Re: Problems with WLAN orinoco_pci

[Peter Williams <peterw@aurema.com>]

Matthias Jim Knopf wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> My WLAN net goes down from time to time. I cannot ping the wlan/dsl-router
> (T-Sinus 111) and the only thing that helps is re-load the kernel-driver
> (ifconfig eth1 down; modprobe -r orinoco_pci;
>  sleep 8; ifconfig eth1 up; iwconfig ...)
> 
> Changing speed (down to 1 Mb/s) does no better
> 
> Bisides this, I have annother problem: This f***ing router mentioned
> above cannot handle at least one connection per second in the long run
> (>30 minutes) and crashes in the way, that it still may be pinged, but
> I cannot access the router's web-interface, nor can I get to the internet
> and have to power-cyle it (official advice from the company selling it!)
> I tried hard to see these problems as one, but it seems, they ARE
> two (see logs)
> 
> 
> Here is, what I can offer you as info:
> WLAN is a Netgear PCI MA311 (using hermes, orinoco)
> 
> # iwconfig
> eth1      IEEE 802.11-DS  ESSID:"WLAN"  Nickname:"jim"
>           Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437GHz  Access Point: 00:30:F1:xx:xx:xx
>           Bit Rate:11Mb/s   Tx-Power=15 dBm   Sensitivity:1/3
>           Retry min limit:8   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
>           Encryption key:xxxx-xxxx-xx   Security mode:open
>           Power Management:off
>           Link Quality:20/92  Signal level:-76 dBm  Noise level:-136 dBm
>           Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:1
>           Tx excessive retries:2  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0
> 
> # ping -c 5 router
> PING wlan-router (192.168.2.1): 56 data bytes
> --- wlan-router ping statistics ---
> 5 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss
> 
> # uname -a
> Linux laura 2.4.22 #2 Sun Dec 21 17:14:01 MET 2003 i686 unknown
> 
> # lsmod
> Module                  Size  Used by
> orinoco_pci             3056   1  (autoclean)
> orinoco                31808   0  (autoclean) [orinoco_pci]
> hermes                  5232   0  (autoclean) [orinoco_pci orinoco]
> [...]
> 
> ---{ /var/log/warn }----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Mar  5 15:41:43 laura kernel: eth1: Error -110 writing Tx descriptor to BAP
> Mar  5 15:42:15 laura last message repeated 59 times
> Mar  5 15:42:22 laura last message repeated 12 times
> [...]
> Mar  5 15:44:34 laura kernel: eth1: error -110 reading info frame. Frame dropped.
> Mar  5 15:44:34 laura kernel: eth1: Error -110 writing Tx descriptor to BAP
> Mar  5 15:44:41 laura last message repeated 14 times
> Mar  5 15:45:33 laura kernel: .....<7>orinoco_lock() called with hw_unavailable (dev=e3c82800)
> Mar  5 15:45:33 laura kernel: ......<7>orinoco_lock() called with hw_unavailable (dev=e3c82800)
> Mar  5 15:45:33 laura last message repeated 4 times
> Mar  5 15:45:33 laura kernel: .....<7>orinoco_lock() called with hw_unavailable (dev=e3c82800)
> Mar  5 15:45:33 laura kernel: ......<7>orinoco_lock() called with hw_unavailable (dev=e3c82800)
> Mar  5 15:45:33 laura last message repeated 4 times
> Mar  5 15:45:34 laura kernel: .........;
> [...]
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!

I'm having similar problems with a PCMCIA orinoco wlan device.  Works 
perfectly with various 2.4.X kernels but keeps (partially) dropping the 
connection with 2.6.X kernels.  By partially, I mean connections are 
lost and pings report target hosts as unreachable but netstat -r reports 
make it look like the connection is still valid.  Doing an ifup (without 
a preceding ifdown) seems to fix the problem.

If more information would be helpful or testing is required don't 
hesitate to ask.

Peter
-- 
Dr Peter Williams, Chief Scientist                peterw@aurema.com
Aurema Pty Limited                                Tel:+61 2 9698 2322
PO Box 305, Strawberry Hills NSW 2012, Australia  Fax:+61 2 9699 9174
79 Myrtle Street, Chippendale NSW 2008, Australia http://www.aurema.com