Disable ath0 (wlan) console messages

[Arthurc]

I redirected most of the console messages to /var/log/console.log but the WLAN message seems does not honor /etc/syslog.conf.
I am still and only getting console messages like "ath0: bb hang detected (0x4), resetting". Is there any way to redirect or suppress them?

 

[Mjölnir]

Since that's a simple printf(3) (in /usr/src/sys/dev/ath/if_ath.c:2495) -- not by syslog(3) -- it doesn't go through syslogd(8). And it's not a debug message (DPRINTF()), so it can not be disabled by wlandebug(8) or sysctl(8) knobs.
You can patch the source and change all those device_printf()'s to DPRINTF(), which can be switched on/off.

 

[Arthurc]

I am not very familiar with FreeBSD's code. Does it cause any problem?

 

[Mjölnir]

I am not very familiar with FreeBSD's code. Does it cause any problem?

The following assumes you're running 12.1-RELEASE-p9; for 11.x, the line numbers may be different!

• Any change, no matter how small, can cause unforseen damage...
• IMHO the risk is so small that I would try to get rid of it if it bugs me; YMMV.
• When you run a custom or patched kernel, any changes will be overwritten by freebsd-update(8). Thus you have to save your patch & apply it again after each update:

1. Prepare your patch: optionally create a new boot environment: beadm create patch and beadm activate patch, reboot.
2. cd /usr/src, then mv sys/dev/ath/if_ath.c{,.orig}
3. cp sys/dev/ath/if_ath.c{.orig,}
4. Edit the desired behaviour: change line 2494 to DPRINTF(sc, ATH_DEBUG_BEACON,
5. Save your patch: diff -U 5 sys/dev/ath/if_ath.c{.orig,} > ~/quite_ath.patch
6. Not now, but after each update (freebsd-update(8) will update the source tree if it's installed):
   patch --dry-run -d /usr/src < ~/quite_ath.patch
7. Build & install your patched kernel: \nohup nice make -C /usr/src {build,install}kernel & and less nohup.out (press G F to follow the build messages flying in, or use sysutils/most, there it's B F)
8. If it does not work as expected (or doesn't boot at all), boot from kernel.old or switch to your previous boot environment.

Then you should be able to switch that mesage on/off via wlandebug(8) or sysctl dev.ath.0.debug. If it works, consider to file in a bug report, append your patch (also inline in the text of the bug report), and kindly ask the developer to apply such changes for all printf(3)()s, e.g. use a macro IPRINTF() (info printf) like DPRINTF() that can be switched on/off via a sysctl(8) knob dev.<driver>.<num>.info à la dev.<driver>.<num>.debug.
Happy hacking!