: HEADSUP: new ath and hal - almost unusable?

[Sam Leffler]

JoaoBR wrote:
> Hi
> 
> the atheros cards are stopping communication after some time
> before I got still device timeouts in messages but the lates version on 
> releng_6 from yesterday simply stops

"simply stops" says little.  Are beacon frames transmitted?  Can you see 
inbound traffic?  Is the ap configured in a bridge and can you see 
outbound traffic from the wired interface?  What does ifconfig show for 
the device?

> 
> I can not say much about client or adhoc mode because I have only freebsd 
> hostap APs running atheros cards a/b/g (Dlink AG530)
> 
> so my client ATHs are stoping as well but since the transfer stopps also with 
> other cards as client I guess first thing to look is the hostap
> 
> the funny thing is it stops only when having clients associated
> when the AP is up for any time and I associate a client it stops after a 
> certain period between 10-30 minutes
> 
> I can get it back by ifconfig ath0 down, some seconds, ifconfig ath0 up
> 
> this happens in any mode, any speed and on 11b and 11g, I still did not 
> checked 11a
> 
> no output with the card in debug mode

What is "no output"?  packets, console msgs?  what is "debug mode"? 
Have you looked at the output of wlanstats to see if it gives you a 
clue?  Can you see any frames with tcpdump or by sniffing from another 
station?

> 
> ath0: <Atheros 5212> mem 0xe1800000-0xe180ffff irq 12 at device 10.0 on pci0
> ath0: Ethernet address: 00:11:95:c2:2a:70
> ath0: mac 5.9 phy 4.3 radio 3.6
> 
> on the other side, all ifconfig commands are accepted fine including wep and 
> the card works with extremly good performance as long it is up

So you have crypto configured; have you tried w/o?

> 
> wi cards work fine and stable on the same machine, even as second card when 
> and while the ath is lost

Sorry but your report does not help resolve your problem.  You have 
identified your card (mac+phy) but I'm not certain what code you are 
running (hal rev is useful).  Then provide the steps used to configure 
the ap.  Then explain what clients are used or otherwise describe how to 
reproduce your problem.  Once I have that I can try to reproduce the 
problem here.

	Sam