[ath9k-devel] Card AR928X very slow with new kernels

[Pierre Willaime <pierre.willaime@gmail.com>]

Hello,

I have some troubles with my atheros wireless card. With new kernels, the connection is very slow and unreliable. It was not the same on debian stable with an old kernel.

It seems that the problem is somehow linked with the ath9k driver and linux 3.2xxx.

I tried to disable ipv6 and to start ath9k with the option "nohwcrypt" but I didn't see any huge improvement. Here are the commands I entered:

# Disable ipv6
  	echo "#disable ipv6" | tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf 	       
	echo "net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1" | tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf 
	echo "net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6 = 1" | tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf 
	echo "net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6 = 1" | tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf

# ath9k option
  	echo "options ath9k nohwcrypt=1" > /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf
	

Here is a way to fix this? If no, could I wait for an upgrade of linux which could fix this or is there no hope?

Thanks

pw

P-S : I am not member of the ath9k-devel list, so if you can put me in CC...

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Here is some information on my system (debian sid); I use network-manager:

# lspci | grep -i atheros
03:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

# iwconfig
wlan0     IEEE 802.11abgn  ESSID:"xxxxxxxxx"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: 00:23:F8:95:B2:11   
          Bit Rate=1 Mb/s   Tx-Power=16 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:on
          Link Quality=26/70  Signal level=-84 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:293  Invalid misc:11321   Missed beacon:0

# uname -a
Linux nil 3.2.0-2-amd64 #1 SMP Sun Apr 15 16:47:38 UTC 2012 x86_64 GNU/Linux


# modinfo ath9k
filename:       /lib/modules/3.2.0-2-amd64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/ath9k.ko
license:        Dual BSD/GPL
description:    Support for Atheros 802.11n wireless LAN cards.
author:         Atheros Communications
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000034sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000033sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000030sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd0000002Esv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd0000002Dsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd0000002Csv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd0000002Bsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd0000002Asv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000029sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000027sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000024sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000023sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
depends:        ath9k_hw,ath9k_common,mac80211,ath,cfg80211
intree:         Y
vermagic:       3.2.0-2-amd64 SMP mod_unload modversions 
parm:           debug:Debugging mask (uint)
parm:           nohwcrypt:Disable hardware encryption (int)
parm:           blink:Enable LED blink on activity (int)
parm:           btcoex_enable:Enable wifi-BT coexistence (int)

$ lsmod | grep -i ath
ath9k                  73540  0 
ath9k_common           12728  1 ath9k
ath9k_hw              322017  2 ath9k_common,ath9k
ath                    21370  3 ath9k_hw,ath9k_common,ath9k
mac80211              192768  2 ath9k,iwlwifi
cfg80211              137140  4 mac80211,ath,ath9k,iwlwifi