Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Sat, 2 Feb 2013 02:06:44 -0800
From:      Adrian Chadd <adrian.chadd@gmail.com>
To:        "Lay, Nathan" <nsl03@my.fsu.edu>
Cc:        freebsd-wireless@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: ath "stops working" in hostap mode
Message-ID:  <CAJ-Vmoku4%2BfOoCf3RYmqW3J75du3Csq_RcnHHVG4XaYMBFi7cQ@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <A838E171DD71354E99079424FC4F7DDB6FBA8CE4@BY2PRD0512MB607.namprd05.prod.outlook.com>
References:  <A838E171DD71354E99079424FC4F7DDB182AA10E@CH1PRD0502MB118.namprd05.prod.outlook.com> <4f00f1d5.1446e70a.3836.ffffc25f@mx.google.com> <A838E171DD71354E99079424FC4F7DDB182AA1CB@CH1PRD0502MB118.namprd05.prod.outlook.com> <CAJ-VmoneL=YWZoO6BCvRWi6jrPeMrgv=uC6QzsFz-Z%2BYEYpzwQ@mail.gmail.com> <A838E171DD71354E99079424FC4F7DDB182AA30D@CH1PRD0502MB118.namprd05.prod.outlook.com> <A838E171DD71354E99079424FC4F7DDB6FBA84CF@BY2PRD0512MB607.namprd05.prod.outlook.com> <A838E171DD71354E99079424FC4F7DDB6FBA8CDA@BY2PRD0512MB607.namprd05.prod.outlook.com> <A838E171DD71354E99079424FC4F7DDB6FBA8CE4@BY2PRD0512MB607.namprd05.prod.outlook.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Hi,

So what happens when you turn off the devices in question? Do things
settle down?



