WG311T detected by ath but system hangs

[boris_net]

Hello all,

I would like to understand how I can troubleshoot the issue I have got with this card a bit further.

I installed a WG311T card in my system, looking at the chipset it's a 5213A, but the ath driver recognises this as AR5212.

ath0: <Atheros 5212> mem 0xfeae0000-0xfeaeffff irq 16 at device 11.0 on pci4
ath0: <ITHREAD>
then the system hangs.

This card is installed on a ASUS P5K-deluxe. I have tried all the PCI slots and got the same issue.

I have tried 8-BETA3, 8-BETA4 with the ath support compiled in the kernel, no way to boot, it keeps failing at the same stage.

I then disabled the 'ath' support in the kernel to boot and kldload if_ath. In that case, it boots. No ath is recognised (as expected) but the system hangs instantly when I kldload if_ath.

I then tried with a 7.2-RELEASE CD and I have got the same symptom.

If I try the option of verbose boot, I do not have anything else after the ITHREAD line.

What else could I do to narrow down the problem and understand what could trigger that?

Could it be a hardware problem?

Thanks,

Boris

[phoenix]

Boot without any ath drivers loaded, so that you get to a commandline.

Then run kldload if_ath as root and see what happens.

[bluetick]

I've had a couple of these cards, but I'm not using one right now. But I seem to remember you need to load ath_rate_sample by hand first. It was not auto loaded by kldload at one time, but it may have changed. HTH

[boris_net]

Thanks for your comments.

Phoenix, I already tried what you mentioned as said in my first post:
I then disabled the 'ath' support in the kernel to boot and kldload if_ath. In that case, it boots. No ath is recognised (as expected) but the system hangs instantly when I kldload if_ath.

Bluetick,

I will try your proposal and see if it behaves any differently.

Let me come back to the thread once I have tested that.

Boris

[boris_net]

I have tested the card on a different computer.

Running windows the card is recognized. On the same computer, if I boot using a 7.2-RELEASE CD, I get a panic after the ath driver is loaded.

I then went back to the machine running 8-BETA4 and installed the card again. The problem is I do not see how to load ath_rate_sample as there is no modules for that.

I have tried a make install of the ath modules and the last few lines give this:

ld -d -warn-common -r -d -o if_ath.ko if_ath.o if_ath_pci.o ah_osdep.o ah.o ah_regdomain.o ah_eeprom_v3.o ah_eeprom_v1.o ar5210_attach.o
ar5210_beacon.o ar5210_interrupts.o ar5210_keycache.o ar5210_misc.o ar5210_phy.o ar5210_power.o ar5210_recv.o ar5210_reset.o ar5210_xmit.o
ar5211_attach.o ar5211_beacon.o ar5211_interrupts.o ar5211_keycache.o ar5211_misc.o ar5211_phy.o ar5211_power.o ar5211_recv.o ar5211_reset.o
ar5211_xmit.o ar5212_ani.o ar5212_attach.o ar5212_beacon.o ar5212_eeprom.o ar5212_gpio.o ar5212_interrupts.o ar5212_keycache.o ar5212_misc.o
ar5212_phy.o ar5212_power.o ar5212_recv.o ar5212_reset.o ar5212_rfgain.o ar5212_xmit.o ar5111.o ar5112.o ar2413.o ar2425.o ar5413.o
ah_eeprom_v14.o ar5416_ani.o ar5416_attach.o ar5416_beacon.o ar5416_cal.o ar5416_cal_iq.o ar5416_cal_adcgain.o ar5416_cal_adcdc.o
ar5416_eeprom.o ar5416_gpio.o ar5416_interrupts.o ar5416_keycache.o ar5416_misc.o ar5416_phy.o ar5416_power.o ar5416_recv.o ar5416_reset.o
ar5416_xmit.o ar9160_attach.o ar2133.o sample.o
:> export_syms

install -C -o root -g wheel -m 555 if_ath.ko /boot/kernel
kldxref /boot/kernel

Checking the source, I understand there are 3 algorithms sample, oneo and amrr. Sample is the default. I then tried compiling if_ath with amrr and oneo and it does the same, system hangs while loading the module. Just to clarify, I compiled with amrr and loaded the module, systems hung and recompile with oneo and same story.

There is no separated ath_rate_sample module so I don't think we can influence the way it's loaded.

Anybody has any other idea that I could try out?

Thanks,

Boris

[bluetick]

Looking at /usr/sys/device/ath/Makefile ath_rate is now part of ath "see line 36". In reading man ath_hal your chipset is listed. If it a "hard lockup" when you load ath I'd say it is a resource conflict. You could go into the bios and disable some of the onboard stuff. Find out what is causing the lockup. Then maybe a entry in the device hints will allow you to use this card.

[boris_net]

Thanks for the recommendation. I have tried disabling everything on the motherboard removing any other PCI device which means:

no sound
no usb
no HDD controller
no serial port
no // port
which leaves nothing....

Even with that I hit the same issue.

I suspect some kind of incompatibility with the chipset as it's actually an Atheros 5213A and not a 5212. At least it's what is written on the chipset of the PCI card.

Thanks again for your support, I am giving up now and will try to find a fully supported Atheros-based card

Boris