[ath9k-devel] AR9285 and Thompson TG585 v8 connection problems

[ath9k-devel] AR9285 and Thompson TG585 v8 connection problems

[David Summers]

Hi,

I'm having problems connecting my computer through wireless.

My computer has an AR9285 card, its running Ubuntu 11.04 amd64 - but 
I've upgraded ath9k to the snapshot of compat-wireless-2011-8-27

I'm connecting to a Thomson TG585 v8 router, running 8.2.7.8 software.

Now whilst I can see the router (e.g. via "iwlist scan"), all attempts 
to connect just generate "wlan0: direct probe to .... timed out".

What is strange is that my laptop (using rt2860sta and a RaLink RT2860) 
connects to the router fine. And my computer connects to my work 
wireless fine using ath9k.

So the problem seems to be the combination of ath9k and the TG585 v8 router.

I've tried the debug= option when loading ath9k - but gives no useful 
information.

Any ideas what other debugging I can switch on to see what is going 
wrong? Be it ath9k or TG585 out of standards ...

Thanks,

David Summers.

[ath9k-devel] AR9285 and Thompson TG585 v8 connection problems

[David Summers]

Tried diging with "iw" rather than "wpa_supplicant" - doesn't give much 
extra:

auth: timed out
failed to connect to XXXXXX, status: l: Unspecified failure

I'll dig some more to what I can switch on in the ath9k driver

David Summers wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm having problems connecting my computer through wireless.
>
> My computer has an AR9285 card, its running Ubuntu 11.04 amd64 - but 
> I've upgraded ath9k to the snapshot of compat-wireless-2011-8-27
>
> I'm connecting to a Thomson TG585 v8 router, running 8.2.7.8 software.
>
> Now whilst I can see the router (e.g. via "iwlist scan"), all attempts 
> to connect just generate "wlan0: direct probe to .... timed out".
>
> What is strange is that my laptop (using rt2860sta and a RaLink 
> RT2860) connects to the router fine. And my computer connects to my 
> work wireless fine using ath9k.
>
> So the problem seems to be the combination of ath9k and the TG585 v8 
> router.
>
> I've tried the debug= option when loading ath9k - but gives no useful 
> information.
>
> Any ideas what other debugging I can switch on to see what is going 
> wrong? Be it ath9k or TG585 out of standards ...
>
> Thanks,
>
> David Summers.
>

[ath9k-devel] AR9285 and Thompson TG585 v8 connection problems

[David Summers]

Another go,

Managed to get wireshark working, and wifi card into monitor mode.

Find attached to saved wireshark sessions - the Lap one where I 
successfully connected from a laptop, and the Com one where I failed to 
connect from my computer.

Can anyone see what my computer is doing wrong?

Thanks,

David.

David Summers wrote:
> Tried diging with "iw" rather than "wpa_supplicant" - doesn't give 
> much extra:
>
> auth: timed out
> failed to connect to XXXXXX, status: l: Unspecified failure
>
> I'll dig some more to what I can switch on in the ath9k driver
>
> David Summers wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm having problems connecting my computer through wireless.
>>
>> My computer has an AR9285 card, its running Ubuntu 11.04 amd64 - but 
>> I've upgraded ath9k to the snapshot of compat-wireless-2011-8-27
>>
>> I'm connecting to a Thomson TG585 v8 router, running 8.2.7.8 software.
>>
>> Now whilst I can see the router (e.g. via "iwlist scan"), all 
>> attempts to connect just generate "wlan0: direct probe to .... timed 
>> out".
>>
>> What is strange is that my laptop (using rt2860sta and a RaLink 
>> RT2860) connects to the router fine. And my computer connects to my 
>> work wireless fine using ath9k.
>>
>> So the problem seems to be the combination of ath9k and the TG585 v8 
>> router.
>>
>> I've tried the debug= option when loading ath9k - but gives no useful 
>> information.
>>
>> Any ideas what other debugging I can switch on to see what is going 
>> wrong? Be it ath9k or TG585 out of standards ...
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> David Summers.
>>
>
>

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: WiFiPacketsLapConnect3
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 381536 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.ath9k.org/pipermail/ath9k-devel/attachments/20111017/a2123495/attachment-0002.obj 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: WiFiPacketsComConnect3
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 206040 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.ath9k.org/pipermail/ath9k-devel/attachments/20111017/a2123495/attachment-0003.obj 

[ath9k-devel] AR9285 and Thompson TG585 v8 connection problems

[Adrian Chadd]

What's the mac address of your NIC?

