[Madwifi-users] Interoperability problem?

[Tobias H. <un...@rz...>]

Hello!

My configuration: Linux + Netgear WG311 (PCI, PCI device 168c:0013 (rev 1), Atheros)
and Laptop WinXP (:-|) + PRISM 802.11g Nitro Wireless.
Linux master mode does not work at all. WinXP finds the network but connot
associate.
Linux in ad-hoc mode behaves strange: WinXP associates, pinging (IP) works.
But after about 10-15 seconds the connection get lost. If I retry on WinXP (by pressing Rescan
or switching the card on/off) it behaves the same. If I wait and do nothing (for about 30min.),
suddenly the connection is ok again, and work without any problems...
So it looks like something with association is broken. I don't want to blame the madwifi driver for that, maybe the WinXP driver does some non-standard things.
I tried all CVS version up to date, but none of them changed anything.
I also updated the WinXP driver, to see if there is a problem, but nothing.
So I tried to dig myself into that.
I did not read 802.11 (where can I read that for free, without submitting lots of HTML-forms?).

I found following message in the log files:

Nov 25 12:26:38 servotron kernel: ath0: received beacon from 00:60:b3:97:5e:e0 rssi 36
Nov 25 12:26:38 servotron kernel: ieee80211_recv_beacon: element id 6/len 2 ignored

I modified iee80211_recv_beacon() in if_ieee80211subr.c to display this beacon element.
Element id 6 is IEEE80211_ELEMID_IBSSPARMS.

Following is an output of the result:

Nov 25 12:37:46 servotron kernel: ath_hal: 0.9.5.18
Nov 25 12:37:46 servotron kernel: wlan: 0.7.1.1 BETA (Sam Leffler <sa...@er...>)
Nov 25 12:37:46 servotron kernel: ath_pci: 0.8.3.2 BETA (Sam Leffler <sa...@er...>)
(same problem with newest CVS, so replace numbers above with your favourite)
Nov 25 12:37:46 servotron kernel: PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 00:06.0
Nov 25 12:37:46 servotron kernel: ath0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
Nov 25 12:37:46 servotron kernel: ath0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mb
Nov 25 12:37:46 servotron kernel: ath0: 802.11 address: 00:09:5b:92:03:1b
Nov 25 12:37:46 servotron kernel: ath0: Atheros 5212: mem=0xefff0000, irq=10
Nov 25 12:37:46 servotron insmod: Module ath_hal loaded, with warnings
Nov 25 12:37:46 servotron insmod: Module wlan loaded, with warnings
Nov 25 12:37:46 servotron insmod: Module ath_pci loaded, with warnings
Nov 25 12:37:46 servotron /etc/hotplug/net.agent: invoke ifup ath0
Nov 25 12:38:34 servotron kernel: ieee80211_input_R15c2467e: warning, unknown src 00:60:b3:97:5e:e0
Nov 25 12:38:34 servotron kernel: ath0: received probe_req from 00:60:b3:97:5e:e0 rssi 23
Nov 25 12:38:34 servotron kernel: ieee80211_recv_prreq: new req from 00:60:b3:97:5e:e0
Nov 25 12:38:34 servotron kernel: ath0: sending probe_resp to 00:60:b3:97:5e:e0 on channel 11
Nov 25 12:38:35 servotron kernel: ath0: received probe_req from 00:60:b3:97:5e:e0 rssi 22
Nov 25 12:38:35 servotron kernel: ath0: sending probe_resp to 00:60:b3:97:5e:e0 on channel 11
Nov 25 12:38:35 servotron kernel: ath0: received probe_req from 00:60:b3:97:5e:e0 rssi 25
Nov 25 12:38:35 servotron kernel: ath0: sending probe_resp to 00:60:b3:97:5e:e0 on channel 11
Nov 25 12:38:35 servotron kernel: ath0: received probe_req from 00:60:b3:97:5e:e0 rssi 26
Nov 25 12:38:35 servotron kernel: ath0: sending probe_resp to 00:60:b3:97:5e:e0 on channel 11
Nov 25 12:38:35 servotron kernel: ath0: received probe_req from 00:60:b3:97:5e:e0 rssi 26
Nov 25 12:38:35 servotron kernel: ath0: sending probe_resp to 00:60:b3:97:5e:e0 on channel 11
Nov 25 12:38:35 servotron kernel: ath0: received beacon from 00:60:b3:97:5e:e0 rssi 23
Nov 25 12:38:35 servotron kernel: ieee80211_recv_beacon: ibsparms:0200
Nov 25 12:38:36 servotron kernel: ath0: received beacon from 00:60:b3:97:5e:e0 rssi 23
Nov 25 12:38:36 servotron kernel: ieee80211_recv_beacon: ibsparms:0200
Nov 25 12:38:36 servotron kernel: ath0: received beacon from 00:60:b3:97:5e:e0 rssi 23
Nov 25 12:38:36 servotron kernel: ieee80211_recv_beacon: ibsparms:0200
Nov 25 12:38:36 servotron kernel: ath0: received beacon from 00:60:b3:97:5e:e0 rssi 22
Nov 25 12:38:36 servotron kernel: ieee80211_recv_beacon: ibsparms:0200
Nov 25 12:38:36 servotron kernel: ath0: received beacon from 00:60:b3:97:5e:e0 rssi 21
Nov 25 12:38:36 servotron kernel: ieee80211_recv_beacon: ibsparms:0200
Nov 25 12:38:36 servotron kernel: ath0: received beacon from 00:60:b3:97:5e:e0 rssi 23
Nov 25 12:38:36 servotron kernel: ieee80211_recv_beacon: ibsparms:0200
Nov 25 12:38:36 servotron kernel: ath0: received beacon from 00:60:b3:97:5e:e0 rssi 23
Nov 25 12:38:36 servotron kernel: ieee80211_recv_beacon: ibsparms:1893
Nov 25 12:38:36 servotron kernel: ath0: received beacon from 00:60:b3:97:5e:e0 rssi 22
Nov 25 12:38:36 servotron kernel: ieee80211_recv_beacon: ibsparms:1893

Has anyone understanding of this IBSSPARAMS?
Is it possible that this may cause me problem with associating?
Any help would greatly appreciated.

Bye
  Tobias Hinckel  (is german, btw)