
+                     (Send-Q on boltzmann backed up to 1.16 MB)
+```
+
+Pushing the sender-side cap from 1 MB/s to 4 MB/s **decreased** observed
+throughput at the receiver and degraded the link metrics. Signal dropped
+~10 dB and the chip downshifted MCS, suggesting the chip can't sustain
+the higher RX rate even with the link physically capable of more (link
+bitrate 65 Mb/s = ~8 MB/s theoretical).
+
+**Hypothesis (Markus, 2026-05-07): driver/firmware locks itself to death
+under busy reads** — possibly a busy-wait loop or lock contention on the
+RX SDIO path that prevents draining at line rate. Plausible reason it
+didn't surface for the c-stack tasks: those operated at typical
+browse-rate traffic, well below the saturation threshold this bug needs
+to fire.
+
+**May explain**: original Phase-0 observation that **YouTube DASH chunks
+drop ~10 frames per chunk fetch** on hardware-decoder playback. A chunk
+fetch is a brief burst at near-link-rate; if the driver throttles itself
+down during high-RX, the player buffer underruns for the duration of
+the fetch.
+
+**How to drill (when prioritized)**:
+- Capture trace_pipe with `mmc:*` and `sdio*` events enabled during a
+  controlled rate-ramp (e.g., pv -L 500K, 1M, 2M, 4M each for 60 s).
+- Watch `/proc/sys/kernel/sched_*` and the `bes2600_bh_work` kworker for
+  CPU saturation.
+- `perf top -p $(pgrep -f bes_sdio)` during 4 MB/s load.
+
+**Status**: backlog. No patch yet.
+
 ## Bug #4 — scan_complete_cb constant loop

 **File**: `scan.c:883-909` — `bes2600_scan_complete_cb()`.
@@ -0,0 +1,190 @@
+# BES2600 WiFi structural analysis and code critique
+
+**Author:** Claude (noether) — second-opinion as Opus 4.7 against Sonnet 4.6's review of 2026-05-07
+**Scope:** the WiFi half of the BES2600 driver as it lives in `bes2600-dkms-mobian/bes2600/` on top of the `cleanups` branch (srcversion `1B3B3ED0…`, c-stack + Patch A + Patch B deployed).
+**Reading frame:** Bug #5 prompted Sonnet's review; this writeup is independent — same source tree, different model, different priors. Where I concur I tighten; where I disagree I say so.
+
+---
+
+## 1. Top-line
+
+The BES2600 WiFi driver is **not a BES2600 driver**. It is a CW12xx driver wearing a BES2600 nameplate. That sentence is not rhetoric — it is the design fact that explains every other smell I will list below.
+
+- 30+ live references to `CW12XX_MAX_VIFS` across 9 files.
+- `cw12xx_hwpriv_to_vifpriv()` / `cw12xx_get_vif_from_ieee80211()` are the active vif accessors.
+- `is_hardware_cw1250(hw_priv) || is_hardware_cw1260(hw_priv)` is a runtime branch in `ap.c:1892` — the chip is BES2600, neither check ever matches, the branch is dead on this hardware but compiled in.
+- `CW1200_MAX_SW_RETRY_CNT` gates the active retry-decision logic in `bh.c:1269` (inside `KEY_FRAME_SW_RETRY`).
+- The header opens with "Based on the mac80211 Prism54 code, which is Copyright (c) 2006, Michael Wu" → **prism54 → islsm → ST-E CW1200 → CW1260 → CW12xx → BES2600**: at least five generations of vendor-SDK descent, with each generation preserving its predecessor as #if-0 blocks rather than removing it.
+
+This is the Phase 6 "transcription trap" from `CLAUDE.md`, frozen into the codebase: every generation copied behaviour rather than re-derive against the API contract. The result is a driver that *works*, but whose structural choices are decisions made for a 2010 ST-Ericsson chip, not a 2022 Bestechnic one.
+
+The downstream consequence — and the thing that actually pinches us in Bug #5 — is that the **hot path was designed for cw1200's IRQ-driven SPI bus, not for SDIO with multi-block coalescing**. Items 1 + 2 of Sonnet's review are the right surgical fix. The deep fix is bigger than the budget of any one campaign.
+
+## 2. Concurrence with Sonnet — refined
+
+### 2.1 RX relay (Sonnet item 1) — concur, refine
+
+The flow on this build (`-DBES2600_RX_IN_BH` in Makefile, so this is the *real* path):
+
+```
+SDIO IRQ
+  → bes2600_gpio_irq_handler                       (bes2600_sdio.c:413)
+  → queue_work(self->sdio_wq, &self->rx_work)      (bes2600_sdio.c:416)
+  → sdio_rx_work runs                              (bes2600_sdio.c:829)
+      → bes2600_sdio_lock + memcpy_fromio
+      → bes2600_sdio_extract_packets               (skb_queue_tail to self->rx_queue)
+      → self->irq_handler(self->irq_priv)          (function call, not workqueue)
+          → atomic_add_return(1, &hw_priv->bh_rx)  (bh.c:130)
+          → wake_up(&hw_priv->bh_wq)
+  → bh_work (already running, never re-queued):
+      wait_event_interruptible_timeout returns
+      → bes2600_bh_rx_helper                       (bh.c:961)
+          → priv->sbus_ops->pipe_read              (skb_dequeue from self->rx_queue)
+          → wsm_handle_rx                          (wsm.c)
+              → bes2600_rx_cb                      (txrx.c:1642)
+                  → ieee80211_rx_irqsafe(skb)      (txrx.c:1947 / 1950)
+```
+
+**Where I refine Sonnet:** the "9 workqueue events per delivered RX frame" claim doesn't survive source reading. Per IRQ *batch* there is **one** workqueue dispatch (sdio_wq.rx_work). `bh_work` is registered once, runs as a long-lived work item using `wait_event_interruptible_timeout` to sleep — the wake-up path is a wait-queue, not a workqueue dispatch. `ieee80211_rx_irqsafe` schedules a mac80211 tasklet, not a workqueue. The 5,643 `workqueue_execute_start/sec` ftrace count from Bug #5 is **system-wide**, not bes2600-only — it should not be quoted as "per frame" without per-pid filtering.
+
+**What is real:** the indirection adds two synchronization points per frame (`skb_queue_tail` + `skb_dequeue`, each `&rx_queue->lock`) plus a cross-CPU wake-up plus a tasklet schedule. That's enough to dominate at 4 MB/s. The collapse is justified — just not by the 9× number.
+
+### 2.2 ieee80211_rx_irqsafe from process context (Sonnet item 2) — concur, gated on contract verification
+
+Confirmed: `ieee80211_rx_irqsafe` is the right primitive only when called from hard-IRQ context — it defers to a tasklet. From process context (which is where `bh_work` and `sdio_rx_work` both live), it adds a tasklet hop for nothing.
+
+`ieee80211_rx_list(hw, sta, &skbs)` is the correct call shape if, and only if, two contract claims hold:
+1. callable from process context with `local_bh_disable()` wrap (or callable bare),
+2. SKB list invariants don't impose NAPI-poll semantics we can't honour.
+
+Sonnet asserted both; I have **not** verified them against `include/net/mac80211.h` kerneldoc on a 6.19-class kernel. **Task #19 blocks Patch C on that verification.** Until it lands, treat the API claim as unconfirmed — this is exactly the Phase 6 contract-citation rule, and skipping it would be the same trap the older driver fell into.
+
+### 2.3 ba_lock per-frame (Sonnet item 4) — concur
+
+`txrx.c:998-1005` (TX path) and `txrx.c:1632-1640` (RX path): `spin_lock_bh(&hw_priv->ba_lock)` to bump 4 ints (`ba_acc`, `ba_cnt`, `ba_acc_rx`, `ba_cnt_rx`) and conditionally `mod_timer(&hw_priv->ba_timer, …)`. The TODO comment in `bes2600.h:359-365` literally says *"TODO: Same as above"* on every field — the original author flagged it as deferred work, then shipped.
+
+Replace with `atomic_t` for the four counters and `cmpxchg`-guarded `mod_timer` for the arm-once invariant. Patch D.
+
+### 2.4 ps_state_lock when pm_unsupported (Sonnet item 5) — concur
+
+`txrx.c:1942-1948`: per-RX-frame `spin_lock_bh(&priv->ps_state_lock)` on the early-data path, protecting a check on `entry->status == BES2600_LINK_SOFT`. The lock exists to coordinate with the AP-side power-save state machine.
+
+c7's contribution (`pm_unsupported = true`) means we already know this firmware doesn't honour PSM; the LINK_SOFT branch is an AP-mode soft-link state that won't transition under us when PSM is dead. Gate the lock acquisition on `!hw_priv->pm_unsupported`. Patch E.
+
+(This patch is *narrower* than Sonnet framed it: it only applies when `pm_unsupported` latches on, which is at boot for our firmware. Production reality on this hardware = always; but the patch must remain conditional in case a future firmware fixes PSM and c7 self-clears the flag.)
+
+## 3. Push-back against Sonnet
+
+### 3.1 "BES_SDIO_OPTIMIZED_LEN config flag"
+
+Not a runtime/Kconfig knob on this build. `Makefile:18` hard-codes `ccflags-y += -DBES_SDIO_OPTIMIZED_LEN`. Whether to keep it is a separate question, but Sonnet's recommendation should not have framed it as toggleable.
+
+### 3.2 "Multiple workqueues are unconditionally bad"
+
+There are three driver-side workqueues:
+
+| name | purpose | dispatch shape |
+|---|---|---|
+| `bh_workqueue` | hosts the single long-running `bh_work` | one-shot at register, wait-queue driven thereafter |
+| `sdio_wq` | sdio_rx_work + sdio_tx_work + sdio_scan_work | per-IRQ-batch dispatch |
+| `hw_priv->workqueue` | scan, AP, PM, multicast-start, link-id, set-tim, … | per-event dispatch (~20 producers) |
+
+**`bh_workqueue` is fine** — it runs a single work item forever, which is just a kthread-shaped-as-workqueue. The cost is one alloc_workqueue at register and zero ongoing dispatch overhead. Don't kill it.
+
+**`sdio_wq` is the actual surgical target** — collapsing item 1 means subsuming `sdio_rx_work` into the bh-loop, after which `sdio_wq` only hosts tx_work and scan_work and could be merged with `hw_priv->workqueue` for cleanup. But that merge is cosmetic; do it later or never.
+
+**`hw_priv->workqueue` shouldn't be touched.** It hosts ~20 unrelated producers; merging it into sdio_wq is the wrong direction (priority inversion risk under coex pressure).
+
+### 3.3 "BH_RX_CONT_LIMIT=3 is the bottleneck"
+
+Half-true. The limit caps the burst-RX pass to 3 frames before yielding to TX work. Raising it past 3 only helps if RX has steady backlog, which under our 4 MB/s ramp it does. But there's also `BH_TX_CONT_LIMIT=20` paired with it — TX gets 20-frame bursts, RX gets 3. The asymmetry is from a previous campaign that found TX-starvation, and **flipping it without re-running that campaign is a regression risk**. Treat the constant as a phase-7-knob, not a one-liner.
+
+## 4. New findings Sonnet did not surface
+
+### 4.1 `bh.c` carries ~700 lines of `#if 0` dead code
+
+`bh.c:196-877` is the cw1200 ancestor `bes2600_bh()` preserved verbatim alongside the active impl at `bh.c:1332+`. Same function name, same `goto rx:` / `goto tx:` labels, same loop variables. The fossil block contains a typo (`if ((i = (CW12XX_MAX_VIFS - 1)) || !priv)` at lines 438 and 562 — single `=` is assignment-not-compare; live code at `ap.c:696` uses `==` correctly) which would be a real bug if compiled. **It is not compiled** — `#if 0` saves us — but this is the maintenance hazard you discover *first* when reading the file in a hurry.
+
+Action: kill the `#if 0` block. Standalone hygiene patch, not on the Bug-#5 critical path.
+
+### 4.2 Allwinner-specific code in the SDIO bus path
+
+`bes2600_sdio.c:475` calls `sw_mci_check_r1_ready(self->func->card->host, 1000)` from inside the IRQ-setup error path. This is the Allwinner mmc driver's R1-ready helper — not portable to RK3566's `dw_mmc-rockchip` host driver.
+
+The call is reachable only on `set_func` cleanup (a comparatively rare error path), but it is a build-time portability hazard. Most likely a stub macro on non-Allwinner builds; verify on ohm or wrap behind `#ifdef CONFIG_MMC_SUNXI`.
+
+### 4.3 `asm volatile ("nop")` placeholder in the live BH loop
+
+`bh.c:1518` is where IRQ re-enable used to be (`__bes2600_irq_enable(1)` is commented out two lines above). The author left a literal nop instruction "asm volatile" instead of removing the dead block. Either re-enable IRQs (if the code was deleted prematurely) or remove the nop (if IRQs are intentionally always-on). This is non-cosmetic — it indicates an unresolved IRQ-handling decision.
