2.6.27-rc3-git6 busted-ass iwl3945 driver drops packets with WEP enabled

2.6.27-rc3-git6 busted-ass iwl3945 driver drops packets with WEP enabled

[jmerkey]

On an Acer 9410 laptop with dual core processors, the iwl3945 driver has
intermittment receiver lockup problems (stops receiving packets) using the
Linux iwl3945 drivers with WEP encryption enbaled.  The adapter works fine
without WEP or WPA.   If the same system is booted to Windows Vista (which
takes about 15 minutes to boot because Vista is a fat slow pig) the
wireless drivers work fine with WEP under Vista on the same system.

If the system copies the ndis .sys drivers and I build ndiswrapper (which
has to be really hacked up to build on 2.6.27) and use the ndis drivers on
2.6.27-rc3 with a modified ndiswrapper, they work fine.

I suspect the firmware or an interaction with the firmware settings since
when the system is booted to Vista after running 2.6.27-rc3 with the
iwl3945 drivers, I have to power cycle the system periodically after
running the iwl3945 driver to get the drivers under Vista to work again,
but not always.

Jeff

Re: 2.6.27-rc3-git6 busted-ass iwl3945 driver drops packets with WEP enabled

[Andrew Morton]

On Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:27:02 -0600 (MDT)
jmerkey@wolfmountaingroup.com wrote:

> 
> On an Acer 9410 laptop with dual core processors, the iwl3945 driver has
> intermittment receiver lockup problems (stops receiving packets) using the
> Linux iwl3945 drivers with WEP encryption enbaled.  The adapter works fine
> without WEP or WPA.   If the same system is booted to Windows Vista (which
> takes about 15 minutes to boot because Vista is a fat slow pig) the
> wireless drivers work fine with WEP under Vista on the same system.
> 
> If the system copies the ndis .sys drivers and I build ndiswrapper (which
> has to be really hacked up to build on 2.6.27) and use the ndis drivers on
> 2.6.27-rc3 with a modified ndiswrapper, they work fine.
> 
> I suspect the firmware or an interaction with the firmware settings since
> when the system is booted to Vista after running 2.6.27-rc3 with the
> iwl3945 drivers, I have to power cycle the system periodically after
> running the iwl3945 driver to get the drivers under Vista to work again,
> but not always.
> 

(cc linux-wireless)

Was 2.6.26 OK?

Re: 2.6.27-rc3-git6 iwl3945 driver drops packets with WEP enabled

[jmerkey]

> On Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:27:02 -0600 (MDT)
> jmerkey@wolfmountaingroup.com wrote:
>
>>
>> On an Acer 9410 laptop with dual core processors, the iwl3945 driver has
>> intermittment receiver lockup problems (stops receiving packets) using
>> the
>> Linux iwl3945 drivers with WEP encryption enbaled.  The adapter works
>> fine
>> without WEP or WPA.   If the same system is booted to Windows Vista
>> (which
>> takes about 15 minutes to boot because Vista is a fat slow pig) the
>> wireless drivers work fine with WEP under Vista on the same system.
>>
>> If the system copies the ndis .sys drivers and I build ndiswrapper
>> (which
>> has to be really hacked up to build on 2.6.27) and use the ndis drivers
>> on
>> 2.6.27-rc3 with a modified ndiswrapper, they work fine.
>>
>> I suspect the firmware or an interaction with the firmware settings
>> since
>> when the system is booted to Vista after running 2.6.27-rc3 with the
>> iwl3945 drivers, I have to power cycle the system periodically after
>> running the iwl3945 driver to get the drivers under Vista to work again,
>> but not always.
>>
>
> (cc linux-wireless)
>
> Was 2.6.26 OK?
>

No.  2.6.26 It was actually a little worse, and the git6 was an
improvement since I was at least able to get past DHCP and obtain an
address, after which is died.  The failure is the driver stops receiving
packets, and if you rmmod/modprobe (reload) the driver , then it will work
again and lock up immediately following 'dhclient <interface>'.   tcpdump
-n -i <if> will work hit or miss before the lockup.

Jeff