[arch-general] Last couple of updates Knocked my Wireless -- OUT (atheros/madwifi/ath_pci)

[David C. Rankin]

On Monday 21 September 2009 04:59:45 am Roman Kyrylych wrote:
> >        That is, until the updates this past week or so. My config is
> > still the same. The mywpa.conf file is:
> 
> [skipped]
> 
> >        What in the world could have changed in the past week or so that
> > is presenting my wireless from being brought up at boot??
> 
> It is always useless when someone says something like "since recent
>  updates" because it does not tell anything about what packages were
>  upgraded. Please post the relevant part of pacman.log otherwise all we can
>  do is just guessing.
> 

Thomas, Roman,

	From the pacman.log, it looks like this is where the problem started:

[2009-09-17 22:39] upgraded madwifi-utils (0.9.4.3952-1 -> 0.9.4.4096-1)
[2009-09-17 22:39] upgraded madwifi (0.9.4.3952-5 -> 0.9.4.4096-1)

	Prior to that, the network.d config I had posted:

CONNECTION="wireless"
INTERFACE=wlan0
SCAN="yes"
SECURITY="wpa"
ESSID="skyline"
KEY="bravelightning"
IP="dhcp"
TIMEOUT=20

	had been working great since I first installed 2009.02. Yes, I know is seems 
bizarre and strange, but the madwifi driver accomodated it somehow. With the 
update from madwifi 0.9.4.3952-5 -> 0.9.4.4096-1, the ability to make use of 
the wlan0 device went away. To get it working again i changed the network.d 
config to:

CONNECTION="wireless"
INTERFACE=ath0
SCAN="yes"
SECURITY="wpa"
ESSID="skyline"
KEY="bravelightning"
IP="dhcp"
TIMEOUT=20

	The network came right up on the next boot, but all isn't good. The network 
performance is about 1/20th of what it normally is. Generally I could get a 
solid 3-4 Meg/s over wireless when transferring files over the lan. (I'm 
always limited to 135K due to my ISP from the internet) I am now watching 3 
meg files crawl across the wireless at 180-250K instead of 3400K. This also 
must be a side effect of the new madwifi driver.

	Looking back through the logs, the netwok had been using the "wlan0" device 
since day 1 and the wireless card had been working fine with the ath5k module. 
The only service that ever complained wlan0 interface was ntpd but the newtork 
was working without issue for everything else. Now it is slow...

	I have put the dmesg output for yesterday (a non-working log) at:

http://www.3111skyline.com/download/Archlinux/config/wireless/dmesg-20090921.txt

	After changing the network.d config and having the wireless start on boot, I 
captured another dmesg for comparison:

http://www.3111skyline.com/download/Archlinux/config/wireless/dmesg-20090922-
WORKING.txt

	I also have the pacman.log (compressed) at:

http://www.3111skyline.com/download/Archlinux/config/wireless/pacman.log.bz2

	Whatever changes were made to the madwifi 0.9.4.4096-1 driver, it has killed 
my wireless performance. I have tested both with the ath_pci module (!ath5k) 
and with the ath5k module (by removing the !ath5k entry from the MODULES line 
in rc.conf) The ath5k driver then loads by default. However, performance is 
still really bad compared to where it was before the Sept. 17 madwifi upgrade:

01:48 alchemy:~/archlinux/config/wireless> lsmod | grep ath
ath5k                 138952  0
mac80211              179120  1 ath5k
ath_rate_sample        15488  1
ath                     9984  1 ath5k
cfg80211              104376  3 ath5k,mac80211,ath
led_class               5160  2 ath5k,sdhci
ath_pci               250336  0
wlan                  259744  6 
wlan_tkip,wlan_ccmp,wlan_scan_sta,ath_rate_sample,ath_pci
ath_hal               415520  3 ath_rate_sample,ath_pci

	I either have to make more changes to my configuration to accomodate the 
madwifi changes, or, there is a bug in the new driver. This is where my 
troubleshooting skills with wireless run out. I don't know where to begin to 
unwravel the driver slowness.

	Can you think of anything else I can make available that would help? Just let 
me know and I'll be happy to get it for you. Also, will try to install the 
prior version of the madwifi driver (Ver. 0.9.4.3952-5) and see if that helps 
the speed issue. Thank for your help and let me know if I can post anything 
else you think might help.

-- 
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
Rankin Law Firm, PLLC
510 Ochiltree Street
Nacogdoches, Texas 75961
Telephone: (936) 715-9333
Facsimile: (936) 715-9339
www.rankinlawfirm.com