[Madwifi-users] MadWifi on AMD Elan (Soekris)

[Vladimir I. <ha...@fr...>]

Hi All,

I got the 20030802 and compiled it for kernel 2.4.20 running on 
Soekris 4221 motherboard. I'm testing it with a 5212-based Mini-PCI 
cards against a Mikrotik-based access point running on the same 
hardware. To those who do not know, Mikrotik is a Linux-based router 
distribution with a proprietary driver for Atheros.

Here are the test results:

MadWiFi is running as a client and Mikrotik is running as an access point:

1) In 802.11a mode, ttcp transfer MadWiFi->Mikrotik gives me 1800 
kilobytes/sec; transfer Mikrotik->MadWiFi gives me 1510 kilobytes/sec.
2) In 802.11b mode, transfer MadWiFi->Mikrotik gives me 600 
kilobytes/sec, Mikrotik->MadWiFi gives 570 kilobytes/sec.

So, on ttcp MadWiFi has better performance than Mikrotik, excellent. :)

When I configured MadWiFi as an access point, and Mikrotik as client, 
Mikrotik couldn't associate - actually it associated and then 
immediately disconnected.

Turning on wlan.o debugging resulted in the following:

ath_rate_ctl: 6M -> 9M (11 ok, 0 err, 0 retr)
ath0: received probe_req from 00:01:24:70:0d:0e rssi 67
ath0: received auth from 00:01:24:70:0d:0e rssi 65
ath0: sending auth to 00:01:24:70:0d:0e on channel 64
ath0: station already 00:01:24:70:0d:0e authenticated
ath0: received assoc_req from 00:01:24:70:0d:0e rssi 74
ath0: sending assoc_resp to 00:01:24:70:0d:0e on channel 64
ath0: station already 00:01:24:70:0d:0e associated
ath0: received probe_req from 00:01:24:70:0d:0e rssi 66
ath0: received auth from 00:01:24:70:0d:0e rssi 64
ath0: sending auth to 00:01:24:70:0d:0e on channel 64
ath0: station already 00:01:24:70:0d:0e authenticated
ath0: received assoc_req from 00:01:24:70:0d:0e rssi 75
ath0: sending assoc_resp to 00:01:24:70:0d:0e on channel 64
ath0: station already 00:01:24:70:0d:0e associated
ath0: received probe_req from 00:01:24:70:0d:0e rssi 66
ath0: received auth from 00:01:24:70:0d:0e rssi 64
ath0: sending auth to 00:01:24:70:0d:0e on channel 64
ath0: station already 00:01:24:70:0d:0e authenticated

After some time MadWiFi box got completely stuck for about a minute, 
and then gave the following on the console:

ath0: hardware error; resetting
ath0: hardware error; resetting
ath_hal_wait: timeout on reg 0x4000: 0x00000000 & 0x00000003 != 0x00000003
ath0: ath_reset: unable to reset hardware; hal status 3

After that, Atheros card stopped working completely.

# iwconfig ath0 mode managed
ieee80211_new_state: RUN -> INIT
ath0: station 00:20:e0:50:03:21 disassociate (reason 8)
ath0: sending disassoc to 00:20:e0:50:03:21 on channel 64
ath0: station 00:20:e0:50:03:21 deauthenticate (reason 3)
ath0: sending deauth to 00:20:e0:50:03:21 on channel 64
ieee80211_new_state: INIT -> SCAN
ath0: begin active scan
ath0: sending probe_req to ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff on channel 64
ieee80211_end_scan: no scan candidate
ieee80211_next_scan: chan 64->100
ieee80211_new_state: SCAN -> SCAN
ath_hal_wait: timeout on reg 0x4000: 0x00000000 & 0x00000003 != 0x00000003
ath0: ath_chan_set: unable to reset channel 100 (5500Mhz)
...
ath_hal_wait: timeout on reg 0x4000: 0x00000000 & 0x00000003 != 0x00000003
ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 3
ath_hal_wait: timeout on reg 0x4000: 0x00000000 & 0x00000003 != 0x00000003
ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 3

Unloading/loading ath_pci didn't help either:

# insmod ath_pci
Using /modules/ath_pci.o
ath_hal_wait: timeout on reg 0x4000: 0x00000000 & 0x00000003 != 0x00000003
ath%d: unable to attach hardware; HAL status 3
ath_pci: No devices found, driver not installed.
insmod: init_module: ath_pci: No such device

I don't have any other 802.11a clients so I couldn't check whether the 
problem is only with Mikrotik.

-- 
Best Regards,
Vladimir Ivaschenko
Thunderworx - Senior Systems Engineer (RHCE)