+
+### 4.4 `BUG_ON` in the steady-state hot path
+
+`bh.c:1488`: `BUG_ON(hw_priv->hw_bufs_used > hw_priv->wsm_caps.numInpChBufs)` runs *every* BH iteration. Tripping it locks up the kernel during normal operation — by definition the wrong response to a bookkeeping bug. Should be `WARN_ON_ONCE` + bail-out. (Same critique applies to several other `BUG_ON`s in `bh.c` — search the active `#else` block.)
+
+### 4.5 Build-system is a vendor SDK, not a kernel-style driver
+
+`Makefile:1-50` defaults: `CONFIG_BES2600_TESTMODE ?= y`, `WIFI_BT_COEXIST_EPTA_ENABLE ?= y`, `BES2600_INTEGRATED_MODULE_V1/V2/V3` for *xiaomi R329 wifi module*, *sicun QM215 wifi module*, *bes evb*. 86 `#ifdef CONFIG_BES2600_TESTMODE` sites — testmode is essentially compiled-in dead code in non-test builds.
+
+The driver was built by Bestechnic to ship per-customer board variants from one source tree. Upstreaming will require ripping that whole apparatus out, replacing with `Kconfig` toggles and platform-data lookups. This is **not** a Bug-#5 dependency, but it is a debt that pollutes every other patch — diff hunks land in `#ifdef`-walled territory and conflict on rebases for unrelated reasons.
+
+### 4.6 8 `EXPORT_SYMBOL` declarations from a single-binary module
+
+The driver exports `bes2600_irq_handler`, `bes2600_bh_wakeup`, `bes2600_bh_suspend`, `bes2600_bh_resume`, etc. — for whom? The only known consumer is `bes2600_btuart`, the BT sibling module. Either the BT module needs a coherent shared-driver API surface (refactor target), or these exports should become `static`. Random sibling-module coupling via global symbols is a known kernel anti-pattern.
+
+### 4.7 No `__must_check` on functions that obviously return errors
+
+Almost every `bes2600_data_read` / `bes2600_data_write` / `bes2600_reg_read*` call site is wrapped in `WARN_ON()`. That's defensive but not enforced. A single missed return-check (compiler will not warn) is a silent SDIO-path bug. Annotation cost is one keyword per declaration; benefit is a class of bugs caught at compile time.
+
+### 4.8 `rx_queue` is per-sbus_priv, not per-vif
+
+Multi-vif RX serializes through one `skb_queue` on the sbus side (`bes2600_sdio.c:867` queues to `self->rx_queue`, only dequeued by the single bh thread). For STA-only operation this doesn't matter; for STA+AP concurrent or P2P-multivif it's a structural ceiling on aggregate RX throughput. Out of scope for Bug #5 but worth recording — Markus's "P2P_MULTIVIF=y" Makefile default makes this potentially observable.
+
+## 5. Ordering recommendation for the cleanup roadmap
+
+Given (a) the current Bug-#5 budget, (b) Phase-7 stress-ramp cost per patch, (c) the constraint that the cleanups branch must rebase cleanly on Mobian's `mobian` for re-MR:
+
+| order | patch | scope | phase-7 cost | risk |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| 1 | **Patch C (items 1+2 wrapped)** | hot path: collapse sdio_rx_work into bh, batch deliver via ieee80211_rx_list | full ramp 1→4→8 MB/s | high — touches RX hot path |
+| 2 | **Patch D (item 4)** | ba_lock → atomics + cmpxchg-guarded mod_timer | minimal — lock-stat delta + 5min @ 4MB/s smoke | low |
+| 3 | **Patch E (item 5)** | ps_state_lock skip when pm_unsupported | minimal — same as D | low (gated on c7's existing latch) |
+| ∞ | bh.c #if 0 graveyard removal | pure delete | none — recompile + smoke | zero |
+| ∞ | CW12XX → BES2600 rename | mass rename | none — but every open patch conflicts | high churn cost, zero behaviour change |
+| **NOT** | Allwinner abstraction layer | wrap sw_mci_check_r1_ready | n/a | scope-creep; do only if RK3566 fails on it |
+| **NOT** | Vendor-SDK Makefile rewrite | Kconfigify | n/a | upstream-prep work, not Bug-#5 |
+| **NOT** | bh_workqueue / sdio_wq merge | structural | n/a | speculation, no measured win |
+
+Patch C is high-risk; merging items 1 and 2 into one patch is the user's call (made: "wrap them together") but should **be reviewed Phase-5 before Phase-6 implementation lands** — exactly the receipts-checklist that this CLAUDE.md exists to enforce. Splitting Patch C into 1-then-2 is *also* defensible; if Phase 7 finds item 1 regressed something, item 2 in isolation is harder to bisect.
+
+## 6. Things I would explicitly NOT do
+
+- **Don't paint the bikeshed on naming.** CW12XX → BES2600 rename is a 30+ file mass-substitute that conflict-spams every open topic branch. It is the right fix *for upstreaming*, not for the cleanups branch.
+- **Don't refactor the workqueue topology.** Three workqueues is fine. Two workqueues for cosmetic reasons risks priority inversion under coex pressure.
+- **Don't replace the BH thread architecture.** It works, the wait-queue model is well-suited to the IRQ → drain pattern, and replacing it with NAPI or threaded-IRQ would re-do six years of debugging in a single patch.
+- **Don't strip the `#ifdef CONFIG_BES2600_TESTMODE` blocks** until upstream-prep. They are vendor-SDK debt but harmless dead code.
+- **Don't wrap the Allwinner helper** unless RK3566 actually trips it. The path is rare-error.
+
+## 7. What I would tell a fresh reviewer in one paragraph
+
+> *This driver is genealogically a CW1200 driver (ST-Ericsson, ~2010) with chip-name search-and-replace done halfway. The hot path was designed for SPI with one-frame-per-IRQ; SDIO multi-block coalescing was bolted on with a worker-queue handoff that adds two synchronization points per frame. Bug #5's RX-throughput regression at 4 MB/s is a direct consequence: at low rate the handoff overhead is invisible; at high rate it dominates. Three small patches (Patches C, D, E) reclaim most of the floor without touching the genealogy. The genealogy itself is technical debt for upstreaming, not a Bug-#5 dependency. Don't conflate the two.*
+
+---
+
+## 8. Disagreements summary
+
+| Sonnet claim | My finding |
+|---|---|
+| "9 workqueue events per delivered RX frame" | overstated; per IRQ batch is 1 workqueue dispatch on this build. The 5,643/sec ftrace count is system-wide, needs per-pid filtering before claiming as bes2600 dispatch rate. |
+| "BES_SDIO_OPTIMIZED_LEN config flag" | hard-baked in Makefile as `-D…` ccflags, not toggleable |
+| Item 4 / Item 5 sized as one patch each | concur — separate small patches as Markus directed |
+| Item 1 + 2 mergeable | concur — directionally; predicated on `ieee80211_rx_list()` contract (Task #19) |
+
+## 9. Open questions for Markus
+
+1. **Patch C split-or-merge:** user directive is "wrap together". I'd note that a Phase-7 regression in the merged patch is harder to bisect than two sequential Phase-7 runs. Keeping the directive but recording the bisect-cost as known.
+2. **`__bes2600_irq_enable(1)` commented out:** is IRQ re-enable intentionally always-on now, or is the `nop` a deletion-in-progress bug? Reading the c-stack history doesn't tell me. Worth a "what was this for" pass before any RX-architecture patch lands.
+3. **`sw_mci_check_r1_ready` on RK3566:** should we test or just trust the path is rare-error? My read is: trust + `WARN_ON` if it's ever called, then react.
+
+---
+
+*Written 2026-05-07. Reviewing as Opus 4.7 against Sonnet 4.6's review of the same source tree. Independent reads of: bh.c, bes2600_sdio.c (sdio_rx_work + pipe_read + IRQ handler), txrx.c (RX delivery sites + ba_lock + ps_state_lock sites), bes2600.h (struct lock topology), Makefile (build-system shape). No simulator runs; this is a static-analysis writeup, the dynamic verification of any claim above belongs in Phase 7 of the corresponding patch.*
@@ -0,0 +1,184 @@
+# Patch C — Phase 4 Plan: collapse sdio_rx_work into BH
+
+**Author:** Claude (noether)
+**Status:** Phase 4 — pending Phase 5 second-model review before any Phase 6 code.
+**Scope:** **item 1 only** (per merged PR #8 inline review: "do it sequentially; we're not on the clock").
+**Item 2** (batch deliver via `ieee80211_rx_list`) splits to **Patch C2**, gated on Task #19 kerneldoc verification.
+
+---
+
+## §0 Substrate — anchored
+
+Bug #5 anchor (recorded 2026-05-07, see `notes/phase1-bug5-2026-05-07.md`):
+
+- Sender: netcat-over-WiFi, 4 MB/s cap, 2.4 GHz, AVM AP, single-STA
+- Receiver: ohm (PineTab2, RK3566 + BES2600WM-SDIO)
+- N=3 baseline reps: 725 / 663 / 75 KB/s (rep 3 saw link-death at ~9 min)
+- `perf record -g` during 4MB/s window: `_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore` ≈ 20% CPU
+- ftrace lock-instrumentation, system-wide: `workqueue_execute_start` ≈ 5,643/sec
+- Driver-side count: `wsm_cmd_send` 13/sec — wsm command path is *not* the dispatch source; the contributor is the per-SDIO-transaction relay.
+
+Root cause traced in PR #7 (Sonnet review) and concurred in PR #8 (Opus review): RX path adds two synchronization points per frame and one wait-queue wake-up per IRQ batch via `sdio_rx_work` → `rx_queue` → `bh_work` indirection.
+
+## §1 Goal (locked)
+
+Reduce per-RX-frame overhead enough that observed receive ≥ 1.0 MB/s sustained @ 4 MB/s sender, with `_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore` < 15 % CPU during the 4 MB/s window. No 30-min cascade to link-death.
+
+(This is a partial step toward Phase 1's full target of ≥ 2 MB/s sustained @ 4 MB/s with < 10 % lock CPU. The full target is jointly addressed by Patch C + Patch C2; Patch C alone should *cross half the gap*.)
+
+## §2 Situation
+
+- `bes2600.ko` srcversion `1B3B3ED0…` deployed on ohm (c-stack + Patch A + Patch B).
+- `cleanups` branch on `marfrit/bes2600-dkms` is the current source-of-truth.
+- Build sandbox `/var/tmp/c6-sandbox/` on ohm, native `make -j4`.
+- `BES2600_RX_IN_BH` is **defined** in Makefile — `bes2600_bh_rx_helper` is the active RX consumer.
+- ohm reachable. Markus pushes the reboot button; never me.
+- Test rig under `/root/bes2600-samples/` — `rep-trace.sh` per-rep capture script.
+
+## §3 Baseline measurements
+
+Reused from Bug #5 Phase 0 (above). No re-anchor needed for Patch C — same regime.
+
+**Specific Phase-3-units that this plan's predictions reference:**
+
+| metric | tool | current value (4MB/s window) |
+|---|---|---|
+| observed receive throughput | netcat receiver byte-count | 75–725 KB/s, rep-variance high |
+| `_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore` CPU% | perf record / report | ~20% |
+| `workqueue_execute_start`/sec | ftrace `workqueue:workqueue_execute_start` | ~5,643/sec system-wide |
+| `bes_sdio` workqueue dispatches | `cat /sys/kernel/tracing/events/workqueue/.../filter` filtered by `bes_sdio` | not measured pre-patch — **TODO before Phase 6** |
+| RX SKB rate at mac80211 boundary | trace `mac80211:drv_rx_irqsafe` count | not measured pre-patch — **TODO before Phase 6** |
+
+Phase 6 must not start until the two TODOs above are filled in — otherwise Phase 7 has no reference point for the predicted-delta comparison.
+
+## §4 Plan
+
+### §4.1 What will be touched
+
+- `bes2600_sdio.c::sdio_rx_work` — the relay loop. After this patch, it still drains the SDIO bus into SKBs but **delivers SKBs directly into `wsm_handle_rx`** instead of `skb_queue_tail`-ing them onto `self->rx_queue`.
+- `bes2600_sdio.c::bes2600_sdio_extract_packets` — the inner per-SKB extractor. Changes the in-loop action from `skb_queue_tail(&self->rx_queue, skb)` to a direct call (or callback) into the wsm dispatcher.
+- `bes2600_sdio.c::bes2600_sdio_pipe_read` — becomes unused, removed.
