[Airo-linux-gen80211] Airo-linux Bug 500717 - airo: BAP setup error too many retries (fwd)

[<de...@in...>]

Hi,
 I work for a company that has been very enthused by the Linux revolution=
,
and the great promise of opensource. =20

Quotes like:
``[T]he reliability of the freely=ADdistributed GNU and Linux software wa=
s=20
surprisingly good, and noticeably better than the commercially produced=20
software.''=20
http://user.cs.tu-berlin.de/~tron/opensource/node8.html#SECTION0035220000=
0000000000

are common place in the opensource literature world.

The company I work for has contributed to opensource -=20
 *Special thanks to Derek Smithies of Indranet for his tireless work on=20
  the OpenH323 video code, and his frequent assistance and contributions =
to the=20
  mailing list."
http://www.openh323.org/contribute.html=20

We wrote an opensource, crossplatform gui for the libraries at=20
www.openh323.org, using the QT libraries.=20
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cphone/   It does handle video and voice,=
=20
over IP. Fine.

=3D=3D=3D=3D
Now, my colleague Tony has been working with the aironet cards.
He submitted bug reports:
500715kernel: airo: Got a short rid* 2002-01-07 20:33 nobody =20
500717airo:   BAP setup error too many retries* 2002-01-07 20:38 nobody

There was no followup. Admittedly, these were on

  This problem has been observed on computers with a Cisco AIR-PCM352
  (PCMCIA) installed and computers with a Cisco AIR-PCI352 (PCI)=20
  installed. They are all running Debian GNU/Linux stable kernels=20
  (2.2.19), PCMCIA-CS (3.1.22), and airo-linux (0.1).

which is not a common setup, so no followup is understandable. A little=20
galling, but understandable.

We did some more work. Our latest tests have been with the following=20
systems:
1.  Midori Liinux beta 3, Firmware Version: 4.25.23, Driver Version: Revi=
sion: 1.31
2.  RedHat Linux 7.3, Firmware Version: 4.25.05, Driver Version: airo.c 2=
.0
              2001/01/22 (Benjamin Reed ) + MIC

The same error keeps recurring.

Now, here are my problems, in summary:
1) My boss is on my back: "you said all these wonderful things about linu=
x=20
                           - are they really true?"

2) The content of this letter may upset some people, and start a flame=20
   war. To be honest, I don't mind, provided the aironet cards work=20
   reliably. However, if there is a flame war, but I don't get an answer,=
=20
   then a whole bunch of time is wasted by all.

3) Someone will say, use the latest driver, (and hope that fixes my=20
   problem). However, there is quite a bit for work to update the drivers=
,=20
   and I am not prepared to update the drivers on the 5 nodes, on a hope.
   Does anyone KNOW if the latest driver fix the problem?

4) I have 5 nodes, running either of the two systems above, all in adhoc=20
   mode, at 1Mb/s (and previously at 11MB/s) to give a network.
   Every day, at least one node needs a complete hardware reboot.
  =20

What will fix the node lockups?

Derek.

P.S. I do apologise if I have really offended somone by this letter, but =
I=20
really do want an answer. I am prepared to work with someone, IF they hav=
e=20
any clue as to what is going on.

 ---
Derek Smithies Ph.D.
IndraNet Technologies Ltd.
Email: de...@in...
ph +64 3 365 6485
Web: http://www.indranet-technologies.com/