ath0: link state changed to DOWN

[Helge Preuss]

Hello everybody,

after a kernel recompile (completely unrelated to WLAN or network
drivers) my Atheros WLAN card acts funny. I have in the meantime
reinstalled the previous, working kernel, but it does not work any more.

The card goes down and up again every few seconds. dmesg contains only
repeated messages of
ath0: link state changed to DOWN
ath0: link state changed to UP
ath0: link state changed to DOWN
ath0: link state changed to UP

/var/log/messages is a little more verbose:
Aug 17 19:00:15 triton kernel: ath0: link state changed to DOWN
Aug 17 19:00:17 triton kernel: ath0: link state changed to UP
Aug 17 19:00:22 triton dhclient: New IP Address (ath0): 192.168.3.14
Aug 17 19:00:22 triton dhclient: New Subnet Mask (ath0): 255.255.255.0
Aug 17 19:00:22 triton dhclient: New Broadcast Address (ath0): 192.168.3.255
Aug 17 19:00:22 triton dhclient: New Routers (ath0): 192.168.3.66
Aug 17 19:00:23 triton dhclient: New IP Address (ath0): 192.168.3.14
Aug 17 19:00:23 triton dhclient: New Subnet Mask (ath0): 255.255.255.0
Aug 17 19:00:23 triton dhclient: New Broadcast Address (ath0): 192.168.3.255
Aug 17 19:00:23 triton dhclient: New Routers (ath0): 192.168.3.66
Aug 17 19:00:28 triton kernel: ath0: link state changed to DOWN
Aug 17 19:00:31 triton kernel: ath0: link state changed to UP
Aug 17 19:00:36 triton dhclient: New IP Address (ath0): 192.168.3.14
Aug 17 19:00:36 triton dhclient: New Subnet Mask (ath0): 255.255.255.0
Aug 17 19:00:36 triton dhclient: New Broadcast Address (ath0): 192.168.3.255
Aug 17 19:00:36 triton dhclient: New Routers (ath0): 192.168.3.66
Aug 17 19:00:38 triton dhclient: New IP Address (ath0): 192.168.3.14
Aug 17 19:00:38 triton dhclient: New Subnet Mask (ath0): 255.255.255.0
Aug 17 19:00:38 triton dhclient: New Broadcast Address (ath0): 192.168.3.255
Aug 17 19:00:38 triton dhclient: New Routers (ath0): 192.168.3.66

It seems the link goes down every 13 seconds, with a few aberrations.

I am not the first to have this problem, but none of the solutions I
found on the web worked for me. In particular, this is independent of
where I am in relation to the AP.

Again, before I recompiled the kernel WLAN worked for me. It works with
Linux on the same laptop as well.

Has anyone here encountered and actually solved this problem?

Here is the relevant part of my kernel config:
device          wlan            # 802.11 support
device          ath
device          ath_hal
device          ath_rate_onoe
device          wlan_acl
device          wlan_tkip
device          wlan_wep
device          wlan_xauth
device          wlan_ccmp

The relevant line of /etc/rc.conf:
ifconfig_ath0="WPA DHCP"

And the output of sysctl net.wlan:
net.wlan.debug: 0
net.wlan.0.%parent: ath0
net.wlan.0.debug: 0
net.wlan.0.inact_run: 300
net.wlan.0.inact_probe: 30
net.wlan.0.inact_auth: 180
net.wlan.0.inact_init: 30
net.wlan.0.driver_caps: 126086415
net.wlan.0.bmiss_max: 2

I suppose I could give even more info, but to limit the
signal-to-noise-ratio I shall stop here. If you need anything specific,
just ask.

Thanks,

Helge

PS: Okay, one more info: FreeBSD 6.1-STABLE