+- `bh.c::bes2600_bh_rx_helper` — its `BES_SDIO_RX_MULTIPLE_ENABLE` branch is no longer reachable for RX (RX path no longer feeds bh). Either gate the helper, or remove the helper outright if `bh_rx` atomic is no longer raised on RX.
+
+### §4.2 What will NOT be touched
+
+- `ieee80211_rx_irqsafe()` call sites — that's Patch C2 (item 2).
+- TX path — `sdio_tx_work`, `bes2600_bh_tx_helper`, etc. Untouched.
+- `sdio_wq` workqueue alloc — stays. After patch it hosts only `tx_work` + `scan_work` + (briefly during patch) `rx_work`. Renaming is cosmetic and out of scope.
+- The bh thread itself — still runs, still handles TX, still watches the timeouts.
+- `bh.c` `#if 0` graveyard — separate hygiene patch, not bundled.
+- `__bes2600_irq_enable(1)` commented-out / `asm volatile("nop")` placeholder — **deferred** per `feedback_dont_patch_downstream_artifacts`. These are symptom-shaped; Patch C may dissolve them. Re-evaluate at Task #24 (post-Patch-E observation).
+- `bh_rx` / `bh_tx` atomic split — out of scope.
+
+### §4.3 Approach choice — Option A (sdio_rx_work direct delivery)
+
+Two structural options surveyed in PR #8 §2.1; recap:
+
+| | Option A: direct delivery from sdio_rx_work | Option B: subsume sdio_rx_work into bh thread |
+|---|---|---|
+| diff size | small | medium |
+| eliminates `rx_queue->lock` × 2 per frame | yes | yes |
+| eliminates `sdio_wq.rx_work` workqueue dispatch per IRQ | no | yes |
+| changes who calls `wsm_handle_rx` | sdio_wq context (already process context) | bh thread |
+| TX/RX SDIO bus contention | unchanged (sdio_rx_work and sdio_tx_work already share `bes2600_sdio_lock`) | adds bh ↔ sdio_tx_work contention on the SDIO mutex |
+| bisection isolation | clean: only the rx_queue handoff is removed | mixes "remove handoff" with "subsume thread" |
+
+**Choosing Option A.** Reasons:
+1. Smaller diff = clearer Phase-7 attribution. If RX KB/s rises, we know it was the rx_queue handoff, not the workqueue topology.
+2. Per Markus's PR #8 review: split was for bisection clarity. Option A is narrower than Option B.
+3. The remaining cost (per-IRQ `sdio_wq.rx_work` dispatch) is ≤ 1 dispatch per IRQ batch; multi-RX coalescing means several frames per dispatch. If Phase 7 of Patch C shows that dispatch IS the residual cost, that becomes a concrete data point and motivates a *measured* Option-B follow-up, not a speculative one.
+
+### §4.4 Implementation sketch (preview — actual code in Phase 6)
+
+**Today** (`bes2600_sdio.c:783–831`):
+```c
+static int bes2600_sdio_extract_packets(...) {
+    for each packet:
+        skb = dev_alloc_skb(...);
+        memcpy(skb->data, &data[pos], packet_len);
+        spin_lock(&self->rx_queue_lock);
+        skb_queue_tail(&self->rx_queue, skb);    // ← handoff
+        spin_unlock(&self->rx_queue_lock);
+}
+static void sdio_rx_work(...) {
+    bes2600_sdio_extract_packets(...);
+    self->irq_handler(self->irq_priv);           // ← wakes bh_wq
+}
+// bh thread later: pipe_read = skb_dequeue(rx_queue) → wsm_handle_rx(skb)
+```
+
+**After patch** (sketch):
+```c
+static int bes2600_sdio_extract_packets(struct sbus_priv *self, u32 ctrl_reg, u8 *data) {
+    for each packet:
+        skb = dev_alloc_skb(...);
+        memcpy(skb->data, &data[pos], packet_len);
+        ret = wsm_handle_rx(self->core, wsm_id_from(skb), wsm_hdr_of(skb), &skb);
+        if (skb) dev_kfree_skb(skb);
+        // no rx_queue, no spinlock, no wake-up
+}
+static void sdio_rx_work(...) {
+    bes2600_sdio_extract_packets(...);
+    // self->irq_handler(...) is no longer called for RX-only wakes
+    // (it remains called for TX-confirm-completion paths, if any)
+}
+```
+
+Caveats discovered during sketch:
+- `wsm_handle_rx`'s signature wants `(hw_priv, id, wsm_hdr*, **skb)`. `extract_packets` doesn't currently parse the wsm header — we either parse it inline (cheap; the cost is one `__le16_to_cpu`) or defer parsing into a new `bes2600_sdio_deliver_rx(skb)` helper that wraps it.
+- `hw_priv` is reachable as `self->core`.
+- Need to verify `wsm_handle_rx` is callable from sdio_wq context. **Hypothesis:** yes, because today's bh thread is also process-context-via-workqueue and that's where wsm_handle_rx already runs. Phase 6 contract-cite from `wsm.h` / call-graph confirms.
+- The `irq_handler(self->irq_priv)` wakeup at sdio_rx_work:902 — keep it, but confirm whether bh actually has remaining work after RX is gone. Possibilities: TX-confirm completions (`wsm_release_tx_buffer`) still need a bh wake. Verify in Phase 6.
+
+### §4.5 Predicted delta (Phase 3 units)
+
+Conservative because Patch C is item 1 only, not items 1+2.
+
+| metric | predicted change | confidence |
+|---|---|---|
+| `rx_queue->lock` acquire/release rate | → 0 (lock is removed entirely; struct field deleted) | high |
+| RX-path wait-queue wakes (`bh_wq` from sdio_rx_work for RX) | → 0 (TX-confirm wakes remain) | high |
+| `_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore` CPU% | 20 % → 12–15 % | **medium** — the rx_queue lock is one of several contributors; I don't have per-lock breakdown pre-patch |
+| `workqueue_execute_start`/sec | marginal change (≤ 5 %) | high — sdio_wq dispatch still happens per IRQ |
+| observed receive @ 4 MB/s | floor lifts from 75 KB/s → ≥ 1.0 MB/s; rep-variance shrinks | **medium** — rep 3's link death has multiple causes (decrypt-storm path is Patch A's territory; AP-side `aid 30` rejection is also possible) |
+| Phase 7 N=3 outcome | all reps ≥ 1 MB/s sustained for 30 min @ 4 MB/s | **medium** |
+
+**Honest acknowledgement:** the medium-confidence predictions are the ones where Phase 7 either confirms the model or surfaces a new bug. If `_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore` only drops to 18 %, the next-largest contributor was something else — `pool->lock` (workqueue infrastructure) or `ba_lock` — and Patch D/E/C2 become the answer.
+
+### §4.6 Risks
+
+1. **`wsm_handle_rx` not callable from sdio_wq**: low probability (process context, same shape as today's bh), but a cite-failure here means revert to Option B. **Phase 6 must produce a `wsm.h` contract citation** before code lands.
+2. **TX-confirm wake-ups stop firing**: if `wsm_handle_rx` was the only thing that ultimately bumped `bh_tx`, removing it from bh's input causes TX-confirm starvation. Mitigation: keep `irq_handler(irq_priv)` call in sdio_rx_work for now; let the bh's wait_event re-evaluate `bh_tx` on every wake. **Verify in Phase 6 that `wsm_release_tx_buffer` still wakes bh.**
+3. **SKB allocation under memory pressure**: `dev_alloc_skb` in extract_packets currently `msleep(100)` retries up to 10×. Calling `wsm_handle_rx` directly from extract_packets keeps us in sdio_wq context during sleep; that's the same as today, so no new risk.
+4. **rcu / locking invariants in `wsm_handle_rx`**: it traverses `priv->vif_list`, may grab `priv->vif_lock`. Currently called from bh thread. After patch: called from sdio_wq context. Both are process context, both can sleep. No new risk *unless* there's a held lock at sdio_wq level that wsm_handle_rx tries to re-acquire. **Phase 6 lock-graph audit required.**
+5. **`bes2600_chrdev_is_bus_error()` early-return**: currently checked in `pipe_read`. After patch, must move into `extract_packets` or `sdio_rx_work` so RX during a bus-error window still gets dropped, not passed to mac80211.
+6. **Multi-vif RX serialization**: the `rx_queue` is per-sbus_priv, not per-vif. After patch, multi-vif demux happens inside `wsm_handle_rx` (same as today). No new risk; same ceiling.
+
+### §4.7 Phase 5 review handover
+
+Goal/Situation/Measurements/Plan paste verbatim into DokuWiki when Markus initiates handover. **Do not curate** the plan for the reviewer — including the "medium-confidence" predictions and the §4.6 risk list verbatim. Reviewer should see the same uncertainty I have.
+
+### §4.8 Phase 7 protocol (after Phase 6 lands)
+
+Per `feedback_phase7_stress_ramp.md` — **stress ramp, not steady cap**:
+
+1. Pre-patch baseline (re-anchor): 5 min @ 1 MB/s, 10 min @ 2 MB/s, 30 min @ 4 MB/s. Capture ftrace `workqueue/`, `lock/`, `mac80211/`, `mmc/`. perf record during the 4 MB/s window.
+2. Apply Patch C, install, reboot (Markus pushes).
+3. Post-patch: identical ramp, identical instrumentation.
+4. Compute deltas in **the same units** as §3 baseline. Compare to §4.5 predictions. Any unexplained delta is a finding, not a footnote — log it and loop back to Phase 4 if the model is wrong.
+5. **N=3 reps** post-patch. The user's stress-ramp memory and the receipts checklist both require this.
+6. Capture `sdio_work_debug` output and `dmesg` if any storm fires (Patch A's counter should hold steady).
+7. If Phase 7 numbers match prediction → Phase 8 memory update + proceed to Patch C2.
+8. If they don't match → loop back to Phase 4. Don't paper-fix.
+
+## §5 Out-of-scope items recorded for follow-on patches
+
+- **Patch C2**: items 2 — `ieee80211_rx_list` batch delivery. Gated on Task #19 kerneldoc verification.
+- **Patch D**: ba_lock atomicization at `txrx.c:998-1005, 1632`. Independent.
+- **Patch E**: ps_state_lock skip when `pm_unsupported = true` at `txrx.c:1942-1948`. Independent, gated on c7 latch.
+- **Task #24**: post-Patch-E observation of bh.c `asm volatile("nop")`, commented-out `__bes2600_irq_enable(1)`, BUG_ON in steady-state hot path. Symptom-shaped; observe before patching.
+- **Task #25**: measure `sw_mci_check_r1_ready` on RK3566 during testing.
+
+---
+
+*Plan written 2026-05-07 by Claude (noether). Awaiting Phase 5 second-model review on DokuWiki, initiated by Markus.*
@@ -0,0 +1,136 @@
+# Patch C v2 — Phase 4 Plan: atomic_t prep + direct-deliver
+
+**Author:** Claude (noether)
+**Status:** Phase 4 v2 — Phase 7 of Patch C (notes/patch-c-phase4-plan-2026-05-07.md, PR #9 merged) failed with a thread-safety race; this is the redesign.
+**Decision:** Option B from PR #3 close-out comment — `atomic_t` prep refactor first, direct-deliver on top.
+
+---
+
+## §0 What just happened (Phase 7 of Patch C)
+
+Reproduced verbatim from boot -1 of ohm 2026-05-07 20:18:10 CEST, ~13 s into a 4 MB/s nc stress:
+
+```
+WARNING: at wsm_release_tx_buffer+0x84/0xa0 [bes2600], CPU#0: kworker/0:3H/3912
+Workqueue: bes_sdio sdio_rx_work [bes2600]
+pc : wsm_release_tx_buffer+0x84/0xa0 [bes2600]
+lr : bes2600_bh_handle_rx_skb+0x134/0x370 [bes2600]
+sdio_rx_work+0x2a8/0x540 [bes2600]
+bes2600_wlan: wsm_release_tx_buffer failed: -1
+```
+
+Storm continued; chip wedged; ohm fell off the WiFi (wlan0).  Patch C module preserved at `/var/tmp/bes2600.patchC-broken.ko` for forensics.  Patch B rolled back, currently on disk on ohm.  Lesson saved as `feedback_phase6_contract_threadsafety` memory.
+
+## §1 Why it failed
+
+`wsm_release_tx_buffer()` (bh.c:222–243) does **unlocked** read–modify–write on `hw_priv->hw_bufs_used`.  Pre-Patch-C invariant was single-writer = BH thread; the lock that mattered was structural, not annotated.  Patch C's direct-deliver moved one writer (RX-confirm decrement) into `sdio_rx_work` workqueue context.  BH thread + sdio_rx_work race on the int counter; underflow below zero, WARN, return -1, bookkeeping corrupt, TX wedges.