The failed pcap shows a separate STA MAC address constantly sending
out probes and getting no response.


Adrian

[ath9k-devel] AR9285 and Thompson TG585 v8 connection problems

[David Summers]

OOPs yes should have included that info.

The computer that can't connect is e0:b9:a5:7e:f6:75

Its trying to connect to the Thomson router .... be:05:14 
SSID=PlusnetWirelessBE0514

Its not a problem with authorisiation, as in the past I've tried 
disabling everything, however for the packets grabed in the previous 
email is was using WPA secuity (I think I've set it to WPA2 for this run).

Any ideas, as far as I can see it looks OK. So is it the router that is 
doing something wrong?

Thanks,

David.

Adrian Chadd wrote:
> What's the mac address of your NIC?
>
> The failed pcap shows a separate STA MAC address constantly sending
> out probes and getting no response.
>
>
> Adrian
>
>
>   

[ath9k-devel] AR9285 and Thompson TG585 v8 connection problems

[David Summers]

Just to close this thread down. Eventually got to the bottom of the 
problem - it wasn't a fault in ath9k.

What it turns out is that the wireless wasn't putting out enough signal 
for the router to respond. It has two antenna ports on the back, by 
wiring an antenna in to both of these - a connection was made. 
Previously it had always worked on one antenna.

Whats strange is that with one antenna, my laptop could independently 
see all the connection it needed, as indeed could the main computer - it 
seems to only be the router that didn't get enough signal.

Anyway - problem solved.

Thanks,

David.


On 18/10/11 22:29, David Summers wrote:
> OOPs yes should have included that info.
>
> The computer that can't connect is e0:b9:a5:7e:f6:75
>
> Its trying to connect to the Thomson router .... be:05:14 
> SSID=PlusnetWirelessBE0514
>
> Its not a problem with authorisiation, as in the past I've tried 
> disabling everything, however for the packets grabed in the previous 
> email is was using WPA secuity (I think I've set it to WPA2 for this 
> run).
>
> Any ideas, as far as I can see it looks OK. So is it the router that 
> is doing something wrong?
>
> Thanks,
>
> David.
>
> Adrian Chadd wrote:
>> What's the mac address of your NIC?
>>
>> The failed pcap shows a separate STA MAC address constantly sending
>> out probes and getting no response.
>>
>>
>> Adrian
>>
>>
>
>

[ath9k-devel] AR9285 and Thompson TG585 v8 connection problems

[Adrian Chadd]

Wait a sec! That's still a bug. Still very a bug! (And a bug with FreeBSD too!)

The AR9285 has two RX and one TX radio. It _can_ have:

* no antenna switch, so the RX mixing is done on the chip itself (the
A+B, A-B, A, B RX antenna diversity code) - where TX only occurs on
one antenna;
* an antenna switch, so the RX/TX can be flipped around;
* both combined.

So if you've got an AR9285 with one antenna connected, we should see
what is going on. Ie:

* does your AR9285 have an antenna switch or not;
* does your AR9285 have an issue with TX or RX.

So let's try something - can you please attach an antenna on the
_other_ antenna, just one. Let's see how it behaves?

The AR9285 antenna selection and diversity code is still a bit magic
and I think it could do with a lot better debugging and logging. So
you've found yet another case which we should handle. :)

Thanks!


Adrian

[ath9k-devel] AR9285 and Thompson TG585 v8 connection problems

[David Summers]

No switches on my card. Card came already attached to the MTB when I 
bought it, looks like its just the raw AR9285 chip you can see here:

http://www.qca.qualcomm.com/media/product/product_79_file1.pdf

I'll try just using each antenna alone and see if one works. So which 
channel transmits can be configured in software, rather than being hard 
wired?

