[ath9k-devel] AR9285: Possible intermittent connection drop-outs

["Torquil Macdonald Sørensen" <torquil@gmail.com>]

On 19/08/10 15:15, Mohammed Shafi wrote:
> Hi Alan ,
>
>                       Can you please provide the dmesg and kern.log when
> the driver hits the issue.
>
> with thanks,
> shafi

Hi Shafi (and others)!

Sorry if everybody/somebody gets this twice. The network problems I'm trying to 
debug are occurring at this very moment :-)

I have some more information now before I try newer drivers. I have looked at 
the "ATH_DBG_ANI" debugging of the ath9k driver. I.e. I have enabled debugging 
by running:

echo "0x00000040" > /sys/kernel/debug/ath9k/phy0/debug

Now, I noticed some error messages that start to occur at the same time as my 
connection problems.

You'll be able to see log extracts below, but first I'll mention here the 
following recurring error messages:

"ath: invalid cmd 2"

and

"ath: cycleCount=-1593549770, ofdmPhyErrCount=3, cckPhyErrCount=60"

I.e. the last one shows that some kind of error has occured 60 times at that 
point in the log. I have no idea what it means, only that these seem like 
errors. So I just need you ath9k gurus to interpret them for me. Also, it seems 
a bit strange to me that what seems like a "counting variable" is negative 
(cycleCount), but I really know nothing about this.

When the connection gets back into a healthy state, the "invalid cmd: 2" no 
longer occurs, cycleCount is positive again, and the PhyErrCount goes back to 0.

Here is some log extracts showing more details when the problem occurs:

.
.
.
Aug 21 14:02:53 asus kernel: ath: ANI parameters:
Aug 21 14:02:53 asus kernel: ath: noiseImmunityLevel=0, spurImmunityLevel=0, 
ofdmWeakSigDetectOff=1
Aug 21 14:02:53 asus kernel: ath: cckWeakSigThreshold=0, firstepLevel=1, 
listenTime=183
Aug 21 14:02:53 asus kernel: ath: cycleCount=-1602349766, ofdmPhyErrCount=1, 
cckPhyErrCount=62
Aug 21 14:02:53 asus kernel:
Aug 21 14:02:53 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:02:53 asus kernel: ath:  calibrate chan 2432/c0 nf: -117
Aug 21 14:02:53 asus kernel: ath: invalid cmd 2
Aug 21 14:02:53 asus kernel: ath: ANI parameters:
Aug 21 14:02:53 asus kernel: ath: noiseImmunityLevel=0, spurImmunityLevel=0, 
ofdmWeakSigDetectOff=1
Aug 21 14:02:53 asus kernel: ath: cckWeakSigThreshold=0, firstepLevel=2, 
listenTime=188
Aug 21 14:02:53 asus kernel: ath: cycleCount=-1593549770, ofdmPhyErrCount=3, 
cckPhyErrCount=60
.
.
.

and

.
.
.
Aug 21 14:02:53 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:02:54 asus kernel: ath: invalid cmd 2
Aug 21 14:02:54 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:02:54 asus kernel: ath: invalid cmd 2
Aug 21 14:02:54 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:02:54 asus kernel: ath: invalid cmd 2
Aug 21 14:02:54 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:02:54 asus kernel: ath: shortcal @4299689952
Aug 21 14:02:54 asus kernel: ath: invalid cmd 2
Aug 21 14:02:54 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:02:54 asus kernel: ath:  calibrate chan 2432/c0 nf: -117
Aug 21 14:02:54 asus kernel: ath: invalid cmd 2
Aug 21 14:02:54 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:02:55 asus kernel: ath: invalid cmd 2
Aug 21 14:02:55 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:02:55 asus kernel: ath: invalid cmd 2
Aug 21 14:02:55 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:02:55 asus kernel: ath: invalid cmd 2
Aug 21 14:02:55 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:02:55 asus kernel: ath: shortcal @4299690952
Aug 21 14:02:55 asus kernel: ath: invalid cmd 2
Aug 21 14:02:55 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:02:55 asus kernel: ath:  calibrate chan 2432/c0 nf: -117
Aug 21 14:02:55 asus kernel: ath: invalid cmd 2
Aug 21 14:02:55 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
.
.
.

Anything interesting here?

I'll now compile linux 2.6.35.3 and use that instead. Or perhaps I would need to 
go to 2.6.36-rc1 or 2.6.36-rc1-git3 to get a more up-to-date ath9k driver? I'm 
just looking at what is available for download at the moment on www.kernel.org


On the other hand, when the connection is back to normal I seem to only get this 
stuff:

.
.
.
Aug 21 14:34:50 asus kernel: ath:  calibrate chan 2432/c0 nf: -117
Aug 21 14:34:51 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:34:51 asus kernel: ath: shortcal @4301606655
Aug 21 14:34:51 asus kernel: ath:  calibrate chan 2432/c0 nf: -117
Aug 21 14:34:51 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:34:52 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:34:52 asus kernel: ath: shortcal @4301607655
Aug 21 14:34:52 asus kernel: ath:  calibrate chan 2432/c0 nf: -117
Aug 21 14:34:52 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:34:53 asus kernel: ath: shortcal @4301608655
Aug 21 14:34:53 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:34:53 asus kernel: ath:  calibrate chan 2432/c0 nf: -117
Aug 21 14:34:54 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:34:54 asus kernel: ath: shortcal @4301609655
Aug 21 14:34:54 asus kernel: ath:  calibrate chan 2432/c0 nf: -117
Aug 21 14:34:54 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:34:55 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:34:55 asus kernel: ath: shortcal @4301610655
Aug 21 14:34:55 asus kernel: ath:  calibrate chan 2432/c0 nf: -117
Aug 21 14:34:55 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:34:56 asus kernel: ath: shortcal @4301611655
Aug 21 14:34:56 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:34:56 asus kernel: ath:  calibrate chan 2432/c0 nf: -117
Aug 21 14:34:57 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:34:57 asus kernel: ath: shortcal @4301612655
Aug 21 14:34:57 asus kernel: ath:  calibrate chan 2432/c0 nf: -117
Aug 21 14:34:57 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
Aug 21 14:34:58 asus kernel: ath: Writing ofdmbase=12582412   cckbase=12582712
.
.

without any "invalid cmd 2" messages.

Thanks!
Torquil S?rensen