+
+Phase 6 contract block correctly cited `wsm_handle_rx`'s sleepability and held-lock invariants — but stopped at the called function's signature.  It did not enumerate `hw_bufs_used` as shared state mutated by the callee.  That's the gap.
+
+## §2 Shared-state delta table (the thing missing from Patch C)
+
+Every field that `bes2600_bh_handle_rx_skb` mutates either directly or transitively, with current protection and required action:
+
+| field | declared at | written by (today) | written by (after Patch C v2) | current protection | action needed |
+|---|---|---|---|---|---|
+| `hw_priv->hw_bufs_used` | bes2600.h | `wsm_alloc_tx_buffer` (bh thread, TX submit), `wsm_release_tx_buffer` (bh thread, RX confirm), `main.c:543` (init) | + `wsm_release_tx_buffer` from sdio_rx_work | single-writer = BH thread (structural) | **convert to `atomic_t`** |
+| `hw_priv->hw_bufs_used_vif[i]` | bes2600.h | `wsm_release_vif_tx_buffer` (bh thread), `bh.c:1271` (vif TX submit), init | + `wsm_release_vif_tx_buffer` from sdio_rx_work | single-writer = BH thread | **convert to `atomic_t [N]`** |
+| `hw_priv->wsm_rx_seq[i]` | bes2600.h | bh thread RX | sdio_rx_work only | single-writer = BH/sdio_rx context (was BH, now is sdio_rx_work, but still **one writer**) | OK — single writer |
+| `hw_priv->wsm_tx_pending[i]` | bes2600.h | `bes2600_bh_inc_pending_count` (TX submit, BH thread), `bes2600_bh_dec_pending_count` (RX confirm) | dec moves to sdio_rx_work; inc stays BH | single-writer = BH | **also needs `atomic_t`** |
+| `hw_priv->lmac_mon_timer` / `mcu_mon_timer` | bes2600.h | mod_timer / del_timer_sync from BH | ditto from sdio_rx_work | timer API is internally locked | OK — `mod_timer` is concurrency-safe |
+| `hw_priv->wsm_cmd.lock` (taken inside wsm_handle_rx) | wsm_buf | bh thread (today) | sdio_rx_work | spinlock | OK — already protected |
+| `hw_priv->vif_lock` (taken inside wsm_handle_rx for some paths) | per vif | bh thread today | sdio_rx_work | spinlock | OK |
+| `priv->bh_evt_wq` wake-up | bes2600.h | wsm_release_tx_buffer when count hits 0 | ditto from sdio_rx_work | wake_up is concurrency-safe | OK |
+| `bes2600_pwr_clear_busy_event` (called inside release) | bes_pwr | bh thread | sdio_rx_work | internal locking via `bes_power.lock` | OK |
+| `hw_priv->buf_released` | bes2600.h | only `wsm_release_buffer_to_fw` (MCAST_FWDING ifdef, AP-only) | unchanged — BH only | single-writer = BH | OK — not on Patch C v2 hot path |
+
+**Three fields require atomic_t conversion:** `hw_bufs_used`, `hw_bufs_used_vif[]`, `wsm_tx_pending[]`.  Everything else is already concurrency-safe or moves cleanly to single-writer-in-sdio_rx_work.
+
+## §3 Read-site survey (the rest of the work — atomic_read swaps)
+
+`grep -hE "hw_bufs_used\b|hw_bufs_used_vif\b" *.c *.h | wc -l` = **57 references** across the source tree:
+
+- 5 writers (above)
+- 52 readers — converted mechanically to `atomic_read()`.  Distribution:
+  - `bh.c`: 22 read sites (most in the bh main loop, BUG_ON gates, idle / suspend predicates)
+  - `sta.c`: 3 sites (PM idle check at sta.c:1231–1253)
+  - `bes2600_sdio.c`: 1 site (PM idle check at line 958)
+  - `main.c`: 2 sites (init zero, teardown wait)
+  - `debug.c`: 1 site (debugfs stats)
+  - `itp.c`: 1 site (test mode)
+
+`wsm_tx_pending[i]` site count is smaller — ~6 references, all in bh.c and the timer monitors.  Same mechanical conversion.
+
+## §4 Plan v2 — two-step
+
+**Patch C-prep** (NFC, lands first):
+
+- Convert `hw_bufs_used` from `int` → `atomic_t`.
+- Convert `hw_bufs_used_vif[CW12XX_MAX_VIFS]` from `int[]` → `atomic_t[]`.
+- Convert `wsm_tx_pending[2]` from `int[]` → `atomic_t[]`.
+- Update writers:
+  - `wsm_alloc_tx_buffer`: `atomic_inc(&hw_priv->hw_bufs_used)`.
+  - `wsm_release_tx_buffer`: rewrite with `atomic_fetch_sub_release(count, &hw_priv->hw_bufs_used)` — returns prior value.  Re-derive the "tx restart" predicate (`prior >= numInpChBufs - 1`) and the "wake bh_evt_wq + clear busy" predicate (`prior - count == 0`) from that.  WARN if `prior - count < 0`.
+  - `wsm_release_vif_tx_buffer`: same pattern on the array element.
+  - `bes2600_bh_inc/dec_pending_count`: use `atomic_inc` and `atomic_dec_return` (need post-decrement value to decide whether to del_timer).
+- Update all 52+6 read sites: mechanical `atomic_read()` swap.
+- `main.c:543` init: `atomic_set(&hw_priv->hw_bufs_used_vif[i], 0)`.
+
+**Patch C-prep does NOT change behaviour.**  Same atomic ordering (`_release` / `_acquire` chosen to match the implicit memory ordering the BH-only path had).  Phase 7 of C-prep alone should show **identical** numbers to pre-patch baseline (`run-20260507-patchC-preflight`): 1.36 MB/s, 86.4 sdio_rx_work/sec, 90.3 dispatches per 1000 RX pkts, 0 bh_work redispatches.  If Phase 7 of C-prep shows a delta, the atomic ordering is wrong and we loop back here, not to C v2.
+
+**Patch C v2** (the actual structural change, lands on top of C-prep):
+
+- Identical to Patch C as merged in PR #3 (since closed): direct-deliver from `bes2600_sdio_extract_packets` into `bes2600_bh_handle_rx_skb`, no `rx_queue` indirection, no bh wake-up for RX.
+- The contract block in `bh.c::bes2600_bh_handle_rx_skb` is **expanded** to include the shared-state delta table from §2 of this plan, with explicit citations.
+- Same minimum-diff scope as Patch C: keep `rx_queue`, `pipe_read`, `bh_rx_helper` for clean bisection; remove in a follow-up hygiene patch.
+
+## §5 What will NOT be touched (deferred or out of scope)
+
+- mac80211-side `ieee80211_rx_irqsafe` → `ieee80211_rx_list` migration: that's Patch C2, gated on Task #19 kerneldoc verification.
+- The `#if 0` graveyard in bh.c, the `asm volatile("nop")` placeholder, the BUG_ON in steady-state hot path: still symptom-shaped per `feedback_dont_patch_downstream_artifacts`.  Re-evaluate at Task #24 after C v2 / D / E land.
+- `ba_lock` (Patch D) and `ps_state_lock` (Patch E): independent.
+
+## §6 Risk list (per Phase 6 contract-thread-safety memory)
+
+1. **C-prep memory ordering**: I've chosen `atomic_fetch_sub_release` for `wsm_release_tx_buffer` to mirror the implicit BH-thread ordering (release before subsequent atomic ops on `bh_evt_wq` / `bes_power`).  If the BH thread or other readers expect `_acquire` semantics on the value, we get reordering bugs that are hard to reproduce.  **Mitigation:** pair with `_acquire` reads where the read-then-decision pattern is critical (e.g., the bh main loop's `if (!hw_priv->hw_bufs_used)` idle predicate).  Cite the kerneldoc reference for `atomic_fetch_sub_release` in the commit message.
+
+2. **`wsm_tx_pending[]` decrement-side timer interaction**: `bes2600_bh_dec_pending_count` does `if (--hw_priv->wsm_tx_pending[idx] == 0) del_timer_sync(timer); else mod_timer(timer, ...)`.  After atomic_t conversion: `if (atomic_dec_return(&hw_priv->wsm_tx_pending[idx]) == 0) ...`.  But *another* thread could `atomic_inc` between our dec and the timer call, racing the del_timer.  `del_timer_sync` is internally safe (it can be called concurrently with `mod_timer`), but the **decision** "whether to delete vs mod" is racy.  **Mitigation:** even after atomic conversion, this function still needs to be called from a single context.  Verify `inc/dec_pending_count` callers — if both sides only fire from BH and sdio_rx_work and never overlap on the same idx, we're fine; if not, this needs a lock.
+
+3. **`hw_bufs_used_vif[]` array vs `wsm_alloc_tx_buffer`**: vif counter increment lives at bh.c:1271, called from bh thread TX-submit path.  Decrement (`wsm_release_vif_tx_buffer`) called from RX-confirm.  After Patch C v2 the decrement is in sdio_rx_work — same race shape as the global counter.  Already covered by the atomic_t array conversion.
+
+4. **PM idle predicate at sta.c:1239**: reads `hw_priv->hw_bufs_used_vif[priv->if_id]` to decide can-sleep.  Currently racy (was already reading BH-mutated state from a non-BH PM context).  Atomic conversion makes the read coherent.  PM context's read-then-decide is still fundamentally a snapshot — no change in semantics, just no torn-read.
+
+5. **Reboot / module-unload teardown** (`main.c:840`): `wait_event_timeout(... !hw_priv->hw_bufs_used ...)`.  Becomes `... !atomic_read(...)`.  No semantic change — the wait_event macro re-evaluates the predicate on each wake.
+
+6. **Phase 7 rig: Patch C v2 still wedges chip if I missed anything**: now mitigated by ohm's new wired interface (enu1, 192.168.88.80) — survives bes2600 wedges, lets us collect dmesg / ftrace / journalctl from a wedged ohm without reboot.  See `reference_ohm_wired_iface` memory.
+
+## §7 Phase 5 review handover
+
+PR on git.reauktion.de/marfrit/besser, this file as the artifact (per `feedback_phase5_surface_is_pr`).  Specifically request reviewer focus on §2 shared-state delta table — that's the part that should have caught Patch C's bug.  Don't curate.
+
+## §8 Phase 6 implementation order
+
+1. Branch off `cleanups` on bes2600-dkms-mobian: `bes2600/atomic-tx-buf-counters` (= Patch C-prep).
+2. Mechanical refactor: `int hw_bufs_used` → `atomic_t hw_bufs_used`, all reads → `atomic_read`, all writes → atomic ops.  Same for vif array and tx_pending array.  No other changes.
+3. Build, install, smoke-test.  Phase 7 of C-prep.  Should be a no-op delta.
+4. PR + Phase 5 review + merge.
+5. Branch off C-prep: `bes2600/sdio-rx-direct-deliver-v2` (= Patch C v2).
+6. Re-apply the Patch C delta (3 files: bh.h, bh.c, bes2600_sdio.c — same edits as PR #3).
+7. Build, install, Phase 7 N=3 stress ramp.
+8. PR + Phase 5 review + merge.
+
+## §9 Phase 7 v2 protocol (per `feedback_phase7_stress_ramp` + wired-rig)
+
+1. Pre-C-prep baseline rep N=3 (re-anchor, since current N=1 baseline is from `run-20260507-patchC-preflight`).
+2. Apply C-prep, N=3.  Compare to pre.  Expect: zero meaningful delta.  If non-zero → memory-ordering bug, loop back to §4 atomic-ordering choice.
+3. Apply C v2, N=3.  Compare to C-prep baseline.  Expect: §4.5 of original Patch C plan's predicted delta (rx_queue lock acquires → 0, observed RX KB/s lifts toward ≥1 MB/s sustained @ 4MB/s).
+4. **All Phase 7 stress runs use the wired path (`ssh mfritsche@192.168.88.80`) for telemetry collection.**  When the chip wedges (it shouldn't this time, but planning for it), wlan0 stops responding but enu1 stays alive.  Collect dmesg / ftrace / journalctl over enu1 BEFORE rebooting.  This is the data we lost in Patch C boot -1 because wlan0 was the only path.
+5. N=3 reps per phase per `feedback_phase7_stress_ramp`.  Don't accept N=1 as verification.
+
+## §10 Closeout
+
+If C-prep + C v2 both pass Phase 7: proceed to D (ba_lock atomicization), E (ps_state_lock skip).  Markus's "we're not on the clock" applies — sequencing per bisection clarity, not delivery deadline.
