Wi driver has WEP issues on both 5.0 and 5.1

[Kevin Oberman]

> Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 00:32:45 -0400
> From: BSDVault <diesel at bsdvault.net>
> Sender: owner-freebsd-current at freebsd.org
> 
> A head up about the wi driver in FreeBSD 5.0 and 5.1.  I have a netgear
> MA-311 card that supports HostAP mode.  The issue is that I get a busy bit
> error.  The exact error starts with the following.. THIS ONLY OCCURS WHEN
> WEP IS ENABLED:
> 
> wi0: timeout in wi_seek to fc00/0; last status 800b
> 
> We then move on to :
> 
> wi0: wi_cmd: busy bit won't clear.
> 
> This seems to cycle until the next error:
> 
> wi0: failed to allocate 1594 bytes on NIC
> wi0: tx buffer allocation failed
> wi0: mgmt. Buffer allocation failed
> 
> Then back through the entire error sequence again.  Eventually the box will
> freeze as these errors cycle and then free up again when it starts back at
> the timeout error.  I was hopeful that the new wi driver in 5.1 would
> address this problem as I know several persons with Prism chipsets that have
> this very same issue on 5.0 and 5.1.
> 
> Please respond directly as I am not on -current mailing list.

I have seen the same ting, but only when three is an attempt to
associate with an AP that has a different WEP key. It can happen with
either 40 or 108 bit encryption. As a result, I now build my kernel
without the wi driver and only load it when I need it.

I don't know if Warner has seen this. Cross-post to FreeBSD lists is
frowned upon, but I am tempted to send this to mobile. It's where
these issues are most heavily discussed.

I'm not sure if I ever saw this with V4.6 or 4.7. I have seen it on V5
since I moved to current late last year.
-- 
R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
E-mail: oberman at es.net			Phone: +1 510 486-8634