Can you give me a host-name in this state to ssh into?

Ah, this is likely the fallout from Core31 that is merged on R65. 
But why is it that the CQ/other tests don't catch and only R65 release builds caught it?

Re. #1 hostname chromeos2-row11-rack1-host1

Re. #2. maybe because bvt-cq tests dont checks for wifi interface? Here is a list of network tests running in bvt-cq 

network_WiFiInvalidParameters
network_DestinationVerification
network_DefaultProfileCreation
network_CheckCriticalProcesses

I manually locked that unit and tried essentially the fix from here:

https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/aosp/platform/system/connectivity/shill/+/890221

that resolves this problem too ('iw dev' shows the interface now, and we have iwl7000_cfg80211 instead of cfg80211).

Let's just dup this to  issue 782368 , where those fixes are getting targeted.

Regarding CQ:  issue 793526  is moving there (we now have coverage in bvt-perbuild; we can move it to a CQ-blocking suite if we find it stable).

Built a falco_li image with these two CLs patched in, and checked that the wifi interface comes up fine: 
https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/#/c/aosp/platform/system/connectivity/shill/+/890221/
https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/#/c/chromiumos/overlays/chromiumos-overlay/+/890079/

Aashutosh, could you watch the release builder after these two CLs have landed? 

I guess we're going with this bug then? Those CLs landed, so we should probably request merging.

Your change meets the bar and is auto-approved for M65. Please go ahead and merge the CL to branch 3325 manually. Please contact milestone owner if you have questions.
Owners: cmasso@(Android), cmasso@(iOS), bhthompson@(ChromeOS), govind@(Desktop)

For more details visit https://www.chromium.org/issue-tracking/autotriage - Your friendly Sheriffbot

This brand of failure seems to have dropped off completely for falco_li. A brief overview of wifi_matfunc doesn't show anything scary new to my eyes.

Aashutosh, any more verification needed?

Or if not: Kirtika, you gonna merge this? I expect we want this in ASAP, to get maximum testing.

I think we are good to move forward with the merge.

No more verification Brian, wifi_matfunc M66 results look good and should be sufficient verification for merging CLs to M65.  WiFi perf testcases are failing due to netperf issue. 

https://stainless.corp.google.com/search?view=matrix&row=build&col=test&first_date=2018-01-10&last_date=2018-02-06&suite=wifi_endtoend%7Cwifi_matfunc%7Cwifi_perf%7Cwifi_update_router%7Cwifi_release%7Cwifi_lucidsleep&board=falco_li&exclude_cts=true&exclude_not_run=true&exclude_non_release=true&exclude_au=true&exclude_acts=true&exclude_retried=true&exclude_non_production=true

Will update/reopen, if I see any issues. 

Landed here: 
https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/#/c/chromiumos/overlays/chromiumos-overlay/+/905502/
https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/#/c/aosp/platform/system/connectivity/shill/+/905044/

Aashutosh, can you help verify?

Results looks good.
https://stainless.corp.google.com/search?view=matrix&row=board&col=build&first_date=2018-02-10&last_date=2018-02-23&suite=%5Ewifi%5C_matfunc%24%7Cwifi_release%7Cwifi_perf&board=falco_li&status=GOOD&status=WARN&status=FAIL&status=ERROR&status=ABORT&exclude_cts=true&exclude_not_run=false&exclude_non_release=true&exclude_au=true&exclude_acts=true&exclude_retried=true&exclude_non_production=true