[Madwifi-users] D-Link G520 horrible packet loss

[Martin W. <mar...@xm...>]

Hi

Using D-Ling G520 rev A with latest cvs madwifi. wirelss-tools v26-1 on 
2.6.1 Debian/i386.

Everything looks fine (ie no errors, correct iwconfig/ifconfig signal 
quality etc), but I get horrible packet loss which makes the link 
useless. The loss comes in "bursts", ie fine for a few seconds then a 
buch of lost packets. I did some statics and there is definately a 
pattern to this madness. 11 seconds ok, followed by 7 seconds of lost 
packes... repeat.

* My wired eth0 card has no problems.
* I tried the card in Windows 2k, and I had no problems there.
* I tried another card (pcmcia orinoco) and verified that my AP
   works and that it had no packet loss problems.

Another very odd symptom is the RX in ifconfig is *constantly* 
increasing, even though there is not traffic on the link or the network.

What can be causing these two problems? Something in the driver (debug 
stuff?) or what?

/Thanks for any help!



---------- debug info below --

# ifconfig ath0|grep RX; sleep 5; ifconfig ath0|grep RX
           RX packets:22960 errors:143 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:142
           RX bytes:1757730 (1.6 MiB)  TX bytes:189484 (185.0 KiB)
           RX packets:23010 errors:143 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:142
           RX bytes:1760692 (1.6 MiB)  TX bytes:190084 (185.6 KiB)

# dmesg log:
wlan: no version for "panic" found: kernel tainted.
wlan: 0.7.3.1 BETA
ath_hal: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel.
ath_hal: 0.9.6.11
ath_pci: 0.8.5.2 BETA
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 0000:00:08.0
ath0: mac 5.6 phy 4.1 5ghz radio 4.5
ath0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
ath0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 
24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
ath0: 802.11 address: 00:0d:88:a9:02:dd
ath0: Atheros 5212: mem=0xef000000, irq=11

# iwconfig
ath0      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"wixn3t"
           Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437GHz  Access Point: 00:03:..
           Bit Rate:11Mb/s   Tx-Power:off   Sensitivity=0/3
           Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
           Encryption key:off
           Power Management:off
           Link Quality:53/94  Signal level:-42 dBm  Noise level:-95 dBm
           Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
           Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

# ./athstats
29 tx management frames
1 long on-chip tx retries
26 tx frames with no ack marked
1 rx failed 'cuz frame too short
142 rx failed 'cuz of bad CRC
57 rx management frames
304255 PHY errors
     302934 OFDM timing
     1321 CCK timing
78 periodic calibrations
1 rfgain value change
4721 rate control checks
rssi of last ack: 59 (+1)
rssi of last recvd frame: 56