Anyway I'll dig some more - if there is anything else I can do to help, 
give a shout.

Thanks,

David.


On 27/10/11 12:23, Adrian Chadd wrote:
> Wait a sec! That's still a bug. Still very a bug! (And a bug with FreeBSD too!)
>
> The AR9285 has two RX and one TX radio. It _can_ have:
>
> * no antenna switch, so the RX mixing is done on the chip itself (the
> A+B, A-B, A, B RX antenna diversity code) - where TX only occurs on
> one antenna;
> * an antenna switch, so the RX/TX can be flipped around;
> * both combined.
>
> So if you've got an AR9285 with one antenna connected, we should see
> what is going on. Ie:
>
> * does your AR9285 have an antenna switch or not;
> * does your AR9285 have an issue with TX or RX.
>
> So let's try something - can you please attach an antenna on the
> _other_ antenna, just one. Let's see how it behaves?
>
> The AR9285 antenna selection and diversity code is still a bit magic
> and I think it could do with a lot better debugging and logging. So
> you've found yet another case which we should handle. :)
>
> Thanks!
>
>
> Adrian
>
>

[ath9k-devel] AR9285 and Thompson TG585 v8 connection problems

[Adrian Chadd]

On 30 October 2011 02:32, David Summers
<ath9k@summers5913.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
> No switches on my card. Card came already attached to the MTB when I bought
> it, looks like its just the raw AR9285 chip you can see here:

Ok. Checked the underside of the NIC? :)

> http://www.qca.qualcomm.com/media/product/product_79_file1.pdf
>
> I'll try just using each antenna alone and see if one works. So which
> channel transmits can be configured in software, rather than being hard
> wired?

The AR9285 (from my understanding) only has 1 transmit radio and
that's directly hooked up to the main antenna. The aux antenna is RX
only.
If you have an external switch then you get the luxury of selecting
which antenna to TX on.
Otherwise it's only able to do RX diversity.


Adrian

[ath9k-devel] AR9285 and Thompson TG585 v8 connection problems

[Mohammed Shafi]

On Sat, Oct 29, 2011 at 9:02 PM, David Summers
<ath9k@summers5913.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
> No switches on my card. Card came already attached to the MTB when I
> bought it, looks like its just the raw AR9285 chip you can see here:
>
> http://www.qca.qualcomm.com/media/product/product_79_file1.pdf
>
> I'll try just using each antenna alone and see if one works. So which
> channel transmits can be configured in software, rather than being hard
> wired?

i assume if we remove the antenna in chain0, the performance will be
bad. as per my assumption tx will always happen in chain0.(does we
have some tx diversity?)

>
> Anyway I'll dig some more - if there is anything else I can do to help,
> give a shout.

please try the attached patch in your compat wireless which disables
antenna diversity.
you can apply by patch -p1 < disable-antenna-diversity.patch in your
compat wireless directory

please see in the kernel.log if the diversity is first of all enabled.
lets find out if really that because of this the problem had occurred.
usually enabling this feature indeed improves the throughput a lot.
may be its a regression, if its previously working properly.
pls make sure that both of your antenna are good and no mismatches.
some time one broken antenna can also cause a problem.

>
> Thanks,
>
> David.
>
>
> On 27/10/11 12:23, Adrian Chadd wrote:
>> Wait a sec! That's still a bug. Still very a bug! (And a bug with FreeBSD too!)
>>
>> The AR9285 has two RX and one TX radio. It _can_ have:
>>
>> * no antenna switch, so the RX mixing is done on the chip itself (the
>> A+B, A-B, A, B RX antenna diversity code) - where TX only occurs on
>> one antenna;
>> * an antenna switch, so the RX/TX can be flipped around;
>> * both combined.
>>
>> So if you've got an AR9285 with one antenna connected, we should see
>> what is going on. Ie:
>>
>> * does your AR9285 have an antenna switch or not;
>> * does your AR9285 have an issue with TX or RX.
>>
>> So let's try something - can you please attach an antenna on the
>> _other_ antenna, just one. Let's see how it behaves?
>>
>> The AR9285 antenna selection and diversity code is still a bit magic
>> and I think it could do with a lot better debugging and logging. So
>> you've found yet another case which we should handle. :)
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>>
>> Adrian
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> ath9k-devel mailing list
> ath9k-devel at lists.ath9k.org
> https://lists.ath9k.org/mailman/listinfo/ath9k-devel
>