Adrian


On 1 February 2013 22:45, Lay, Nathan <nsl03@my.fsu.edu> wrote:
> One last observation, the Roku and the tablet both employ Broadcom Wi-Fi =
chipsets ...
>
> Lastly, thanks for all your hard work on if_ath and FreeBSD.
>
> Nate
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Lay, Nathan
> Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2013 1:26 AM
> To: Adrian Chadd
> Subject: RE: ath "stops working" in hostap mode
>
> Hi Adrian,
> Ugh, I neglected to provide this updated information:
>
> FreeBSD RADIO.LOCAL 9.1-STABLE FreeBSD 9.1-STABLE #0 r245019: Fri Jan  4 =
00:02:39 EST 2013     root@RADIO.LOCAL:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/RADIO  amd64
>
> ath0@pci0:1:0:0:        class=3D0x028000 card=3D0x3a701186 chip=3D0x00241=
68c rev=3D0x01 hdr=3D0x00
>     vendor     =3D 'Atheros Communications Inc.'
>     device     =3D 'AR5008 Wireless Network Adapter'
>     class      =3D network
>
> ath0: <Atheros 5416> mem 0xfe9f0000-0xfe9fffff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pc=
i1
> ath0: AR5418 mac 12.10 RF2133 phy 8.1
>
> NOTE: I claimed that it worked flawlessly in FreeBSD 8.x (and it did) ...=
 but I did not test 8.x with this kind of device. This bug may manifest its=
elf in 8.x with Roku too. But it does seem to correlate with low power devi=
ces. I had introduced a phone and tablet to the network when the problem fi=
rst appeared (9.0-RELEASE had just been released or was released for a whil=
e). I no longer use the tablet and haven't seen this problem in most of the=
 2012 year.
>
> Best regards,
> Nathan Lay
> ________________________________________
> From: Lay, Nathan
> Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2013 1:16 AM
> To: Adrian Chadd
> Subject: RE: ath "stops working" in hostap mode
>
> Hi Adrian,
> The problem vanished for most of the year and has recently resurfaced. I =
just introduced a Roku 2 XD onto the network two days ago.  It is a low pow=
er device and, as far as I can tell, sits idle on the Wi-Fi network most of=
 the time. The introduction of this device appears to be responsible for at=
h "stopping."
>
> Just as a recap, the problem NIC is an AR2416 (D-Link DWA 556).  It somet=
imes drops off of Wi-Fi scans and is unresponsive and requires the driver i=
tself being reloaded to restore service.
>
> One symptom of the problem is that bexmit (from athstats) drops below 5. =
Once that happens, ath is "stuck" and the driver must be unloaded and loade=
d again to "unstuck" it. This heuristic is so reliable that I employ a cron=
 script that checks bexmit every minute and it has triggered maybe twice in=
 the entire year of 2012. And it has triggered about 4-5 times since I intr=
oduced Roku 2 two days ago.
>
> I hope that this new information is helpful. Since it is now quasi-reprod=
ucible, I would be happy to help you collect debug information.
>
> Best regards,
> Nathan Lay
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Lay, Nathan
> Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 9:01 PM
> To: Adrian Chadd
> Subject: RE: ath "stops working" in hostap mode
>
> It's fine. I'm horrendously busy too! As I said, I never expected immedia=
te responses to my problem.
>
> I'll do what I can and let you know if I find anything.
>
> Best Regards,
> Nathan Lay
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Adrian Chadd [adrian.chadd@gmail.com]
> Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 5:52 PM
> To: Lay, Nathan
> Subject: Re: ath "stops working" in hostap mode
>
> Hi,
>
> I've not forgotten about this, I'm just working on other things at the mo=
ment.
>
> Are you able to try older snapshots of a -HEAD kernel to see where I
> introduced it? I think that's going to be by far the easiest way to
> establish what happened.
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Adrian
>
> On 2 January 2012 14:51, Lay, Nathan <nsl03@my.fsu.edu> wrote:
>> You'll be delighted/disappointed to know that this still happens when co=
nfigured to use channel 5:g (as opposed to 5:ht/40).
>>
>> Thought you would like to know.
>>
>> Best Regards,
>> Nathan Lay
>> ________________________________________
>> From: Adrian Chadd [adrian.chadd@gmail.com]
>> Sent: Sunday, January 01, 2012 6:52 PM
>> To: Lay, Nathan
>> Subject: RE: ath "stops working" in hostap mode
>>
>> Hah it's fine! I want it fixed!
>>
>> Thanks for chasing this up with me.
>>
>> Where in the us are you, btw?
>>
>>
>>
>> Adrian
>>
>>
>>
>> Sent from my Palm Pre on AT&T
>>
>> ________________________________
>> On Jan 1, 2012 3:37 PM, Lay, Nathan <nsl03@my.fsu.edu> wrote:
>>
>> Of course! I hope you don't have the impression that I expect immediate =
responses!
>>
>> I'll create the PR now.
>>
>> Best Regards,
>> Nathan Lay
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: Adrian Chadd [adrian.chadd@gmail.com]
>> Sent: Sunday, January 01, 2012 6:34 PM
>> To: Lay, Nathan
>> Subject: RE: ath "stops working" in hostap mode
>>
>> I'm currently out today, lets revisit this tuesday?
>>
>> Please create a pr. :)
>>
>>
>> Adrian
>>
>>
>>
>> Sent from my Palm Pre on AT&T
>>
>> ________________________________
>> On Jan 1, 2012 3:32 PM, Lay, Nathan <nsl03@my.fsu.edu> wrote:
>>
>> Shall I check out various revisions and try them out?
>>
>> Can you name any SVN revisions that are suspect? It also seems to happen=
 more frequently when debug options are turned on (which is a good thing).
>>
>> Best Regards,
>> Nathan Lay
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: Adrian Chadd [adrian.chadd@gmail.com]
>> Sent: Sunday, January 01, 2012 6:31 PM
>> To: Lay, Nathan
>> Subject: RE: ath "stops working" in hostap mode
>>
>> Ah good! A regression we can track down.
>>
>>
>> Adrian
>>
>>
>>
>> Sent from my Palm Pre on AT&T
>>
>> ________________________________
>> On Jan 1, 2012 2:15 PM, Lay, Nathan <nsl03@my.fsu.edu> wrote:
>>
>> Of course! I'll do it today! I promise.
>>
>> However, I should also mention that this bug appears to be introduced. T=
his card was very stable in hostap mode on 8.x. I'm glad that I ran into th=
is problem if there are so few AR5416 users.
>>
>> Best Regards,
>> Nathan Lay
>>
>> ________________________________________
>> From: Adrian Chadd [adrian.chadd@gmail.com]
>> Sent: Sunday, January 01, 2012 5:00 PM
>> To: Lay, Nathan
>> Subject: Re: ath "stops working" in hostap mode
>>
>> On 1 January 2012 13:38, Lay, Nathan <nsl03@my.fsu.edu> wrote:
>>> Unloading/reloading the module seems to fix it.
>>>
>>> I'll just make a cron job that checks for bexmit <=3D 5 and fixes the w=
lan if it happens.
>>
>> That's fine, just please don't forget to create a PR. I'd like to fix
>> the driver so you don't _have_ to unload and reload it.
>> It's also plausible this sort of bug affects later chips too, as the
>> 11n NICs all share code with the AR5416 NIC.
>>
>>
>> Adrian
>>
>>
>>
>
>



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?CAJ-Vmoku4%2BfOoCf3RYmqW3J75du3Csq_RcnHHVG4XaYMBFi7cQ>