Bug 55171

Hello,

I just acquired a new DSL router / wireless AP O2 box 6431,
and a new ASUS N76V laptop with an Atheros network adapter.
I use Slackware 14.

I built kernel 3.6.6 from source, after experiencing bad wireless problems with the default slackware (vanilla) kernel, with no improvement. The problem:

wireless communication with the AP works for a while, but after a random amount of time (sometimes a few seconds, sometimes hours of happy internet browsing), the communication with the wireless AP is lost, and all subsequent attempts to reauthenticate with the AP time out.

The adapter as reported by lspci is an Atheros Communications Inc. AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)

Here's the successful association in messages:

Mar 13 18:00:47 asus kernel: [   46.868455] wlan0: authenticate with 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e
Mar 13 18:00:47 asus kernel: [   46.876996] wlan0: send auth to 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e (try 1/3)
Mar 13 18:00:47 asus kernel: [   46.879064] wlan0: authenticated
Mar 13 18:00:47 asus kernel: [   46.883602] wlan0: associating with AP with corrupt beacon
Mar 13 18:00:47 asus kernel: [   46.883854] wlan0: associate with 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e (try 1/3)
Mar 13 18:00:47 asus kernel: [   46.911910] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e (capab=0x411 status=0 aid=1)
Mar 13 18:00:47 asus kernel: [   46.912004] wlan0: associated

The syslog captures the following errors:

Mar 13 18:27:16 asus kernel: [ 1635.368218] WARNING: at drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/hw.c:786 ar9003_get_pll_sqsum_dvc+0x66/0xb1 [ath9k_hw]()
Mar 13 18:27:16 asus kernel: [ 1635.368220] Hardware name: N76VZ
Mar 13 18:27:16 asus kernel: [ 1635.368300] Pid: 127, comm: kworker/u:7 Tainted: P           O 3.6.6 #4
Mar 13 18:27:16 asus kernel: [ 1635.368302] Call Trace:
Mar 13 18:27:16 asus kernel: [ 1635.368313]  [<ffffffff81033f1d>] warn_slowpath_common+0x7e/0x97
Mar 13 18:27:16 asus kernel: [ 1635.368332]  [<ffffffff81033f4b>] warn_slowpath_null+0x15/0x17
Mar 13 18:27:16 asus kernel: [ 1635.368341]  [<ffffffffa019ca47>] ar9003_get_pll_sqsum_dvc+0x66/0xb1 [ath9k_hw]
Mar 13 18:27:16 asus kernel: [ 1635.368350]  [<ffffffffa00ca727>] ath_hw_pll_work+0x37/0xa5 [ath9k]
Mar 13 18:27:16 asus kernel: [ 1635.368356]  [<ffffffff81046dab>] process_one_work+0x1c1/0x310
Mar 13 18:27:16 asus kernel: [ 1635.368363]  [<ffffffffa00ca6f0>] ? ath_tx_complete_poll_work+0xbc/0xbc [ath9k]
Mar 13 18:27:16 asus kernel: [ 1635.368368]  [<ffffffff8104718d>] worker_thread+0x269/0x346
Mar 13 18:27:16 asus kernel: [ 1635.368373]  [<ffffffff81046f24>] ? process_scheduled_works+0x2a/0x2a
Mar 13 18:27:16 asus kernel: [ 1635.368378]  [<ffffffff8104ae5f>] kthread+0x86/0x8e
Mar 13 18:27:16 asus kernel: [ 1635.368385]  [<ffffffff813c0ab4>] kernel_thread_helper+0x4/0x10
Mar 13 18:27:16 asus kernel: [ 1635.368391]  [<ffffffff8104add9>] ? kthread_freezable_should_stop+0x4d/0x4d
Mar 13 18:27:16 asus kernel: [ 1635.368397]  [<ffffffff813c0ab0>] ? gs_change+0xb/0xb


After disconnection from the AP, the following loop repeats itself to no successful end (from messages):


Mar 13 18:23:49 asus kernel: [ 1428.606888] wlan0: authenticate with 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e
Mar 13 18:23:49 asus kernel: [ 1428.615646] wlan0: direct probe to 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e (try 1/3)
Mar 13 18:23:49 asus kernel: [ 1428.816365] wlan0: direct probe to 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e (try 2/3)
Mar 13 18:23:50 asus kernel: [ 1429.017230] wlan0: direct probe to 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e (try 3/3)
Mar 13 18:23:50 asus kernel: [ 1429.218153] wlan0: authentication with 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e timed out
Mar 13 18:24:08 asus kernel: [ 1447.799035] wlan0: authenticate with 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e
Mar 13 18:24:08 asus kernel: [ 1447.807795] wlan0: direct probe to 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e (try 1/3)
Mar 13 18:24:09 asus kernel: [ 1448.008477] wlan0: direct probe to 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e (try 2/3)
Mar 13 18:24:09 asus kernel: [ 1448.209405] wlan0: direct probe to 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e (try 3/3)
Mar 13 18:24:09 asus kernel: [ 1448.410270] wlan0: authentication with 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e timed out
Mar 13 18:24:16 asus kernel: [ 1454.869365] wlan0: authenticate with 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e
Mar 13 18:24:16 asus kernel: [ 1454.878226] wlan0: direct probe to 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e (try 1/3)
Mar 13 18:24:16 asus kernel: [ 1455.078881] wlan0: direct probe to 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e (try 2/3)
Mar 13 18:24:16 asus kernel: [ 1455.279777] wlan0: direct probe to 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e (try 3/3)
Mar 13 18:24:16 asus kernel: [ 1455.480677] wlan0: authentication with 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e timed out
Mar 13 18:24:41 asus kernel: [ 1480.115510] wlan0: authenticate with 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e
Mar 13 18:24:41 asus kernel: [ 1480.124238] wlan0: direct probe to 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e (try 1/3)
Mar 13 18:24:41 asus kernel: [ 1480.324888] wlan0: direct probe to 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e (try 2/3)
Mar 13 18:24:41 asus kernel: [ 1480.525781] wlan0: direct probe to 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e (try 3/3)
Mar 13 18:24:41 asus kernel: [ 1480.726712] wlan0: authentication with 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e timed out
Mar 13 18:25:06 asus kernel: [ 1505.363526] wlan0: authenticate with 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e
Mar 13 18:25:06 asus kernel: [ 1505.372266] wlan0: direct probe to 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e (try 1/3)
Mar 13 18:25:06 asus kernel: [ 1505.572958] wlan0: direct probe to 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e (try 2/3)
Mar 13 18:25:06 asus kernel: [ 1505.773855] wlan0: direct probe to 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e (try 3/3)
Mar 13 18:25:07 asus kernel: [ 1505.974750] wlan0: authentication with 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e timed out
Mar 13 18:26:38 asus kernel: [ 1597.258367] wlan0: authenticate with 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e
Mar 13 18:26:38 asus kernel: [ 1597.267099] wlan0: direct probe to 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e (try 1/3)
Mar 13 18:26:38 asus kernel: [ 1597.467749] wlan0: direct probe to 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e (try 2/3)
Mar 13 18:26:38 asus kernel: [ 1597.668672] wlan0: direct probe to 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e (try 3/3)
Mar 13 18:26:39 asus kernel: [ 1597.869574] wlan0: authentication with 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e timed out
Mar 13 18:27:15 asus kernel: [ 1634.628146] wlan0: authenticate with 1c:c6:3c:a5:9e:9e

...

Rebooting linux does not solve, 
the only way to solve is to power cycle the AP, or to push the WLAN button on the AP (thus disabling the WLAN), and reenabling it.