atheros 'device timeout'

[Reid Linnemann]

I have a DWL-G520 with an atheros chipset on a 6-stable machine and I've 
had a persistent problem for quite a long time now from 6-CURRENT in 
2005 to recent 6-stable that I need to address.

First, I'll spit out pertinent machine information -
uname -a:
FreeBSD hautlos 6.0-STABLE FreeBSD 6.0-STABLE #3: Sat Mar 11 16:26:58 
CST 2006     root at hautlos:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/HAUTLOS  i386

pciconf for the card:
ath0 at pci0:12:0: class=0x020000 card=0x3a131186 chip=0x0013168c rev=0x01 
hdr=0x00
     vendor   = 'Atheros Communications Inc.'
     device   = 'AR5212, AR5213 802.11a/b/g Wireless Adapter'
     class    = network

ifconfig ath0:
ath0: 
flags=28943<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST,PPROMISC> mtu 
1500
         inet6 fe80::211:95ff:fe8d:1379%ath0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x3
         ether 00:11:95:8d:13:79
         media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect mode 11g <hostap>
         status: associated
         ssid deutschland channel 6 bssid 00:11:95:8d:13:79
         authmode OPEN privacy OFF txpowmax 36 protmode CTS ssid HIDE
         dtimperiod 1 bintval 100

The ath0 is briged to a dc0 interface through netgraph.


This is the behavior I've noticed; at seemingly random intervals I will 
get a device timeout thrown out to dmesg from the ath driver. Reading 
the ath manpage, I see that "This should not happen." Most occurrences 
do not yield any perceivable change in the connection. However, 
sometimes the windows wireless clients I have associated with this 
machine will not be able to receive anything over the wireless link 
unless they trigger it by sending something over the radio. Sometimes 
the windows clients will straight up lose track of the machine 
completely and scan for other networks. I've not been able to replicate 
the problem from a FreeBSD client.

I desperately need to troubleshoot the problem, as my wife is getting 
frustrated with losing connectivity to my "stupid computer" (which is 
the gateway for our network) and I can't cook very well. ;) The 
difficulty I'm having is that I don't know where to start to solve this 
particular issue, and I've seen no other users with the same problem. 
I'd appreciate any bumps in the correct direction.

Thanks,
Reid