+
+---
+
+*Plan written 2026-05-07 by Claude (noether), in response to Patch C Phase 7 failure.  Phase 5 review = PR comments on this artifact at git.reauktion.de/marfrit/besser.  Don't curate the shared-state delta table for the reviewer — that's the part the previous round's reviewer should have caught me on.*
@@ -0,0 +1,127 @@
+# Patch C v3 — Phase 4 Plan: drop sdio_rx_work, match cw1200 architecture
+
+**Author:** Claude (noether)
+**Status:** Phase 4 v3 — supersedes v2 (PR #10) after cw1200 mainline survey showed the race-free path is structural, not lock-based.
+**Decision:** drop the `sdio_rx_work` workqueue entirely; SDIO IRQ wakes `bh_wq`; bh thread does the SDIO read inline.  Restores single-writer-from-bh invariant on `hw_bufs_used` *by construction*.  No `atomic_t` prep needed.
+
+---
+
+## §0 Why v3 supersedes v2
+
+PR #10's plan was: convert `hw_bufs_used` etc. to `atomic_t` (prep), then direct-deliver from `sdio_rx_work` (structural).  That was a workaround for the race that *only existed because of the relay*.
+
+The cw1200 mining (`~/src/linux-rockchip`, 228 cw1200 commits) showed the upstream answer: there is no relay.  cw1200's IRQ handler bumps `bh_rx` and wakes the bh thread; the bh thread does the SDIO read itself inside `cw1200_bh_rx_helper` (`drivers/net/wireless/st/cw1200/bh.c:233`).  Single thread = single writer for `hw_bufs_used` = no race.  Same `int hw_bufs_used` as bes2600, never atomic_t'd in 16 years upstream because it never needed to be.
+
+Patch C v3 brings bes2600 into that shape.  The structural simplification is bigger than v2's diff but lands the right architecture in one move.
+
+## §1 Goal
+
+Same as Patch C v2 §1: ≥ 1 MB/s sustained receive @ 4 MB/s sender, < 15 % `_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore` CPU%, no 30-min cascade to link-death.  Stretch toward Phase 1's full 2 MB/s once Patch C2 (rx_list batch) lands separately.
+
+## §2 Situation
+
+- Cleanups branch is at Patch F merged (commit `b717251`).  All Phase 5 reviews of the F series merged via PR #4.
+- ohm rebooted with F module live (srcversion `A9438692D6A8698F92AEEA1`) — F is the new baseline for Patch C v3 Phase 7 comparison.
+- Wired path `enu1` at `192.168.88.80` survives bes2600 wedges; lmcp `ohm` still goes through wlan0.  Phase 7 telemetry collection over enu1.
+- Reboot-permission override active (ohm dev-allocated; I can `sudo reboot` directly — `feedback_user_pushes_reboot_button` override clause).
+
+## §3 Baseline measurements
+
+Carry forward from `run-20260507-patchC-preflight/baseline.tsv` (N=1, F-less Patch B module):
+
+| metric | value |
+|---|---|
+| observed receive @ 4 MB/s | 1.362 MB/s |
+| sdio_rx_work dispatches | 86.4/s = 90.3 per 1000 RX packets |
+| sdio_tx_work dispatches | 276.1/s |
+| bes2600_bh_work redispatches | 0 (single long-lived) |
+
+**Phase 6 prereq:** capture an N=3 baseline ON THE F MODULE before Patch C v3 code lands.  Same instrumentation, same stress ramp.  This is the post-F / pre-v3 reference.  Without it, Phase 7's delta is C+F vs B+nothing — confounded.
+
+## §4 Plan v3
+
+### §4.1 What gets eliminated
+
+- **`sdio_rx_work` (bes2600_sdio.c:829)** — function deleted.  No longer queued, no longer runs.
+- **`self->rx_work` work_struct** — field deleted from `struct sbus_priv`.  `INIT_WORK` removed.
+- **`self->rx_queue` + `self->rx_queue_lock`** — fields deleted.  `skb_queue_head_init` removed.  No SKB ever queued there.
+- **`bes2600_sdio_pipe_read`** — function deleted.  No callers after this patch.
+- **`sbus_ops->pipe_read`** — sbus op slot deleted (or kept and stubbed; tx_loop.c also implements it for the test-loop bus, has to stay if test-loop is preserved).
+- **`queue_work(self->sdio_wq, &self->rx_work)`** at the 3 call sites in `bes2600_sdio.c` (lines 416, 941, 1199) — removed.
+
+### §4.2 What gets added
+
+- **A new `bes2600_bh_handle_rx_skb()`** in bh.c (same shape as Patch C added, same contract block; no longer needs to also wake the bh thread because we ARE the bh thread).
+- **A new helper `bes2600_sdio_read_rx_batch()`** in bes2600_sdio.c, exported, that does what `sdio_rx_work` used to do MINUS the queuing: lock → read ctrl_reg → memcpy_fromio → packets_check → for-each-frame extract+deliver.  Called from bh.
+
+### §4.3 What gets rewired
+
+- **`bes2600_gpio_irq_handler`** in bes2600_sdio.c:413 (the GPIO-IRQ path used when CONFIG_BES2600_USE_GPIO_IRQ is set):  drop `queue_work(self->sdio_wq, &self->rx_work)`; instead call `self->irq_handler(self->irq_priv)` directly (which is `bes2600_irq_handler` in bh.c, bumps `bh_rx` + wakes `bh_wq`).  Matches cw1200_sdio_irq_handler shape.
+- **`bes2600_bh_rx_helper`** (bh.c:961, BES_SDIO_RX_MULTIPLE_ENABLE branch): instead of `pipe_read`-ing one SKB from the (now-gone) rx_queue, call the new `bes2600_sdio_read_rx_batch()` which does the SDIO read AND delivers each frame inline via `bes2600_bh_handle_rx_skb()`.  Returns count delivered, or negative on error.
+- **`bes2600_bh()` outer loop**:  after a successful rx_batch read, the helper signals whether to continue draining (more frames pending) — same shape as today's `BH_RX_CONT_LIMIT=3` outer loop.
+- **`bes2600_gpio_wakeup_mcu(SDIO_RX)`** + **`bes2600_gpio_allow_mcu_sleep(SDIO_RX)`** brackets:  currently called inside sdio_rx_work.  Move into bh thread around the `bes2600_sdio_read_rx_batch()` call.  Same wake-flag bracketing, just from a different thread.
+- **`sdio_wq` workqueue**:  keeps `tx_work` and (briefly) `scan_work`.  Renamed or kept — cosmetic.  Don't touch in this patch.
+
+### §4.4 What stays untouched
+
+- TX path (`sdio_tx_work`, `bes2600_bh_tx_helper`, `wsm_alloc_tx_buffer`).  Independent.
+- WSM protocol layer (`wsm.c`, `wsm_handle_rx`).  Same callees, just from bh thread now.
+- mac80211 RX delivery (`ieee80211_rx_irqsafe`).  That's Patch C2.
+- `BES2600_RX_IN_BH` ifdef gate.  Stays defined; the gated branch is now the only RX path.
+- Symptom-shaped artifacts (asm nop, BUG_ON in hot path) — still deferred, see task #24 post-cleanup.
+
+## §5 Shared-state delta table (the v2 lesson, applied)
+
+Every field `bes2600_bh_handle_rx_skb` mutates directly or transitively, with the v3 protection:
+
+| field | written by (today) | written by (after v3) | concurrency | required action |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| `hw_priv->hw_bufs_used` | bh thread (TX submit + RX confirm), main.c init | **bh thread only** (RX moves into bh) | single-writer | none — `int` is fine, race-free by construction |
+| `hw_priv->hw_bufs_used_vif[i]` | bh thread (TX vif submit + RX vif confirm), main.c init | **bh thread only** | single-writer | none |
+| `hw_priv->wsm_rx_seq[i]` | sdio_rx_work today | bh thread | single-writer | none — moves cleanly between contexts |
+| `hw_priv->wsm_tx_pending[i]` | bh thread (inc on TX submit), bh+sdio_rx_work (dec on RX confirm) | **bh thread only** | single-writer | none |
+| `hw_priv->lmac_mon_timer` / `mcu_mon_timer` | mod_timer / del_timer_sync from bh + sdio_rx_work | bh thread only | timer API safe anyway | none |
+| `hw_priv->wsm_cmd.lock` | spinlock taken inside wsm_handle_rx | same | already protected | none |
+| `priv->bh_evt_wq` wake-up | wsm_release_tx_buffer when count→0 | same | wake_up is concurrency-safe | none |
+| `bes_pwr.lock` (inside bes2600_pwr_clear_busy_event) | bh thread (today) | bh thread | already protected | none |
+| `self->rx_data_cnt` etc. (sbus_priv stats) | sdio_rx_work | bh thread | single-writer | none |
+
+**Zero fields require new locking.** The architectural pivot eliminates the race v2's atomic_t was working around.
+
+## §6 Risks
+
+1. **bh thread now holds the SDIO bus mutex during read** (currently held by sdio_rx_work).  TX work in the same bh thread is unaffected (sdio_tx_work runs on a separate workqueue and shares the same mutex anyway).  The sdio_lock contention pattern doesn't change.
+2. **Loss of "parallelism" between sdio_rx_work and bh TX**:  sdio_rx_work and bh thread *appeared* to run in parallel today, but both serialize through `bes2600_sdio_lock(self)` for the actual bus operations.  The parallelism was illusory.  Net throughput should not regress.
+3. **bh thread CPU-busy-time per RX batch increases**:  inline SDIO read is the same cost, just charged to bh instead of sdio_wq's worker.  Mitigation: the per-IRQ workqueue dispatch cost (~86/s) is what we trade for it.  Net: -86 dispatches/s, +0 µs per frame.
+4. **Multi-RX coalescing (BES_SDIO_RX_MULTIPLE_NUM=16)** stays.  bes2600_sdio_extract_packets parses the multi-frame buffer same as before, just inline now.  No functional change to chip-side behaviour.
+5. **GPIO wake-flag bracketing**:  `bes2600_gpio_wakeup_mcu(SDIO_RX)` and `bes2600_gpio_allow_mcu_sleep(SDIO_RX)` currently bracket sdio_rx_work.  Move them to bracket the new bh-side read.  If the wake-flag accounting is sub-system-scoped (it is — flag bits per subsystem), this is a clean move.
+6. **IRQ re-enable in bh thread**:  cw1200's bh re-enables IRQ via `__cw1200_irq_enable(priv, 1)` after each round.  bes2600 has the analogous `__bes2600_irq_enable(0/1)` (commented out as the `asm volatile("nop")` symptom in `bh.c:1518-1520`).  This patch does NOT re-engage the commented-out re-enable — that's still task #24's call.  But if the IRQ stays disabled across rounds, we'd never receive the next IRQ.  **Investigate before Phase 6 lands**: where does IRQ re-enable happen in the current bes2600 hot path?  The sdio_func IRQ may be auto-managed by sdio core differently.  Block Phase 6 on this audit.
+7. **Phase 7 wedge resilience**:  if v3 has a different bug shape than v2's race (which it shouldn't, since the race is gone by construction), the wired path lets us collect telemetry from a wedged ohm.
+
+## §7 Phase 5 / 6 / 7
+
+- **Phase 5**: PR on `git.reauktion.de/marfrit/besser` with this artifact.  Specifically request reviewer focus on §6 risk #6 (IRQ re-enable mechanism).
+- **Phase 6**: branch off cleanups (post-F): `bes2600/sdio-rx-no-relay`.  Implement the file changes per §4.  Build, install, smoke-test.
+- **Phase 7**: 
+  - First: N=3 stress-ramp **on F module** (post-F pre-v3 baseline).  10 min @ 1, 30 min @ 2, 30 min @ 4 MB/s.  Use wired path for telemetry.
+  - Then: install v3 module, identical N=3 ramp.  Compare deltas.
+  - Predicted: sdio_rx_work dispatch rate → 0/s (was 86/s).  observed receive lifts toward ≥ 1.0 MB/s sustained.  `_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore` drops by the rx_queue lock contribution (was 1914/s acquires).
+
+## §8 What gets dropped from v2 plan
+
+- atomic_t prep refactor (`hw_bufs_used` → `atomic_t`): not needed.  Single-writer invariant preserved structurally.  Still a defensible standalone hardening patch *if mainlining bes2600 ever requires defense-in-depth*, but not on the Bug-#5 critical path.
+- `wsm_tx_pending[]` decrement-decision race (v2 risk #2): also moots.  Both sides single-thread under v3.
+- v2 Phase 7's "C-prep should show zero delta" gate: replaced by "v3 should match cw1200's structural shape" gate.
+
+## §9 Open question for reviewer
+
+The big one is §6 risk #6 — IRQ re-enable. cw1200 explicitly does `__cw1200_irq_enable(priv, 1)` from bh after each round; bes2600 has the call **commented out** with an `asm volatile("nop")` placeholder.  Either:
+
+(a) bes2600's SDIO IRQ is level-triggered + auto-acked by SDIO core, so re-enable isn't needed (that would explain the nop).
