wi0 busy bit won't clear error

[Jesse Guardiani]

Howdy list,

For some time now I've been having intermittent problems
with my wireless card. Occasionally I'll get the following
message on my console and all wireless traffic will stop,
forcing me to reboot:

Dec 29 12:14:51 trevarthan kernel: wi0: timeout in wi_cmd 0x010b; event status 0x8000
Dec 29 12:14:51 trevarthan kernel: wi0: xmit failed
Dec 29 12:14:52 trevarthan kernel: wi0: timeout in wi_cmd 0x0021; event status 0x8000
Dec 29 12:14:57 trevarthan kernel: wi0: wi_cmd: busy bit won't clear.

I've seen a few other complaints about this on various
FreeBSD mailling lists, but no solution. Sometimes, the
user is asked to upgrade his/her firmware.

I took a look at my firmware on Friday, and sure enough
I had old old firmware:

wi0: <Intersil Prism2.5> mem 0xf0000000-0xf0000fff irq 9 at device 2.0 on pci2
pcib2: device wi0 requested decoded memory range 0xf0000000-0xf0000fff
wi0: 802.11 address: 00:20:e0:8a:90:61
wi0: using RF:PRISM2.5 MAC:ISL3874A(Mini-PCI)
wi0: Intersil Firmware: Primary (1.1.0), Station (1.4.2)
wi0: bpf attached
wi0: bpf attached
wi0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
wi0: bpf attached

So... I decided to upgrade. I noticed that M. Warner had
been recommending 1.4.9, and that the `wi` man page also
recommended it, so I upgraded to 1.4.9:

wi0: <Intersil Prism2.5> mem 0xf0000000-0xf0000fff irq 9 at device 2.0 on pci2
pcib2: device wi0 requested decoded memory range 0xf0000000-0xf0000fff
wi0: 802.11 address: 00:20:e0:8a:90:61
wi0: using RF:PRISM2.5 MAC:ISL3874A(Mini-PCI)
wi0: Intersil Firmware: Primary (1.1.0), Station (1.4.9)
wi0: bpf attached
wi0: bpf attached
wi0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
wi0: bpf attached

wi DOES seem more stable now. However, just this morning I
got the same message:

wi0: timeout in wi_seek to 127/0
wi0: timeout in wi_seek to 127/0
wi0: timeout in wi_cmd 0x0021; event status 0x8000
wi0: timeout in wi_seek to 127/0
wi0: timeout in wi_seek to 127/0
wi0: wi_cmd: busy bit won't clear.

With the same results. I had to reboot to fix it.

Here's what `ifconfig wi0` looked like after I encountered
the busy bit message:

wi0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
        inet6 fe80::220:e0ff:fe8a:9061%wi0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x2
        inet 192.168.1.101 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
        ether 00:20:e0:8a:90:61

And here's what it looks like normally:

wi0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
        inet6 fe80::220:e0ff:fe8a:9061%wi0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x2
        inet 192.168.1.101 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
        ether 00:20:e0:8a:90:61
        media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect (DS/11Mbps)
        status: associated
        ssid TREVARTHAN 1:TREVARTHAN
        stationname "FreeBSD WaveLAN/IEEE node"
        channel 6 authmode OPEN powersavemode OFF powersavesleep 100
        wepmode MIXED weptxkey 1
        wepkey 1:104-bit

Here's my `pciconf -lv | grep -A 3 wi0` output:

wi0 at pci2:2:0:   class=0x028000 card=0x04061668 chip=0x38731260 rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
    vendor   = 'Intersil Americas Inc (Was: Harris Semiconductor)'
    device   = 'PRISM 2.5 802.11b 11Mbps Wireless Controller'
    class    = network

And here's my `uname -a`:

FreeBSD trevarthan.int.wingnet.net 5.2.1-RC2 FreeBSD 5.2.1-RC2 #0: Thu Feb 12 16:28:31 GMT 2004     root at wv1u.btc.adaptec.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  i386


Is anyone else experiencing this problem with wi and a relatively
current firmware? Does anyone NOT experience this problem with
a particular firmware? If so, please let me know so I can upgrade to
that firmware version.

I hate rebooting my machine. It makes me feel like I'm running windows
again. So if anyone could give me info that would help me prevent this
problem then I would be very appreciative.

Thanks!

-- 
Jesse Guardiani, Systems Administrator
WingNET Internet Services,
P.O. Box 2605 // Cleveland, TN 37320-2605
423-559-LINK (v)  423-559-5145 (f)
http://www.wingnet.net