CURRENT: ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 4)

[Erik Trulsson]

Quoting "O. Hartmann" <ohartman at zedat.fu-berlin.de>:

> Since a couple of days I get this weird console-and-log-spamming message:
>
> ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 4)
>
> The machine in question is running the most recent CURRENT right now:
>
> FreeBSD 11.0-CURRENT #2 r272471: Fri Oct  3 13:03:58 CEST 2014 amd64
>
> and the box acts as a gateway with WiFi access point via hostapd and  
> this WiFi hardware:
>
> [...]
> ath0: <Atheros 9287> mem 0xf7e00000-0xf7e0ffff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci1
> ath0: [HT] enabling HT modes
> ath0: [HT] enabling short-GI in 20MHz mode
> ath0: [HT] 1 stream STBC receive enabled
> ath0: [HT] 1 stream STBC transmit enabled
> ath0: [HT] 2 RX streams; 2 TX streams
> [...]
> ath0: 2GHz radio: 0x0000; 5GHz radio: 0x00c0
>
> What is this and how can I get rid of it?

It means that you have run into a well-known and long lasting hardware  
bug in Atheros Wifi chipsets, where they sometimes get stuck and stops  
sending out beacons.
You get that message when the device driver detects that this has  
happened and resets the chip to get things going again.

There is, AFAIK, no way of making sure the problem cannot happen, but  
you might be able to reduce the frequency of it happening by reducing  
the amount of interference you receive from other wireless devices.