+(b) The current code happens to work because sdio_rx_work is queued by the IRQ regardless of whether IRQ is "enabled" by the driver-side flag.  After v3 we have to manually re-enable like cw1200 does.
+
+Need to confirm (a) vs (b) before Phase 6 lands.  Plan to grep for `__bes2600_irq_enable` callsites and trace back to whether it's load-bearing.
+
+---
+
+*Plan written 2026-05-07 by Claude (noether), after Patch F merged and Patch C v2 (PR #10) was superseded by the cw1200 architectural mining finding.  Phase 5 review on PR.  Don't curate.*
@@ -0,0 +1,171 @@
+# Patch C2 — Phase 4 Plan: migrate ieee80211_rx_irqsafe → ieee80211_rx_list
+
+**Author:** Claude (noether)
+**Status:** Phase 4 — pending Phase 5 PR review before any Phase 6 code.
+**Predecessor:** Patch C v3 (PR #5 merged, +73% throughput, no-relay architecture); Patch D + E + F + G also landed. Cleanups branch tip = 42fd0ce.
+**Task #19 contract**: `ieee80211_rx_list` callable from process context, **requires `local_bh_disable()` + `rcu_read_lock()` wrap**, **cannot mix with `ieee80211_rx_irqsafe()` for the same hardware** → all 6 sites convert in one shot.
+
+---
+
+## §0 Substrate
+
+After Patch C v3:
+- bh thread is the sole RX-delivery context (no relay, no sdio_rx_work)
+- Per-frame work runs in process context (sleepable)
+- Single-writer-from-bh invariant covers `hw_bufs_used` and friends
+
+`ieee80211_rx_irqsafe` is currently called from process context. Per kerneldoc (`include/net/mac80211.h:5399-5411`):
+
+> **Like ieee80211_rx() but can be called in IRQ context** (internally defers to a tasklet.)
+
+The tasklet hop is the cost we pay today for delivering each RX frame from process context. `ieee80211_rx_list` is the process-context replacement.
+
+## §1 Goal
+
+Per-frame: skip the tasklet hop. Batch: process multiple SKBs from one SDIO read inside a single `local_bh_disable()`/`rcu_read_lock()` window.
+
+Phase 1 metric: **RX throughput @ 4 MB/s sender**, with v3 N=3 baseline = 2.352 MB/s. Hypothesis: small to moderate uplift (<10%) from removing the tasklet deferral. Larger improvement would be surprising — if observed, that's a finding to investigate.
+
+## §2 Situation
+
+- 6 call sites in bes2600 currently use `ieee80211_rx_irqsafe`:
+  - `ap.c:96` (AP-mode link-id RX queue drain)
+  - `sta.c:1487` (link-id rx_queue drain in ?)
+  - `txrx.c:1960` (early-data + pm_unsupported branch — Patch E added)
+  - `txrx.c:1967` (early-data + LINK_SOFT-not-set branch)
+  - `txrx.c:1971` (normal RX path)
+  - `wsm.c:2415` (beacon SKB delivery from `bes2600_beacon_handler`?)
+- All 6 must convert together (kerneldoc: cannot mix per hardware)
+- bh thread is single-writer post-v3 → `_rx_list`'s "calls must be synchronized" satisfied trivially
+- bh thread is process context → `_rx_list` callable
+
+## §3 Baseline (carry forward)
+
+From `notes/phase7-v3-2026-05-07.md` (v3 N=3 ramp, Phase 7 closed):
+
+| metric | v3 fresh-chip N=3 |
+|---|---|
+| RX throughput @ 4 MB/s | mean 2.352 MB/s, min 2.102, max 2.590 |
+| sdio_rx_work dispatches | 0/s |
+| bh_work redispatches | 0 |
+
+Phase 7 of C2 will compare against this baseline.
+
+## §4 Plan
+
+### §4.1 Conversion shape
+
+Per call site:
+```c
+ieee80211_rx_irqsafe(priv->hw, skb);
+```
+becomes:
+```c
+ieee80211_rx_list(priv->hw, NULL, skb, &priv->rx_list);
+```
+
+Where `priv->rx_list` is a `struct list_head` initialized once.
+
+**Wrap requirement:** `local_bh_disable()` + `rcu_read_lock()` must be held across the call. Per the kerneldoc, that's also needed for batch correctness.
+
+### §4.2 Wrap placement (the design decision)
+
+**Option A — per-call wrap.** Wrap each individual `ieee80211_rx_list()` call. Simple but loses the batch benefit (each call's wrap+unwrap costs as much as the avoided tasklet defer).
+
+**Option B — per-batch wrap.** Wrap the OUTER frame-iteration loop (e.g., the `for` in `bes2600_sdio_extract_packets`). All 16 SKBs from one SDIO read get delivered inside one wrap. This is the upstream-idiomatic pattern (mt76, iwl_pcie do this).
+
+Choosing **Option B**. Concrete shape:
+
+- `bes2600_sdio_read_rx_batch` (the per-SDIO-batch entry point added in Patch C v3) wraps the read+extract+deliver phase:
+  ```c
+  rcu_read_lock();
+  local_bh_disable();
+  // existing read + extract_packets that calls bh_handle_rx_skb per frame
+  local_bh_enable();
+  rcu_read_unlock();
+  ```
+- Inside `bes2600_bh_handle_rx_skb`, the single `ieee80211_rx_irqsafe` swap becomes `ieee80211_rx_list(priv->hw, NULL, skb, &priv->rx_list)`.
+- The OTHER 5 call sites (in `ap.c`, `sta.c`, `txrx.c`'s branches, `wsm.c`) need the same treatment, but they're called from the bh thread (post-v3) so they're already in the right context. Each gets its own narrow wrap (Option A applied selectively because those paths process one frame at a time, not a batch).
+
+### §4.3 The `rx_list` field
+
+Add `struct list_head rx_list` to either `struct bes2600_common` (driver-wide) or `struct bes2600_vif` (per-vif). Per-vif is cleaner because the existing `priv->hw` parameter implies vif scope.
+
+`INIT_LIST_HEAD(&priv->rx_list)` at vif setup; no teardown needed (mac80211 owns the SKBs once handed off).
+
+**Open question for reviewer:** does the `rx_list` need to be drained explicitly after the batch (e.g., via a `list_for_each_entry_safe` + `netif_receive_skb_list_internal`)? Looking at mainline mt76 / iwl_pcie usage will clarify. Phase 6 must answer this before code lands.
+
+### §4.4 What will NOT be touched
+
+- The 6 call sites change atomically (all-or-nothing per kerneldoc) — no per-site progressive migration
+- `wsm.c:2415` beacon path: same conversion shape, but beacon delivery is once-per-beacon-interval (not hot path); could stay `_irqsafe` if upstream allows mixing per-SKB-type. Re-read kerneldoc carefully — it says "per hardware", not per-call-site, so we can't keep _irqsafe even on the slow paths.
+- bh thread structure (Patch C v3 stands)
+- atomic_t counters from Patch D
+- `pm_unsupported` lock-skip from Patch E
+- mac80211 batch-delivery semantics (mainline owns this; we just call the API)
+
+### §4.5 Predicted delta in Phase 3 units
+
+| metric | predicted |
+|---|---|
+| `rx_irqsafe` tasklet schedule rate | → 0 (function no longer called) |
+| RX throughput @ 4 MB/s sustained | 2.352 → +5-15% (medium confidence) |
+| `_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore` CPU% | small drop (no tasklet schedule lock contribution) |
+
+**Honest acknowledgment:** I don't have data on how much the tasklet hop actually costs. The improvement might be smaller than predicted if tasklet defer was already cheap on this kernel. If <2%, Phase 7 says "marginal but no regression" and we ship anyway for upstream-cleanliness.
+
+### §4.6 Risks
+
+1. **`ieee80211_rx_list` semantics surprise.** mainline drivers I have access to (mt76, iwl_pcie) use this via NAPI infrastructure. bes2600 doesn't have NAPI; we're doing process-context-direct. The kerneldoc says callable that way but we should verify a few mainline drivers actually do it. **Phase 6 contract-cite from at least one upstream caller** before code lands.
+
+2. **`rx_list` lifetime in cross-batch / cross-vif scenarios.** Multiple vifs (P2P_MULTIVIF=y in Makefile) might race on the same hw's `rx_list`. The kerneldoc says "for a single hardware" — the list is per-call destination, which means each call appends to its argument list. Per-vif `rx_list` per-call is the natural shape. No per-hw aggregator needed.
+
+3. **`local_bh_disable` cost in batch wrap.** Not free. If the batch is small (1-2 SKBs), the wrap might dominate. Estimated breakeven: 2-3 SKBs per wrap. Phase 7 should look at SKB-per-batch distribution to confirm.
+
+4. **`rcu_read_lock` across SDIO read.** SDIO read can take multi-ms (multi-block transfers). RCU reader-cs across that is fine (no preemption blocked) but it's a longer reader-cs than typical. Verifiable but not a blocker — kerneldoc requires it.
+
+5. **wsm.c:2415 (beacon) is a different SKB lifecycle** — `hw_priv->beacon` is owned by hw_priv, not allocated per-call. After `_rx_list` consumes it (by passing ownership to mac80211), `hw_priv->beacon` is dangling. **Phase 6 must verify the beacon path either reallocates after delivery or wasn't actually transferring ownership.** Risk #5 is the biggest open question.
+
+### §4.7 Phase 5 review handover
+
+PR on `git.reauktion.de/marfrit/besser` with this artifact. Specifically request reviewer focus on:
+- §4.2 wrap-placement choice (Option B vs A)
+- §4.3 rx_list scoping (per-vif)
+- §4.6 risks #1 (mainline-caller verification) and #5 (beacon path SKB ownership)
+
+Don't curate.
+
+### §4.8 Phase 6 implementation order
+
+1. Branch off cleanups: `bes2600/rx-list-batch-delivery`
+2. Add `struct list_head rx_list` to `struct bes2600_vif`, `INIT_LIST_HEAD` in vif setup
+3. Convert all 6 call sites: `ieee80211_rx_irqsafe(...)` → `ieee80211_rx_list(...)`
+4. Wrap `bes2600_sdio_read_rx_batch` outer loop with `rcu_read_lock + local_bh_disable / local_bh_enable + rcu_read_unlock`
+5. For the non-bh-thread call sites (ap.c, sta.c, wsm.c beacon): per-call narrow wrap
+6. Verify beacon path in wsm.c:2415 (Risk #5)
+7. Build, install, smoke-test
+8. Phase 7 N=3 stress ramp — compare to v3 baseline
+
+### §4.9 Phase 7 protocol (per `feedback_phase7_stress_ramp`)
+
+- N=3 reps, 30s each at 4 MB/s, fresh-chip (uptime <15 min)
+- Use wired path (`ssh mfritsche@192.168.88.80`) for telemetry
+- Fresh nc listener per rep (per `feedback_rig_failure_is_finding`)
+- Compare: throughput delta + tasklet schedule rate (ftrace `irq:tasklet_*` events)
+- If predicted delta met → close C2 + memory entry
+- If NO delta → marginal patch but no regression; ship for upstream-cleanliness
+
+## §5 Out of scope
+
+- Patch D / E already shipped (PR #7, #8 merged)
+- Patch G already shipped (PR #6 merged)
+- bh.c `#if 0` graveyard removal (Task #24 hygiene)
+- Allwinner `sw_mci_check_r1_ready` (Task #25)
+
+## §6 Summary
+
+C2 is a 6-site mechanical migration with ONE design decision (per-batch wrap), TWO open questions for the reviewer (rx_list draining + beacon path SKB ownership), and SMALL expected throughput delta (<15%). Risk-low, upstream-prep-high. Worth shipping for the kernel.org submission story even if the throughput delta is marginal.
+
+---
+
+*Plan written 2026-05-08 by Claude (noether). Phase 5 review on PR. Phase 6 contingent on review passing.*
@@ -0,0 +1,135 @@
+# Bug #5 campaign — Phase 1 metric + Phase 2 situation
+
+Date assembled: 2026-05-07
+Module under test (baseline): bes2600.ko srcversion `1B3B3ED096AAD7217FEDE11`
+                              (cleanups + Patch A + Patch B)
+
+Phase 0 anchor at N=3 reps (10 min each, 4 MB/s pv-cap on boltzmann → ohm
+2.4GHz 5b:32) reproduces the throughput regression and traces it to lock-
+cycling cost in the bes2600 BH path. See `notes/observed-bugs.md` Bug #5
+for the original report. This document locks Phase 1 and prepares Phase 4
+candidates.
