[ath9k-devel] AR5008 hanging computer

[Luis R. Rodriguez <lrodriguez@atheros.com>]

On Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 10:24:57AM -0800, Tomi Orava wrote:
> Quoting "Luis R. Rodriguez" <mcgrof@gmail.com>:
> 
> > On Sun, Feb 21, 2010 at 12:31 AM, Tomi Orava
> > <Tomi.Orava@ncircle.nullnet.fi> wrote:
> >> On 02/18/2010 11:58 PM, Mark Sutton wrote:
> >>> On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 12:31:26PM -0800, Mark Sutton wrote:
> >>>> Hi,
> >>>> ? ? ?I have this problem as well.
> >>>> Hardware is:
> >>>>
> >>>> Atheros Communications Inc. AR5008
> >>>> Atheros AR5416 MAC/BB Rev:2 AR5133 RF Rev:81
> >>>>
> >>>> Kernel:Linux 2.6.32.7 #2 PREEMPT Thu Feb 4 14:19:02 PST 2010 i686  
> >>>> GNU/Linux
> 
> <snip>
> 
> > Karmic uses 2.6.31 which has already reached the end of its
> > development. You will no longer see stable kernel releases based on
> > 2.6.31.y kernels so best is to upgrade. ath9k had a large number of
> > patches which did not get merged into 2.6.31 [1] which should have,
> > which is why we worked hard for 2.6.32 to ensure all regressions/fixes
> > are propagated to stable.
> >
> > Karmic ships lbm though and that uses the 802.11 bits from 2.6.32
> > which should be good.
> >
> > [1]  
> > http://bombadil.infradead.org/~mcgrof/patches/ath9k/fixes-not-in-2.6.31-for-ath9k.txt
> 
> Unfortunately, I completely forgot to mention the very important fact that
> in my understanding the "standard" karmic kernels ie. 2.6.31.x worked
> quite ok compared to the compat-wireless versions included in  
> linux-backports-karmic etc etc. In other words, my problem tends to be  
> that the latest
> ath9k versions are having some problems, while the older 2.6.31 seem to
> be working without hangs in my case (not counting connection drops  
> every once in a while). Sorry, for turning this upside down.
> 
> Although, I've been way too busy with other important matters, I'll  
> try to find the last "properly" working kernel by using the GIT kernel  
> versions, so that I can be sure about the used versions.  
> Unfortunately, this laptop is quite slow and the hang doesn't happen  
> immediately (might take 1-2 days, but still it will always happen with  
> newer versions of the ath9k drivers). Anyway, it's very good to know  
> if these problems are more common among cards based on these chips or  
> is this just a rare case.
> 
> This particular card was sold as D-Link DWA-645.
> 
> I'll report back after I've done some more testing in order to get  
> more facts about different ath9k driver versions.

You'll want to read:

http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Documentation/Reporting_bugs
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Documentation/Fix_Propagation

That should get you to test and report against the right thing.

 Luis