ibm thinkpad x40 ath no carrier

[Toni Schmidbauer]

hi,

i'm having troubles with ath(4) in my thinkpad x40 under 5-STABLE. the driver
recognizes the ath card, i can configure it with ifconfig(8). 

*********************************************************
ath0: <Atheros 5212> mem 0xd0200000-0xd020ffff irq 11 at device 2.0 on pci2
ath0: mac 5.9 phy 4.3 5ghz radio 3.6
ath0: Ethernet address: 00:0e:9b:c6:8a:79
ath0: 11a rates: 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
ath0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps

ath0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
        inet6 fe80::20e:9bff:fec6:8a79%ath0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x3 
        inet 192.168.170.38 netmask 0xfffffff0 broadcast 192.168.170.47
        ether 00:0e:9b:c6:8a:79 media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect mode 11g (DS/1Mbps)
        status: no carrier
        ssid stderror 1:stderror
        channel 6 authmode OPEN powersavemode OFF powersavesleep 100
        rtsthreshold 2312 protmode CTS
        wepmode MIXED weptxkey 1
        wepkey 1:104-bit
*********************************************************

problem is, most of the time ifconfig says "no carrier".
"wicontrol ath0 -L" finds my ap. the accesspoint is about one
meter next to mine. seldom it happens that i get a carrier and
everything working fine then.

the media line in the ifconfig output always changes between:

       media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect (DS/1Mbps)

and

       media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect (OFDM/6Mbps)

forcing 11g or the channel to 6 doesn't help...

wicontrol -L:
*********************************************************
SSID                        BSSID         Chan     SN  S  N
Intrvl Capinfo
                  [ 00:0f:66:c7:82:66 ]  [ 6  ]  [  0  0  0 ] 100  [ ess priv shst ]  
                  [ 1b 2b 5.5b 6 9 11b 12 18 24 36 ]  
*********************************************************

running the ath driver with debugging enabled, shows the
following:

*********************************************************
Jul 12 00:13:49 bluebook kernel: ath0: received beacon from 00:0f:66:c7:82:66 rssi 45
Jul 12 00:13:50 bluebook kernel: ath0: received beacon from 00:0f:66:c7:82:66 rssi 53
Jul 12 00:13:50 bluebook kernel: ath0: received beacon from 00:0f:66:c7:82:66 rssi 53
Jul 12 00:13:50 bluebook kernel: ath0:  macaddr          bssid chan  rssi rate flag  wep  essid
Jul 12 00:13:50 bluebook kernel: - 00:0f:66:c7:82:66 00:0f:66:c7:82:66    6    53 54M   ess  wep  0x000000000000
0000!
Jul 12 00:13:52 bluebook kernel: ath0: received beacon from 00:0f:66:c7:82:66 rssi 50
Jul 12 00:13:52 bluebook kernel: ath0: received beacon from 00:0f:66:c7:82:66 rssi 54
Jul 12 00:13:52 bluebook kernel: ath0: received beacon from 00:0f:66:c7:82:66 rssi 54
Jul 12 00:13:52 bluebook kernel: ath0: received beacon from 00:0f:66:c7:82:66 rssi 48
Jul 12 00:13:53 bluebook kernel: ath0:  macaddr          bssid chan  rssi rate flag  wep  essid
Jul 12 00:13:53 bluebook kernel: - 00:0f:66:c7:82:66 00:0f:66:c7:82:66    6    54 54M   ess  wep  0x000000000000
0000!
*********************************************************

i compiled "athstats" and "80211stats" from
/usr/src/tools/tools/ath, here is the output in the "no carrier"
case:

athstats:
*********************************************************
5 tx frames discarded prior to association
17 rx failed 'cuz of bad CRC
14317 rx failed 'cuz of PHY err
    14231 OFDM timing
    86 CCK timing
*********************************************************

"failed 'cuz of bad CRC" is ever increasing.

80211stats:
*********************************************************
224 rx element unknown
71 rx frame chan mismatch
1 active scans started
*********************************************************

"element unknown" and "frame chan mismatch" are increasing slowly.

i double checked my wep key and ssid, they are correct.

there are previous post regarding this issue, but no solution:

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-mobile/2004-September/004854.html
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2005-January/044897.html

thanks for your time and help

regards
toni
-- 
Wer es einmal so weit gebracht hat, dass er nicht | toni at stderror dot at
mehr irrt, der hat auch zu arbeiten aufgehoert    | Toni Schmidbauer
-- Max Planck                                     |