+
+---
+
+## Phase 1 — measurable target (locked)
+
+> *Reduce the bes2600 BH path's spin-unlock-irqrestore cost so that under sustained 4 MB/s sender pressure on a healthy 2.4GHz link (signal -55 to -65 dBm), ohm sustains ≥ 2 MB/s observed RX throughput (vs 663–725 KB/s baseline at N=3) AND the link survives ≥ 30 min continuous load without cascading into beacon-loss disconnect (vs rep3's failure at ~9 min).*
+
+Three measurable outcomes, single sentence:
+
+- **(a) Throughput floor**: ≥ 2 MB/s sustained RX at ohm
+- **(b) Lock-cycle ceiling**: % CPU in `_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore` from `bes2600_bh.isra.0` callstack drops to < 10 % (currently ~10 % rep1, ~16 % rep3)
+- **(c) Cascade prevention**: no link death under continuous 30 min @ 4 MB/s
+
+---
+
+## Phase 0 anchor — receipts
+
+### Reproduction protocol (same units as Phase 7 will use)
+
+1. boltzmann: `pv -L 4M -q < /dev/zero | nc ohm.fritz.box 12345`
+2. ohm: `sudo $RUN/rep-trace.sh 600` (10 min capture window)
+3. Rep dirs: `bug5/rep-<ts>/{mmc.log, perf.data, rx_bytes.tsv, start.txt, end.txt}`
+4. N=3 reps with 60 s cooldowns
+
+### Observed (2026-05-07 15:36–16:08)
+
+| rep | duration | avg KB/s | near-zero ticks | end state |
+|---|---|---|---|---|
+| 1 | 600 s | 725 | 1/119 | associated, MCS 6 |
+| 2 | 600 s | 663 | 5/119 | associated, MCS 4 |
+| 3 | 600 s |  75 | 53/119 | **passive (link died at sample ~82, ~9 min in)** |
+
+mmc transaction rate: rep1 = 5793/s sustained, rep3 = 6000/s for first ~10s then collapse to <100/s.
+
+### Hot-symbol receipts (perf record on `bes_sdio | bes2600_bh` kworkers)
+
+| symbol | rep 1 (healthy) | rep 3 (cascade) |
+|---|---|---|
+| `_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore` (sum across kworker variants) | **~19 %** | **~21 %** |
+| `handle_softirqs` | 5.4 % | 4.3 % |
+| `__tasklet_schedule` | 2.4 % | 2.0 % |
+| `dw_mci_start_command` (SDIO host) | 1.5 % | < 0.6 % |
+| `bes2600_sw_retry_requeue` | 0.79 % | 0.70 % |
+
+Top callchain leading to `_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore`:
+
+```
+process_one_work → worker_thread → wsm_configuration → wsm_cmd_send → bes2600_bh.isra.0
+```
+
+---
+
+## Phase 2 — situation analysis
+
+### Relevant source pins
+
+- `bes2600/wsm.c:98` — `wsm_cmd_send()`, the function in the hot callstack. Body:
+  - holds `&hw_priv->wsm_cmd.lock` (spin) only briefly to fill the cmd struct (lines ~145–152)
+  - calls `bes2600_bh_wakeup()` then `wait_event_interruptible_timeout` for the response
+  - outer lock: `down(&hw_priv->wsm_cmd_sema)` from callers (`wsm_cmd_lock()` at wsm.c:105)
+- `bes2600/bh.c:435,559,847` — `bes2600_bh_work()` takes `&hw_priv->vif_list_lock` 3× per pass through the dispatcher
+- `bes2600/bh.c:172,195,487,581,861,1361,1427` — multiple `wait_event*` calls; the BH thread cycles through wait/wake/dispatch
+
+### What the lock-cycling cost is buying
+
+Each WSM command from the host (mac80211, NM, kernel scan etc.) goes through the same path:
+1. caller acquires `wsm_cmd_sema` (outer)
+2. `wsm_cmd_send()` acquires `wsm_cmd.lock`, fills the struct, releases the lock
+3. `bes2600_bh_wakeup()` schedules the BH
+4. BH dispatches the command, takes `vif_list_lock` to walk vifs
+5. BH talks to chip via SDIO
+6. response arrives, BH wakes the waiter
+7. caller releases `wsm_cmd_sema`
+
+Under sustained TCP RX, mac80211 issues lots of small WSM commands (TX-scheduling hints, rate updates, etc.) — every one cycles through this path. The spin-unlock-irqrestore cost is the floor on this cycle rate.
+
+### What's been ruled out
+
+- AP-side bug (AVM Fritz!Box, reliable per Markus's testimony — see `feedback_phase7_stress_ramp.md` reasoning in the campaign-so-far prior).
+- Patch A / Patch B (target different triggers; would not address lock cost).
+- Decrypt-failure storm (Patch A handles; this regression occurs in rep1 with zero decrypt-fails).
+- mac80211 scan-fail / scan-comeback (cosmetic; doesn't account for the throughput floor).
+
+---
+
+## Phase 4 — candidate plans (preliminary, not locked)
+
+Three candidates surfaced from the perf data. Listed cheapest to most-invasive.
+
+### B5-1 — Reduce `wsm_cmd_send` lock scope
+
+The spin_lock around the cmd-struct fill (wsm.c:145–152) can probably be replaced with `WRITE_ONCE` of a single sentinel field, since the BH thread reads these fields cooperatively (BH only reads after `bh_wakeup` schedules it, and only writes back via the response path). Eliminates the per-command spin-lock cycle for the host side.
+
+**Risk**: race with BH if the protocol isn't strictly happens-before. Need to read bh.c:486-500 (where BH reads wsm_cmd.ptr) carefully.
+
+**Predicted delta**: small but measurable. Maybe 2–3 % CPU off the lock floor.
+
+### B5-2 — Coalesce `vif_list_lock` in BH dispatcher
+
+bh.c takes `vif_list_lock` 3× per dispatcher pass. If these 3 critical sections are within a single iteration, they should be merged into one acquire/release.
+
+**Risk**: vif teardown might depend on releasing the lock between iterations to allow concurrent vif removal. Needs careful audit.
+
+**Predicted delta**: significant under multi-vif (we're single-vif STA today, so probably small immediate gain).
+
+### B5-3 — Move WSM send out of process context, use ringbuffer
+
+Replace the wsm_cmd_sema + wsm_cmd struct mechanism with an SPSC ringbuffer between caller and BH. Caller writes to ring, no lock needed (one producer); BH reads from ring, no lock needed (one consumer).
+
+**Risk**: significant rework. cw1200 ancestor doesn't have this; we'd be inventing it.
+
+**Predicted delta**: large — could halve the lock cost. But cost-to-implement is also large.
+
+---
+
+## Open question for the reviewer
+
+Which Phase 4 candidate to lock? My ranking by ROI:
+
+1. B5-1 (smallest, fastest, cleanest source pin) — try first
+2. B5-2 (medium, conditional on multi-vif applicability)
+3. B5-3 (largest rework, biggest potential)
+
+Or: instrument deeper before committing to a fix (e.g., add `tracepoints around wsm_cmd_send` enter/exit to measure lock holdtime distribution, not just CPU%).
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+# BES2600 WiFi-stability campaign — Phase 7 verdict (Patches A + B)
+
+Date assembled: 2026-05-07
+Module under test: bes2600.ko srcversion `1B3B3ED096AAD7217FEDE11`
+                   (cleanups + Patch A + Patch B)
+Run dir: `/root/bes2600-samples/run-20260507-1248-patchB/` on ohm
+
+Phase 7 verification window: 2026-05-07 12:48 → ~15:13 CEST (≈ 2 h 25 m)
+of which: ~50 min @ 1 MB/s pv-cap, ~1 h 30 m @ 4 MB/s pv-cap on 2.4 GHz
+newton (5b:32, signal -57 to -67 dBm).
+
+---
+
+## Result table (vs the Phase 4 predicted delta)
+
+### Patch A — decrypt-storm fast-recover (Trigger B)
+
+| metric | Phase 3 baseline | Phase 4 prediction | Phase 7-of-B observed |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| decrypt-burst rate | 8.18/h | unchanged | 2 bursts in ~22 min once 4MB/s pressure was on |
+| AP-deauth-6 rate following burst | 100 % escalation | ≤ 0.2 × baseline | **0/2 = 0 % escalation** |
+| recovery time given burst | up to 109 s | < 5 s | **~1 s** (×2) |
+
+**Verdict: predicted delta CONFIRMED at N=2.** CLAUDE.md ideal is N=3; we're directionally locked at 2 reproductions, both behaving as predicted (threshold trip → `[bes2600] decrypt-storm fast-recover: forcing reassoc` log line → mac80211 disassoc → userspace reauth in ≈1 s).
+
+#### Receipts (verbatim)
+
+```
+13:47:56  bes2600_wlan: [bes2600] decrypt-storm fast-recover: forcing reassoc
+13:47:57  wlan0: associated to cc:ce:1e:2b:74:17     (cross-BSSID, 1 s)
+13:49:26  bes2600_wlan: [bes2600] decrypt-storm fast-recover: forcing reassoc
+13:49:27  wlan0: associated to c0:25:06:e6:5b:32     (back home, 1 s)
+```
+
+`DecryptStormRecoveries: 2` exposed via debugfs at `/sys/kernel/debug/ieee80211/phy0/bes2600/vif_0/status`.
+
+### Patch B — connection-loss-storm bus_reset (Trigger A)
+
+| metric | Phase 7-of-A observed | Phase 4 prediction | Phase 7-of-B observed |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| api_connection_loss rate | 0.86/h | unchanged | 2 events in ~2 h (≈ 1/h) |
+| ConnectionLossStormRecoveries | n/a | trips on 3-in-60s bursts | **0** |
+| Threshold trip events | n/a | (when burst occurs) | **0** (events spaced 91 s apart) |
+
+**Verdict: installed but UNTRIGGERED.** The 3-in-60s threshold was never reached (max-cluster observed: 2-in-91s). No false positives, no spurious bus_resets. Predicted delta unobserved — same shape as Patch A's first Phase 7 run.
+
+The threshold may be too conservative for typical event rates (we'd need a true api_connection_loss flood to trip it). Tuning is a future Phase-1 question if more reproductions accumulate.
+
+### Trigger C — AP unprotected-deauth-6 cluster without preceding storm
+
+```
+12:53:10.475 → 12:53:11.756  AP fires 17 unprotected-deauth-6 from 5b:32 over 1.3 s
+                              (2 mgmt-TX no-ack from our chip in the middle)
+12:53:12.309  kernel: deauthenticating ... reason 2 = PREV_AUTH_NOT_VALID
+12:53:14–15  reauth via 61:b0 → 5b:32, recovery in ~4 s
+```
+
+Neither Patch A (zero decrypt-fails preceded) nor Patch B (zero api_connection_loss) fired. Background: AVM Fritz!Boxes (newton) are reliable; the AP correctly classified ohm's frames as Class 2 from non-auth, meaning **bes2600 sent something the AP couldn't authenticate**. New backlog entry: `notes/observed-bugs.md` Bug #5 (RX path under throughput pressure) is the leading hypothesis surface.
+
+Recovery was fast (4 s) so this isn't a P0 — but a Patch C investigation is warranted when prioritized.
+
+---
+
+## Bug #5 — RX path degradation under attempted-throughput pressure (NEW)
+
+```
+sender 1 MB/s  →  ohm receives 1015 KB/s,  -57 dBm,  RX MCS 4
+sender 4 MB/s  →  ohm receives  563 KB/s,  -67 dBm,  RX MCS 3
+```
+
+Higher attempted-throughput on the sender side → LOWER observed throughput at ohm. Signal degraded ~10 dB, MCS dropped a notch. Link-physical max is ~8 MB/s; we're getting ~7 % of that under load.
+
+**Hypothesis (Markus): driver/firmware locks itself to death under busy reads.** Plausibly the same root-cause as the Phase 0 YouTube DASH chunk-fetch drops (~10 frames per chunk fetch on hardware-decoder playback). Documented as Bug #5 in `notes/observed-bugs.md`.
+
+---
+
+## Lessons captured for memory (Phase 8 anchor)
+
+1. **Stress-rate matters for verification.** Patch A's predicted delta only became observable when the netcat cap went 1 → 4 MB/s. The previous Phase 7 (10h30m @ 1 MB/s) saw zero decrypt-storms. Future Phase 7 protocols should plan a stress ramp from steady to near-saturation, not just the steady setting.
+2. **"Untriggered, no harm" is a valid Phase 7 verdict** for installed patches. Patch B fits this exactly. The patch is ready; the trigger pattern just doesn't fire often enough in this RF / load regime to verify the recovery delta. Don't let unobserved verifications block the loop.
+3. **Build infrastructure on `cleanups` not `mobian`.** The Phase 6 attempt to base Patch B on mobian forced a refactor mid-flight; the c-stack lives on cleanups, and re-using c5.2's `bes2600_chrdev_do_bus_reset` requires that. The cleanups branch is the campaign's working trunk.
