kern/126339: ipw driver drops the connection

[David Gurvich]

>Number:         126339
>Category:       kern
>Synopsis:       ipw driver drops the connection
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    freebsd-bugs
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Thu Aug 07 15:40:01 UTC 2008
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     David Gurvich
>Release:        7-STABLE
>Organization:
none
>Environment:
FreeBSD Lucifer 7.0-STABLE FreeBSD 7.0-STABLE #0: Tue Aug  5 16:01:18 EDT 2008     david at Lucifer:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/T23_LUCI  i386

>Description:
>From time to time the ipw driver drops the connection.  Not each time the connection is dropped, occasionally the following error:
Aug  6 00:13:38 Lucifer kernel: ipw0: link state changed to DOWN
Aug  6 00:16:59 Lucifer kernel: ipw0: link state changed to UP
Aug  6 00:16:59 Lucifer kernel: ipw0: firmware error
Aug  6 00:16:59 Lucifer kernel: ipw0: link state changed to DOWN

Restarting netif, bringing ipw down&up, regains the connection.

Here is a typical set from /var/log/messages :
Aug  7 10:49:43 Lucifer kernel: ipw0: link state changed to DOWN
Aug  7 10:49:45 Lucifer kernel: ipw0: link state changed to UP

Then I restart the interface:
Aug  7 10:51:29 Lucifer kernel: ipw0: link state changed to DOWN
Aug  7 10:51:54 Lucifer kernel: ipw0: link state changed to UP
Aug  7 10:51:54 Lucifer dhclient: New IP Address (ipw0): 192.168.1.45
Aug  7 10:51:54 Lucifer dhclient: New Subnet Mask (ipw0): 255.255.255.0
Aug  7 10:51:54 Lucifer dhclient: New Broadcast Address (ipw0): 255.255.255.255
Aug  7 10:51:54 Lucifer dhclient: New Routers (ipw0): 192.168.1.1
Aug  7 10:51:54 Lucifer dhclient: New IP Address (ipw0): 192.168.1.45
Aug  7 10:51:54 Lucifer dhclient: New Subnet Mask (ipw0): 255.255.255.0
Aug  7 10:51:54 Lucifer dhclient: New Broadcast Address (ipw0): 255.255.255.255
Aug  7 10:51:54 Lucifer dhclient: New Routers (ipw0): 192.168.1.1

I'm not sure if there is a duplicate set of lines in the log file or if there are two instances for getting the routing set up.
>How-To-Repeat:
Turn the machine on, connect wirelessly, wait random interval.  At some point there will be messages in the log file about ipw0 link state changed to DOWN then UP.
>Fix:
I've been considering a script to automatically bring ipw0 down/up every minute.  Seems insane as many days the connection is maintained for over an hour at a time.

>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: