On some deployments access points intermittently stop accepting new
station associations after several hours of uptime with frequent
roaming/reconnects. The kernel logs

  ath11k_pci ....: failed to create peer due to insufficient peer entry resource in firmware

and hostapd reports "Could not add STA to kernel driver". A "wifi
down/up" (radio restart) on the affected radio restores service.

Despite the message text, this is not a firmware peer-table exhaustion.
The message is emitted by the driver-side gate in ath11k_peer_create():

	if (ar->num_peers > (ar->max_num_peers - 1))

i.e. the driver's own ar->num_peers accounting has leaked and reached
the ceiling. It is always preceded by a peer-delete that timed out:

  ath11k_pci ....: invalid vdev id in peer delete resp ev 1
  ath11k_pci ....: Timeout in receiving peer delete response
  ath11k_pci ....: failed to delete peer vdev_id .. addr .. ret -110

ath11k_peer_delete() only decrements ar->num_peers when
__ath11k_peer_delete() returns 0. On a delete timeout
__ath11k_peer_delete() returns -ETIMEDOUT, so the decrement is skipped
and one num_peers slot is leaked per event. After max_num_peers such
timeouts ath11k_peer_create() rejects every new station until the radio
is restarted.

In the observed case the peer-unmap event is received normally (there is
no "failed wait for peer deleted" log), so ath11k_peer_unmap_event() has
already removed the peer from ab->peers and freed it; only the num_peers
counter is left wrong. The delete-response completion is missed because
the response event is dropped in ath11k_peer_delete_resp_event() when
ath11k_mac_get_ar_by_vdev_id() cannot resolve the vdev ("invalid vdev id
in peer delete resp ev"), so ar->peer_delete_done is never signalled and
the second wait in ath11k_wait_for_peer_delete_done() times out.

Return success from __ath11k_peer_delete() on the timeout path so that
ath11k_peer_delete() releases the num_peers slot. As a safety net also
drop the local peer if it is still on the list; that only happens in the
other timeout case, where ath11k_wait_for_peer_deleted() itself timed out
and no unmap event removed the peer. The peer has already been removed
from the rhash earlier in __ath11k_peer_delete(), so only the list
removal and free remain, mirroring ath11k_peer_unmap_event(). A late
unmap event would then simply fail to find the peer id and log a harmless
warning instead of touching freed memory.

The problem was reproduced deterministically with an out-of-tree debug
patch that adds module parameters to force
ath11k_wait_for_peer_delete_done() to return -ETIMEDOUT and to cap
max_num_peers: after max_num_peers such deletes the AP permanently
rejects new stations, and with this change it keeps accepting them.

Fixes: 690ace20ff79 ("ath11k: peer delete synchronization with firmware")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Michael Pfeifroth <micpf@westermo.com>
---
v2:
 - Correct the root-cause description: the peer-unmap event is received
   normally, so the peer is already freed; only the num_peers counter
   leaks (Baochen Qiang).
 - Explain that the missed delete-response completion is due to the event
   being dropped on an unresolved vdev id, replacing the vague
   "misrouted" wording.
 - Rework the code comment and switch to netdev comment style.
 drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/peer.c | 17 +++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/peer.c b/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/peer.c
index b30a906..f93a8da 100644
--- a/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/peer.c
+++ b/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath11k/peer.c
@@ -341,8 +341,21 @@ static int __ath11k_peer_delete(struct ath11k *ar, u32 vdev_id, const u8 *addr)
 	}
 
 	ret = ath11k_wait_for_peer_delete_done(ar, vdev_id, addr);
-	if (ret)
-		return ret;
+	if (ret) {
+		/*
+		 * The delete timed out. The peer is normally already freed by
+		 * the unmap event; drop it here only if it is still on the
+		 * list. Either way return success so that ath11k_peer_delete()
+		 * releases the num_peers slot instead of leaking it.
+		 */
+		spin_lock_bh(&ab->base_lock);
+		peer = ath11k_peer_find(ab, vdev_id, addr);
+		if (peer) {
+			list_del(&peer->list);
+			kfree(peer);
+		}
+		spin_unlock_bh(&ab->base_lock);
+	}
 
 	return 0;
 }
-- 
2.34.1