CURRENT: ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 4)

[O. Hartmann]

Since a couple of days I get this weird console-and-log-spamming message:

ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 4)

The machine in question is running the most recent CURRENT right now:

FreeBSD 11.0-CURRENT #2 r272471: Fri Oct 3 13:03:58 CEST 2014 amd64

and the box acts as a gateway with WiFi access point via hostapd and this WiFi hardware:

[...]
ath0: <Atheros 9287> mem 0xf7e00000-0xf7e0ffff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci1
ath0: [HT] enabling HT modes
ath0: [HT] enabling short-GI in 20MHz mode
ath0: [HT] 1 stream STBC receive enabled
ath0: [HT] 1 stream STBC transmit enabled
ath0: [HT] 2 RX streams; 2 TX streams
[...]
ath0: 2GHz radio: 0x0000; 5GHz radio: 0x00c0

What is this and how can I get rid of it?


Regards,
Oliver

[Erik Trulsson]

It means that you have run into a well-known and long lasting hardware
bug in Atheros Wifi chipsets, where they sometimes get stuck and stops
sending out beacons.
You get that message when the device driver detects that this has
happened and resets the chip to get things going again.

There is, AFAIK, no way of making sure the problem cannot happen, but
you might be able to reduce the frequency of it happening by reducing
the amount of interference you receive from other wireless devices.




_______________________________________________
freebsd...@freebsd.org mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-curre...@freebsd.org"

[O. Hartmann]

Am Fri, 03 Oct 2014 15:15:54 +0200
Erik Trulsson <Erik.Trul...@student.uu.se> schrieb:

Ah, I understand, so nothing to worry about. The WiFi NIC is a cheap TP Link facility.
Hopefully, FreeBSD will have support for Intel's Dual Band 7260-chipset this decade, so
the problem will be gone anyway (except Intel put also nice hardware bugs into their
silica ...).


oh

[Adrian Chadd]

I think you're going to be .. unhappy with what Intel's firmware is
like as an AP.

I still have to chase down why the AR9287 stalls and do a full chip
reset when it goes RX deaf. I'm just chasing down other things at the
moment.


-a