From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Dan Williams Subject: Re: bcm43xx driver unstable behaviour (and linux wireless is junk btw) Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2006 23:50:57 -0400 Message-ID: <1159069857.2748.5.camel@localhost.localdomain> References: <1159065798.5924.8.camel@localhost.localdomain> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Bcm43xx-dev@lists.berlios.de, netdev@vger.kernel.org Return-path: Received: from mx1.redhat.com ([66.187.233.31]:17051 "EHLO mx1.redhat.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752085AbWIXDtI (ORCPT ); Sat, 23 Sep 2006 23:49:08 -0400 To: Benjamin Herrenschmidt In-Reply-To: <1159065798.5924.8.camel@localhost.localdomain> Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: netdev.vger.kernel.org On Sun, 2006-09-24 at 12:43 +1000, Benjamin Herrenschmidt wrote: > Hi folks ! > > So this is 2.6.18 + Larry "fix" (though I've seen this problem before, > it seems using WPA just make it happen more often). > > This is also a 4318, so the link is pretty weak due to the Tx Power > problem and I suspects it makes the driver problems more visible... > > So basically, I "lose" the link every few minutes for a minute or so, I > suspect it's related to wpa_supplicant vs. the ack losses due to the > 4318 Tx Power problems. That alone would be ok though, if the driver > wasn't totally stuck after a while. (Similar problem to after > sleep/wakeup, looks like nothign goes through). > > When it goes bunk, it looks like that in the logs: > > Sep 24 12:24:18 localhost kernel: [ 285.686826] SoftMAC: Sent Authentication Request to 00:0f:66:52:4b:60. > Sep 24 12:24:18 localhost kernel: [ 285.686976] SoftMAC: generic IE set to <....> > Sep 24 12:24:18 localhost kernel: [ 285.686999] SoftMAC: Already associating or associated to 00:0f:66:52:4b:60 > Sep 24 12:24:28 localhost kernel: [ 295.687229] SoftMAC: Start scanning with channel: 1 > Sep 24 12:24:28 localhost kernel: [ 295.687240] SoftMAC: Scanning 14 channels > Sep 24 12:24:29 localhost kernel: [ 296.027053] SoftMAC: Scanning finished > Sep 24 12:24:29 localhost kernel: [ 296.035267] SoftMAC: generic IE set to <....> > Sep 24 12:24:29 localhost kernel: [ 296.035310] SoftMAC: Already associating or associated to 00:0f:66:52:4b:60 > Sep 24 12:24:31 localhost kernel: [ 297.690969] SoftMAC: Sent Authentication Request to 00:0f:66:52:4b:60. > Sep 24 12:24:39 localhost kernel: [ 306.039210] SoftMAC: Start scanning with channel: 1 > Sep 24 12:24:39 localhost kernel: [ 306.039222] SoftMAC: Scanning 14 channels > Sep 24 12:24:39 localhost kernel: [ 306.375046] SoftMAC: Scanning finished > Sep 24 12:24:39 localhost kernel: [ 306.383018] SoftMAC: generic IE set to <....> > Sep 24 12:24:39 localhost kernel: [ 306.383075] SoftMAC: Already associating or associated to 00:0f:66:52:4b:60 > Sep 24 12:24:42 localhost kernel: [ 309.695021] SoftMAC: Sent Authentication Request to 00:0f:66:52:4b:60. > Sep 24 12:24:49 localhost kernel: [ 316.387211] SoftMAC: Start scanning with channel: 1 > > etc... > > Then, if you rmmod, you get back a prompt, and about a second later, the kernel blows up. At this point, > I've always been in X and it's too dead to dump anything into the disk logs so I don't know what > the precise crash is, but it looks to me like the driver is not properly removing some timer > or something there. > > Note that it also goes "bunk" on sleep/wakeup, and sometimes ifdown/ifup... in general, it's fragile and > just 'loses it' in which case the only way to get it back is to rmmod/insmod. > > Doesn't help me to have my prism54 not working with WPA (apparently, the driver looks like it handles hostap > ioctls but it doesn't agree on the ioctl numbers, among others, with whatever wpa_supplicant sends when > configured to wpa mode... somebody knows if that driver is maintained ?) prism54 fullmac, right? Try using -Dwext; the prism54 wpa_supplicant driver is a dead-end and I added WE-19 commands to it a bit ago anyway. Oddly enough, I couldn't seem to get the driver to work reliably for me using straight WEP either, let alone WPA. It's pretty unmaintained at the moment. Dan > So at this point I have a choice between two wireless devices that don't work (and none of them is less than > a couple years old). Looks like the linux wireless situation isn't getting any better since last KS. > > Oh and I don't care about "it works in dscape stack" sort of crap I regulary get. I want something that > works with upstream kernels. That isn't that much to ask... or is it ? > > Ben, back to ethernet cables. > > > - > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe netdev" in > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html