I have an NXP iMX8 system based on a SMARC SoM module from Embedian
which was shipped with Debian 11.

I have successfully used debootstrap to make a Devuan 4.0 system to get
rid of systemd and put the ath10k firmware in /lib/firmware for the wifi
card but now the system hangs for around 2 minutes before the card's
firmware is loaded after which everything works as expected.



root@smarcimx8mq4g:~# dmesg | egrep -i '(qualcomm|ath|qca6174|fail|error)'
[    0.855076] imx-dcss 32e00000.display-controller: submodules
initialization failed
[    0.894677] spi_imx 30820000.spi: bitbang start failed with -517
[    1.323074] Bluetooth: HCI UART protocol ATH3K registered
[    1.455641] imx-cdnhdmi sound-hdmi: snd_soc_register_card failed (-517)
[    2.807820] ov5640_mipi 1-003c: Read reg error: reg=300a
[    2.943834] ov5640_mipi 3-003c: Read reg error: reg=300a
[    3.296367] galcore: clk_get 2d core clock failed, disable 2d/vg!
[    3.658644] platform regulatory.0: Direct firmware load for
regulatory.db failed with error -2
[    4.011721] *ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)*
[    4.018379] *ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: pci irq msi oper_irq_mode 2
irq_mode 0 reset_mode 0*
[    4.780757] imx6q-pcie 33c00000.pcie: failed to initialize host
[    6.602807] *Qualcomm Atheros AR8035 30be0000.ethernet-1:06: attached
PHY driver [Qualcomm Atheros AR8035]
(mii_bus:phy_addr=30be0000.ethernet-1:06, irq=POLL)*
[   64.558263] cfg80211: failed to load regulatory.db
*[  126.042618]* ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: qca6174 hw3.2 target
0x05030000 chip_id 0x00340aff sub 168c:3363
*[  126.052**042]* ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: kconfig debug 1 debugfs 1
tracing 0 dfs 0 testmode 1
*[  126.060652]* ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: firmware ver
RM.4.4.1.c2-00057-QCARMSWP-1 api 6 features
wowlan,ignore-otp,no-4addr-pad,raw-mode crc32 e061250a
*[  126.171270]* ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: board_file api 2 bmi_id N/A
crc32 20d869c3
*[  126.275181]* ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: htt-ver 3.56 wmi-op 4 htt-op 3
cal otp max-sta 32 raw 0 hwcrypto 1
[  126.380616] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x6c
[  126.380629] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a direct regpair map
[  126.380637] ath: Country alpha2 being used: 00
[  126.380639] ath: Regpair used: 0x6c

The "iw list" command does not see anything, until the messages at BOOT+126.

I don't know whether the regulatory.db error is relevant, or why it
happens as regulatory.db is already in /lib/firmware.  (I didn't put it
there.)

root@smarcimx8mq4g:~# ls /lib/firmware/
ath10k    regulatory.db  regulatory.db-debian regulatory.db-upstream 
regulatory.db.p7s regulatory.db.p7s-debian  regulatory.db.p7s-upstream