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Date:      Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:15:01 -0500
From:      Paul Dokas <dokas@oitsec.umn.edu>
To:        linimon@FreeBSD.org
Cc:        freebsd-net@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: kern/138739: [wpi] wpi(4) does not work very well under	8.0-BETA4
Message-ID:  <4AB04A25.501@oitsec.umn.edu>
In-Reply-To: <200909120053.n8C0rcbZ005357@freefall.freebsd.org>
References:  <200909120053.n8C0rcbZ005357@freefall.freebsd.org>

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linimon@FreeBSD.org wrote:
> Old Synopsis: wpi(4) does not work very well under 8.0-BETA4
> New Synopsis: [wpi] wpi(4) does not work very well under 8.0-BETA4
> 
> Responsible-Changed-From-To: freebsd-bugs->freebsd-net
> Responsible-Changed-By: linimon
> Responsible-Changed-When: Sat Sep 12 00:53:04 UTC 2009
> Responsible-Changed-Why: 
> Over to maintainer(s).
> 
> http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=138739


I was just looking for possible sol'ns to a very similar problem that I
have with my FreeBSD 7.2 laptop, a Dell D820 with a 3945abg card:

wpi0: <Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG> mem 0xecfff000-0xecffffff irq 17 at device 0.0 on pci12

I've had what looks like exactly this same problem for ages.  Back into
the FreeBSD 6.X days when the wpi driver was first added.  Also, I think that
PR 127102 is probably related.

I've noticed problems when I'm in an area with lots of SSIDs and APs.
I get this particularly bad when at work where there are 5 SSIDs present
on each AP and at least 4+ APs always within range.  At home where I see
only 3 SSIDs on 3 APs, I can associate with my Linksys "router" just fine,
but I see the slow throughput problem.  This might be because I'm only
associated at 1Mbps:

wpi0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
	inet 172.16.23.65 netmask 0xffffff80 broadcast 172.16.23.127
	media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect (DS/1Mbps)
	status: associated
	ssid SSID channel 6 (2437 Mhz 11g) bssid 00:21:19:ae:00:00
	authmode WPA privacy ON deftxkey UNDEF TKIP 2:128-bit TKIP 3:128-bit
	txpower 50 bmiss 7 scanvalid 60 protmode CTS roaming MANUAL


Anyway, at work today, I did a bunch of testing.  I attempted to associate
first with a WPA2-enterprise SSID and then with an open SSID.  In both
cases, my laptop went into a spiral of doom:  associate, spew errors,
disassociate, repeat:

Sep 15 15:21:13 yog kernel: wpi0: link state changed to UP
Sep 15 15:21:13 yog kernel: wpi0: fatal firmware error
Sep 15 15:21:13 yog kernel: wpi0: timeout resetting Rx ring
Sep 15 15:21:13 yog kernel: wpi0: link state changed to DOWN
Sep 15 15:21:17 yog kernel: wpi0: link state changed to UP
Sep 15 15:21:17 yog kernel: wpi0: fatal firmware error
Sep 15 15:21:17 yog kernel: wpi0: timeout resetting Rx ring
Sep 15 15:21:17 yog kernel: wpi0: link state changed to DOWN
...


A network engineer pulled the logs from the network gear (Trapeze ABGN
APs) and saw that my laptop was repeatedly roaming between all of the
available APs.  I strongly suspect that there's a bug lurking in wpi
firmware related to roaming.

A possible pointer for this problem might be here:

   http://www.openbsd.org/plus41.html

   "Fix firmware fatal errors on re-associations in wpi(4)."


I'm willing to provide more data and test any possible fixes for 7.2,
but I'm lacking the time and experience necessary to track this one down
myself.


Paul
-- 
Paul Dokas                                     dokas at oitsec.umn.edu
======================================================================
Don Juan Matus:  "an enigma wrapped in mystery wrapped in a tortilla."



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