This is a bit of an annoyance that does not seem to hurt functionality. In short, ath5k tends to spam syslog with lines like: ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration timeout (2437MHz) every few seconds. This has been reported in some other places: http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0902.1/00050.html https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=452491 Some maillist messages from wireless developers that I cannot find right now talk about that being a harmless message that's just highly annoying. On most systems that I'm seeing this on, it does not seem to cause any issues. On one system I'm seeing regular freezes, but I'm inclined to blame them on something else. Anyway, I would love to see a resolution to that message, be it just by disabling the message, or by fixing its cause. lspci -v output: 05:04.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR2413 802.11bg NIC (rev 01) Subsystem: Atheros Communications Inc. Compex Wireless 802.11 b/g MiniPCI Adapter, Rev A1 [WLM54G] Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 168, IRQ 16 Memory at fe6f0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K] Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2 Kernel driver in use: ath5k I have been seeing the message in kernels from 2.6.18 to 2.6.32-rc7.
This message should already be removed in wireless-testing - can you test there?
Have you tested 2.6.33?
I'm seeing the same problem with a frugalware-current installation. After 90 to 120 minutes, my atheros wifi chipset goes mad. And it kills my wireless network connexion. Here is what says dmesg says, starting with stop of wireless connexion : ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2412MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2412MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2417MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2412MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2422MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2412MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2427MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2412MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2432MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2412MHz) net_ratelimit: 10 callbacks suppressed ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2462MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2412MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2467MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2412MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2472MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2412MHz) No probe response from AP 00:1d:6a:9b:6f:a0 after 500ms, disconnecting. ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2412MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2417MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2422MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2427MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2432MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2437MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2442MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2447MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2452MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2457MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2462MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2467MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2472MHz) net_ratelimit: 1 callbacks suppressed [about 50 lines like this] More infos on my computer : Frugalware-current, kernel 2.6.33. (or 2.6.33.1 ?!) fred@frugalware:~/download$ pacman -Qi kernel Nom : kernel Version : 2.6.33-1 Groupes : base Emballeur : Christian Hamar alias krix URL : http://www.kernel.org License : Aucun Architecture : x86_64 Taille : 96745375 Date de construction : Fri Mar 12 13:41:57 2010 UTC Type de construction : chroot Date d'installation : Fri Apr 2 17:07:42 2010 UTC Script d'installation : Oui Raison : Explicitement installé Fournit : Aucun Dépend de : module-init-tools sed alsa-firmware irqbalance Supprime : Aucun Requit par : kernel-docs nvidia Conflit avec : Aucun Description : The Linux Kernel and modules And my atheros chipset : 05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01) Hope it helps a little.
This isn't the same: the original report said noise floor calibration timeout, whereas you have a gain calibration timeout. You'll need to specify the actual chipset reported by ath5k upon loading (something like "Atheros ARXXXX chip found (MAC: 0xXX, PHY: 0xXX").
Ok. Here it is : ath5k phy0: Atheros AR2425 chip found (MAC: 0xe2, PHY: 0x70) Anyway, my wifi chipset is unusable.
Created attachment 25915 [details] temporary work-around Does this patch help? (It does deal with NF calibration but could affect gain calibration as well.)
I will ask frugalware kernel maintainer if it could be merged into 2.6.33 source code (I reported bug on frugalware bugtracker : http://bugs.frugalware.org/task/4156) and tell you asap. Thanks for the patch.
Ok. It's probably ok to include it but long term a better patch will be needed.
Well, it doesn't help a lot. Kernel maintainer for frugalware include it using a patch. And my wifi connexion dies after a few minutes. Here is what dmesg says about it : eth0: no IPv6 routers present ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:1d:6a:9b:6f:a0 (try 1) wlan0: direct probe responded wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:1d:6a:9b:6f:a0 (try 1) wlan0: authenticated wlan0: associate with AP 00:1d:6a:9b:6f:a0 (try 1) wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:1d:6a:9b:6f:a0 (capab=0x431 status=0 aid=1) wlan0: associated ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready wlan0: no IPv6 routers present eth0: link down. CE: hpet increasing min_delta_ns to 15000 nsec ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2412MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2417MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2412MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2422MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2412MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2427MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2412MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2432MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2412MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2437MHz) net_ratelimit: 10 callbacks suppressed ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2412MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2467MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2412MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2472MHz) ath5k phy0: gain calibration timeout (2412MHz) No probe response from AP 00:1d:6a:9b:6f:a0 after 500ms, disconnecting. Link to the patch, so that you can look at it : http://ftp.frugalware.org/pub/other/people/vmiklos/bmf/frugalware-i686/kernel-2.6.33-2-i686.patch Well, I'm kinda disappointed :(
i am getting this message too. and sometimes also messages similar to those: ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2417MHz) ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration timeout (2417MHz) __ratelimit: 42 callbacks suppressed ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (5745MHz) ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (5745MHz)
Original poster never responded past comment 2. The later comments seem to deal with separate issues and/or messages that no longer exist in 2.6.35. I'm going to close this one -- please open new bugs for any continuing issues.