ath0: device timeout

[Sam Leffler]

Neil Short wrote:
> <quote>
> 
> I've been seeing quite a few of these (on FreeBSD
> 6.0-STABLE, as of a 
> couple of weeks ago).  This is with a Compex WLM54AG
> miniPCI card.
> 
> Is this a known issue, and is a fix in the works?
> 
> 	Ross.
> </quote>
> 
> I had that on a laptop. Was also getting it with the
> ethernet device (a realtek).
> 
> when I updated to current the problem went away.
> 
> I can't offer that as an official solution; but if you
> are comfortable with current it's worth a go.

The only significant difference in ath between stable and current is 
that the task q thread runs at PI_NET on current and whatever priority 
kthread_create assigns on stable.  However I don't believe this is 
relevant.  A watchdog timeout means a tx request was pending for 5 
seconds w/o the hardware delivering a tx interrupt.  In my experience 
this occurs only when the tx descriptor is setup wrong and causes the tx 
dma h/w to wedge.  So when this happens what people need to provide is a 
dump of the tx descriptors and associated tx buffer state (athdebug 
reset will do that).  Otherwise the only explanation I can come up with 
is that the watchdog timer is not being turned off and is firing wrongly.

	Sam