Fw: ath9k causes busy waiting on kernel 2.6.35

Lars Schotte lars.schotte at schotteweb.de
Sun Jun 5 12:34:01 UTC 2011


hi,

here a forward of what i ve just posted to ath9k.

is it possible, that it's a fedora issue as well?

will a possible fix be implemented in f14, for example when a new
kernel release comes out w/ a fix in the driver?

Begin forwarded message:

Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2011 14:18:43 +0200
From: Lars Schotte <lars.schotte at schotteweb.de>
To: ath9k-devel at lists.ath9k.org
Subject: ath9k causes busy waiting on kernel 2.6.35


hi,

i have a macbook 2007 with an ath9k wlan device on it and fedora 14 as
an operating system.

here more specs:
Linux  2.6.35.13-91.fc14.x86_64

02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5008 Wireless
Network Adapter (rev 01)

02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5008 Wireless
Network Adapter (rev 01) Subsystem: Apple Computer Inc. Device 0087
	Physical Slot: 1
	Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 17
	Memory at 90100000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
	Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
	Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
	Capabilities: [60] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
	Capabilities: [90] MSI-X: Enable- Count=1 Masked-
	Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
	Capabilities: [140] Virtual Channel
	Kernel modules: ath9k

as you see, i have currently no kernel module in use, and that's
because when i am connected via cat5 cable, after some time the driver
starts to make trouble. it takes 100% CPU load for some 5 seconds and
then again nothing, 2 - 3 minutes nothing happens and then again 5
seconds 100% CPU load.

the proces that causes it is [phy0] - or phy1, depends on how many
times i have already taken the module out and in again.

when it starts to make trouble. the driver is unusable, so after that i
can not connect to any AP, i can not do a search, just nothing.

here some interesting dmesg output:
[69323.678358] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[69327.966845] wlan0: direct probe to 00:23:69:2f:0f:19 (try 1)
[69327.969488] wlan0: direct probe responded
[69327.969563] wlan0: authenticate with 00:23:69:2f:0f:19 (try 1)
[69327.971620] wlan0: authenticated
[69327.971668] wlan0: associate with 00:23:69:2f:0f:19 (try 1)
[69327.974214] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:23:69:2f:0f:19 (capab=0x431
status=0 aid=1) [69327.974221] wlan0: associated
[69327.976382] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
[69328.033129] Intel AES-NI instructions are not detected.
[69328.054076] padlock: VIA PadLock not detected.
[69338.882108] wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
[69349.271521] wlan0: deauthenticating from 00:23:69:2f:0f:19 by local
choice (reason=3) [69451.959302] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is
not ready [73587.102058] usb 1-3: USB disconnect, address 23
[124029.006793] ath9k 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A disabled
[124029.006824] ath9k: Driver unloaded

where he says that wlan0 - link not ready. but he says that only once,
not everytime i try to access it.

the only fix is to unload the driver w/ rmmod ath9k and then load it
again w/ modprobe ath9k and it works again.

I am using NetworkManager, on other laptop w/ broadcom-wl driver the
same configurations and there are no problems, so the problem is
clearly in that ath9k driver.

i havent had such problems on an old opensuse and also on macosx
everything works like it should, so maybe there is something new about
the driver that broke it.

here some interesting output from dmesg that identifies the card:
[   13.445617] ath9k 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) ->
IRQ 17 [   13.445631] ath9k 0000:02:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[   13.577918] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x37
[   13.577921] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a direct regpair
map [   13.577924] ath: Country alpha2 being used: AW
[   13.577926] ath: Regpair used: 0x37
[   13.887072]   alloc irq_desc for 22 on node -1
[   13.887076]   alloc kstat_irqs on node -1
[   13.887087] HDA Intel 0000:00:1b.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 22 (level, low)
-> IRQ 22 [   13.887146]   alloc irq_desc for 43 on node -1
[   13.887148]   alloc kstat_irqs on node -1
[   13.887167] HDA Intel 0000:00:1b.0: irq 43 for MSI/MSI-X
[   13.887203] HDA Intel 0000:00:1b.0: setting latency timer to 64
[   14.000902] phy0: Selected rate control algorithm
'ath9k_rate_control' [   14.001202] Registered led device:
ath9k-phy0::radio [   14.001227] Registered led device:
ath9k-phy0::assoc [   14.001259] Registered led device: ath9k-phy0::tx
[   14.001283] Registered led device: ath9k-phy0::rx
[   14.001289] phy0: Atheros AR5418 MAC/BB Rev:2 AR5133 RF Rev:81
mem=0xffffc900157a0000, irq=17
may be helpful in finding out what chipset it is.

-- 
Lars Schotte
@ Hana (F14)


-- 
Lars Schotte
@ Hana (F14)


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