-- 
shafi
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: disable-antenna-diversity.patch
Type: text/x-diff
Size: 850 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.ath9k.org/pipermail/ath9k-devel/attachments/20111031/fc20cf71/attachment.patch 

[ath9k-devel] AR9285 and Thompson TG585 v8 connection problems

[Adrian Chadd]

On 1 November 2011 00:04, Mohammed Shafi <shafi.wireless@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 29, 2011 at 9:02 PM, David Summers

> i assume if we remove the antenna in chain0, the performance will be
> bad. as per my assumption tx will always happen in chain0.(does we
> have some tx diversity?)

If you have an AR9285 with an antenna switch (and I don't have one, so
I can't test) then you MAY be ok. But Felix and others have removed
that TX diversity code from ath9k.
So I'm not sure whether the antenna switch based TX diversity code
would work. FreeBSD? It may work.

But unless you're very lucky, I suggest "no" to the AR9285 + TX diversity :)

(I'll see if I can source some more AR9285's, hopefully one will have
the antenna switch hardware attached.)



Adrian

[ath9k-devel] AR9285 and Thompson TG585 v8 connection problems

[Felix Fietkau]

On 2011-10-31 9:24 PM, Adrian Chadd wrote:
> On 1 November 2011 00:04, Mohammed Shafi<shafi.wireless@gmail.com>  wrote:
>>  On Sat, Oct 29, 2011 at 9:02 PM, David Summers
>
>>  i assume if we remove the antenna in chain0, the performance will be
>>  bad. as per my assumption tx will always happen in chain0.(does we
>>  have some tx diversity?)
>
> If you have an AR9285 with an antenna switch (and I don't have one, so
> I can't test) then you MAY be ok. But Felix and others have removed
> that TX diversity code from ath9k.
> So I'm not sure whether the antenna switch based TX diversity code
> would work. FreeBSD? It may work.
>
> But unless you're very lucky, I suggest "no" to the AR9285 + TX diversity :)
>
> (I'll see if I can source some more AR9285's, hopefully one will have
> the antenna switch hardware attached.)
As far as I know, the AR9285 chip does not have any tx diversity.

- Felix

[ath9k-devel] AR9285 and Thompson TG585 v8 connection problems

[David Summers]

Ok checked some more.

The wifi card was mounted behind the PCIe slot, see the picture in the 
review here:

http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/asus_e35m1_i_deluxe_motherboard_review,2.html

So it doesn't seem easy to get it out and check the underside.

Tried with one or other antenna attached - I only managed to get a 
connection with both antennas attached. Haven't yet scanned the network 
with these choices - to see what goes out on the airways.

Haven't yet tried the patch - I'll do that when I get time.

David.


On 31/10/11 20:24, Adrian Chadd wrote:
> On 1 November 2011 00:04, Mohammed Shafi<shafi.wireless@gmail.com>  wrote:
>> On Sat, Oct 29, 2011 at 9:02 PM, David Summers
>> i assume if we remove the antenna in chain0, the performance will be
>> bad. as per my assumption tx will always happen in chain0.(does we
>> have some tx diversity?)
> If you have an AR9285 with an antenna switch (and I don't have one, so
> I can't test) then you MAY be ok. But Felix and others have removed
> that TX diversity code from ath9k.
> So I'm not sure whether the antenna switch based TX diversity code
> would work. FreeBSD? It may work.
>
> But unless you're very lucky, I suggest "no" to the AR9285 + TX diversity :)
>
> (I'll see if I can source some more AR9285's, hopefully one will have
> the antenna switch hardware attached.)
>
>
>
> Adrian
>
>