+4. **AP-side bug is unlikely on AVM hardware.** AVM Fritz!Boxes don't fire spurious deauth-6 storms. When ohm sees AP-deauth-6 unprovoked, the suspect chain is bes2600 sending something the AP can't authenticate. The bias toward "bes2600 is the broken thing" is empirically validated.
+5. **AP-deauth-6 can fire without our local triggers.** Trigger C is a real failure mode neither Patch A nor B addresses. Adding a Phase-1-style metric for "AP-deauth-6 rate without preceding decrypt-storm or api_connection_loss" would surface Trigger C cleanly.
+6. **`pv -L` cap interacts with TCP retransmit recovery.** When the link can't sustain the cap, TCP backs off and pv blocks. Observed throughput is then a **floor on chip RX capacity at that signal level**, not the sender's intent. Useful for chip-load-characterization, but the cap should be set based on observed pull-rate, not on the link's nominal MCS rate.
+
+---
+
+## Loop status
+
+- Phase 7: closed.
+- Patch A: confirmed (N=2). Stays in.
+- Patch B: installed, dormant in this regime, no harm. Stays in.
+- Bug #5: backlog, no patch yet. Documented.
+- Trigger C: backlog candidate, no patch yet. Documented.
+
+Next campaign cycle would be re-anchoring Phase 0 around Bug #5 or Trigger C.
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+# Patch C2 Phase 7 — N=3 ramp results
+
+**Date:** 2026-05-08
+**Module:** `bes2600.ko` srcversion `619A51E61BF5479AAC146E6` (cleanups + F + G + D + E + C2)
+**Rig:** ohm fresh boot, wired enu1 path for control, wlan0 for data probes
+**Stress:** netcat sender, `pv -L 4m`, 30 s per rep
+
+---
+
+## Results table
+
+| rep | uptime (s) | rate (MB/s) |
+|---:|---:|---:|
+| 1 | 544 | **2.289** |
+| 2 | 716 | **2.165** |
+| 3 | 750 | **2.376** |
+
+**N=3:** mean 2.277, median 2.289, min 2.165, max 2.376
+
+## Comparison to baselines
+
+| series | mean MB/s | Δ vs Patch B | Δ vs v3 |
+|---|---:|---:|---:|
+| Patch B (run-20260507-patchC-preflight, N=1) | 1.362 | — | -42% |
+| Patch C v3 N=3 (run-20260507-N3v3-rep*) | 2.352 | +73% | — |
+| Patch C v3 + F + G + D + E + C2 N=3 (this rep set) | 2.277 | +67% | -3% |
+
+Δ vs v3 is **within rep variance** (v3 N=3 had min 2.102, max 2.590 → spread ±20%; this set's spread is similar). Statistically indistinguishable.
+
+## Verdict: no measurable C2 throughput delta
+
+The tasklet hop in `ieee80211_rx_irqsafe` was apparently cheap on this kernel. Migrating 6 sites from `_irqsafe` to `_rx_ni` (synchronous-from-process-context, internal `local_bh_disable` wrap) preserves throughput but doesn't measurably improve it.
+
+**This was a predicted outcome.** The C2 Phase 4 plan §4.5 said:
+> "If <2%, Phase 7 says 'marginal but no regression' and we ship anyway for upstream-cleanliness."
+
+Observed: -3% (within noise) → falls into the "marginal but no regression" bucket. Ship for the kernel.org submission story (no `_irqsafe` from process context = upstream-idiomatic) even though performance is unchanged.
+
+## Receipts checklist
+
+- [x] N=3 reps captured at fresh-chip uptime (544/716/750 s — within first 13 min, before scan-failure-cadence onset)
+- [x] All reps under same conditions: same fresh boot, same nc listener, same AP (newton, BSSID c0:25:06:e6:61:b0 on chan 1)
+- [x] No WARN/BUG/oops on any rep
+- [x] dmesg pattern: only the pre-existing wsm_generic_confirm 0x0007 noise — same on Patch B / Patch F / Patch C v3 / D / E / C2 (firmware-side, independent of all our patches)
+- [x] Wired-rig telemetry collection — would have caught any wedge that wlan0 ate
+- [x] Rig-failure-is-finding: an early "0-throughput" set of reps was rig artifact (nc-loop race, port-binding state from a prior session) — caught and discounted per `feedback_rig_failure_is_finding`. The recovered N=3 reps used setsid-detached listener + post-reboot fresh state.
+
+## Phase 8 lesson
+
+**Drop-in replacements with the right kerneldoc reading still need Phase 7 measurement.** I expected +5-15% from removing the tasklet schedule. Got -3% (noise). The cost we were saving was already amortised by something else (NAPI infra? per-CPU softirq scheduling?). The kerneldoc-correctness story stands; the perf story does not.
+
+**Memory entry:** the perf-vs-correctness distinction is worth keeping. `_irqsafe → _rx_ni` is a CORRECTNESS / API-cleanliness move, not a performance optimization. Don't oversell predicted deltas without baseline measurement.
+
+## Out-of-scope follow-ups
+
+- Patch C v3 architectural win is the durable +73%. C / D / E / C2 / F / G are smaller cleanups that don't compound visibly.
+- Bug #5 RX-degradation campaign already closed (hypothesis falsified).
+- Task #24 (post-cleanup observation of bh.c symptom-shaped artifacts): mostly answered.
+- Task #25 (Allwinner sw_mci_check_r1_ready measurement): can be done during any future stress run; not on critical path.
+
+---
+
+*Phase 7 captured 2026-05-08 by Claude (noether). Patch C2 closes the post-Bug-#5 cleanup track. Throughput ceiling on this hardware = ~2.4 MB/s sustained @ 4 MB/s sender, fresh chip; further improvement would need firmware-side fixes (the wsm_generic_confirm 0x0007 path), not driver-side.*
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+# Patch C v3 Phase 7 — N=3 verification results
+
+**Date:** 2026-05-07
+**Module:** `bes2600.ko` srcversion `371C6606B73AF19299228CA` (cleanups+F+v3)
+**Rig:** ohm (PineTab2, RK3566 + BES2600 SDIO), wired enu1 path for telemetry
+**Stress:** netcat sender from boltzmann, `pv -L 4m` rate cap (4 MB/s), 3-min window per rep
+**Boot:** fresh — uptime 200 s / 391 s / 582 s at rep 1/2/3 starts (all within fresh-chip window before the ~13-min Bug #5 RX-degradation point)
+
+---
+
+## Results table
+
+| rep | elapsed (s) | RX bytes | RX MB | MB/s | sdio_rx_work | sdio_tx_work | bes2600_bh_work redispatches |
+|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
+| 1 | 180.72 | 447,758,333 | 427.0 | **2.363** | 0 | 368 | 0 |
+| 2 | 180.67 | 490,669,836 | 467.9 | **2.590** | 0 | 20  | 0 |
+| 3 | 180.69 | 398,224,992 | 379.8 | **2.102** | 0 | 39  | 0 |
+
+**N=3 stats:** mean 2.352 MB/s · median 2.363 MB/s · min 2.102 MB/s · max 2.590 MB/s
+
+## Comparison to baselines
+
+### vs Patch B baseline (`run-20260507-patchC-preflight`, N=1, 5 min @ 4 MB/s, fresh chip)
+
+| | Patch B | v3 mean | Δ |
+|---|---:|---:|---:|
+| throughput | 1.362 MB/s | 2.352 MB/s | **+73%** |
+
+### vs original Bug #5 baseline (`run-20260506-0659-fresh`, N=3, decay over time)
+
+Bug #5 anchor was 725 / 663 / **75** KB/s — rep 3 saw link-death at ~9 min.
+
+| | Bug #5 floor (rep 3) | v3 floor (rep 3) | Δ |
+|---|---:|---:|---:|
+| throughput | 0.075 MB/s | 2.102 MB/s | **28× improvement** |
+
+### vs Phase 4 v3 plan §4.5 predictions
+
+| metric | predicted | observed | verdict |
+|---|---|---|---|
+| sdio_rx_work dispatch rate | → 0/s (high confidence) | 0/s all 3 reps | ✅ |
+| `bes2600_bh_work` redispatches | → 0 (high confidence) | 0 all 3 reps | ✅ |
+| observed RX @ 4 MB/s | floor lifts toward ≥ 1 MB/s sustained (medium) | 2.10 MB/s floor | ✅ exceeds prediction |
+| `_raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore` CPU% | 20% → 12-15% (medium) | not measured | deferred — perf-record run can confirm |
+
+## Workqueue dispatch rate collapse
+
+Patch B baseline (per `run-20260507-patchC-preflight`):
+- sdio_rx_work: 86.4/s
+- sdio_tx_work: 276.1/s
+- bes2600_bh_work redispatches: 0
+
+v3 N=3 mean:
+- **sdio_rx_work: 0.0/s** (function deleted)
+- **sdio_tx_work: 0.8/s** (post-tx queue_work → self->irq_handler call; the chip-side TX driver no longer needs to wake a separate workqueue)
+- bes2600_bh_work redispatches: 0 (preserved invariant; bh thread still single long-lived work item)
+
+The 99.7% reduction in `sdio_tx_work` dispatch rate is a side-effect of v3's IRQ→bh-direct rewiring: the post-TX `queue_work(self->sdio_wq, &self->rx_work)` call I replaced with `self->irq_handler()` was actually firing more often than I'd assumed (276/s on Patch B). Folding it into the bh wake-up cuts 275/s of workqueue dispatches that weren't doing anything useful.
+
+## Risks observed
+
+- **Bug #5 RX-degradation after ~13-min uptime is independent of v3.** Same scan-failure pattern observed (`wsm_generic_confirm failed for request 0x0007` + `[SCAN] Scan failed (-22)` every 300s) on v3 as on Patch B. v3 did NOT fix Bug #5; it fixed the v2-race that was ALSO present. RX-degradation is firmware-side, likely needs a separate campaign.
+- **N=3 reps were 3 minutes each instead of 5** to fit within the fresh-chip window. Direct comparison with Patch B's 5-min baseline is approximate; chip-side throughput in 3-min vs 5-min should be similar given the bug fires on uptime, not on transferred-bytes.
+- **No regression observed in 3×3 min = 9 min of stress.** The v2 race that wedged Patch C v1 within 13 s did NOT reproduce. v3's structural fix held.
+
+## Phase 8 — lesson distilled
+
+**The cw1200 mining was decisive.** Patch C v2 (atomic_t prep + direct-deliver on top of relay, PR #10 closed) would have worked correctly but kept the structural relay that was the source of the race. v3 removed the relay entirely — restoring single-writer-from-bh invariant by construction, no atomic_t needed, and delivering a 73% throughput improvement as side benefit.
+
+Without the cw1200 history mine (`~/src/linux-rockchip`, 228 cw1200 commits over 16 years), v2's atomic_t prep would have shipped. The structural fix is upstream-grade because it matches the reference driver. v2's atomic_t wrapper would have been bes2600-specific bookkeeping with no upstream parallel — defensible as a fix, but worse to maintain.
+
+**Memory entry:** *When you have an upstream-ancestral driver still in the kernel tree, mine its bug-fix history before patching the inherited fork. The architectural answer may already be there; you just have to look.*
+
+## Receipts checklist (Phase 7 done)
+
+- [x] N=3 reps captured at fresh-chip uptime (200/391/582 s)
+- [x] Same instrumentation pre/post (workqueue ftrace + rx_packets/rx_bytes counters)
+- [x] Predicted delta matched (sdio_rx_work → 0; bh redispatches → 0; throughput ≥ 1 MB/s sustained)
+- [x] No WARN/BUG/oops during stress on any rep
+- [x] Wired-rig telemetry collection (would have caught a wedge if v3 had one)
+- [x] Receiver `nc` listener restarted fresh per rep (avoiding rep-2-style TCP race)
+- [x] Stress-ramp memory honored: not steady-state low-rate; saw 4 MB/s saturate
+
+## Out-of-scope follow-ups
+
+- Patch C2 — `ieee80211_rx_list` batch delivery — gated on Task #19 kerneldoc verification.
+- Patch D — ba_lock atomicization — independent.
+- Patch E — ps_state_lock skip when pm_unsupported — independent.
+- Bug #5 RX-degradation after 13-min uptime — separate campaign, scan-failure pattern is the entry point.
+- Task #24 — observe whether `bh.c` `asm volatile("nop")` / commented-out `__bes2600_irq_enable(1)` / BUG_ON in hot path are still load-bearing post-v3. Already partially answered: `__bes2600_irq_enable` is a stub (PR #11 comment). The other artifacts can be re-read fresh.
+
+---
+
+*Phase 7 results captured 2026-05-07 by Claude (noether). v3 (PR #5) closes Patch C campaign with structural improvement + race fix + measurable throughput win.*