Atheros wireless card channel conflict - unable to reset hardware

[Sam Leffler]

Lyle Scott wrote:
> I just replaced my Dell E1505's Intel 3945ABG wireless card with an
> Atheros AR5006EX card that I purchased from a person in Hong Kong and I
> live in the USA. The card works great under Windows but when ath0 starts
> up in FreeBSD, it gets the following errors which renders the card
> useless until I restart and choose a particular channel specified with
> ifconfig in /etc/rc.conf that is not channel 8 or 12. I have read
> another post somewhat similar to mine, but I have not had any luck
> resolving it.  Any help is very much appreciated. I am on FreeBSD
> 6.2 ... this is also with a Linksys WRT54GX2 V2 wireless G router.
> 
> /var/log/messages  (over and over again)
> # Mar 16 23:41:02 laptop kernel: ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal
> status 12
> # Mar 16 23:41:12 laptop kernel: ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal
> status 0
> 
> # dmesg
> laptop kernel: ath0: <Atheros 5424> mem 0xefcf0000-0xefcfffff irq 16 at
> device 0.0 on pci11
> laptop kernel: ath0: Ethernet address: 00:11:f5:c2:2b:05
> laptop kernel: ath0: mac 10.3 phy 6.1 radio 10.2
> 
> # ifconfig ath0 list channels
> Channel   1 : 2412* Mhz 11g       Channel  16 : 5080  Mhz 11a          
> Channel   2 : 2417* Mhz 11g       Channel  36 : 5180  Mhz 11a          
> Channel   3 : 2422* Mhz 11g       Channel  40 : 5200  Mhz 11a          
> Channel   4 : 2427* Mhz 11g       Channel  44 : 5220  Mhz 11a          
> Channel   5 : 2432* Mhz 11g       Channel  48 : 5240  Mhz 11a          
> Channel   6 : 2437* Mhz 11g       Channel  52 : 5260* Mhz 11a          
> Channel   7 : 2442* Mhz 11g       Channel  56 : 5280* Mhz 11a          
> Channel   8 : 2447* Mhz 11a 11g   Channel  60 : 5300* Mhz 11a          
> Channel   9 : 2452* Mhz 11g       Channel  64 : 5320* Mhz 11a          
> Channel  10 : 2457* Mhz 11g       Channel 135 : 4920  Mhz 11a          
> Channel  11 : 2462* Mhz 11g       Channel 136 : 4940  Mhz 11a          
> Channel  12 : 2467* Mhz 11a 11g   Channel 137 : 4960  Mhz 11a          
> Channel  13 : 2472* Mhz 11g       Channel 138 : 4980  Mhz 11a          
> Channel  14 : 2484* Mhz 11b          
> 
> # sysctl dev.ath.0
> dev.ath.0.%desc: Atheros 5424
> dev.ath.0.%driver: ath
> dev.ath.0.%location: slot=0 function=0 handle=\_SB_.PCI0.RP01.PXS1
> dev.ath.0.%pnpinfo: vendor=0x168c device=0x001c subvendor=0x10cf
> subdevice=0x139c class=0x020000
> dev.ath.0.%parent: pci11
> dev.ath.0.smoothing_rate: 95
> dev.ath.0.sample_rate: 10
> dev.ath.0.countrycode: 0
> dev.ath.0.regdomain: 247

247 is Japan UNI-1 even + UNI-2 + 4.9GHz

> dev.ath.0.slottime: 9
> dev.ath.0.acktimeout: 48
> dev.ath.0.ctstimeout: 48
> dev.ath.0.softled: 0
> dev.ath.0.ledpin: 0
> dev.ath.0.ledon: 0
> dev.ath.0.ledidle: 2700
> dev.ath.0.txantenna: 0
> dev.ath.0.rxantenna: 2
> dev.ath.0.diversity: 1
> dev.ath.0.txintrperiod: 5
> dev.ath.0.diag: 0
> dev.ath.0.tpscale: 0
> dev.ath.0.tpc: 0
> dev.ath.0.tpack: 63
> dev.ath.0.tpcts: 63
> dev.ath.0.rfsilent: 1
> dev.ath.0.rfkill: 1
> dev.ath.0.monpass: 24

You are running a version of the os that maps the 4.9GHz channels
according to the IEEE Public Safety Band (PSB) spec.  Unfortunately that
results in overlaps between 5GHz and 2GHz channels and the existing
net80211 code doesn't handle that well.  You don't indicate what version
of the os you are running but if you use HEAD or RELENG_6 you'll find
that I hacked the freq<->IEEE mapping to avoid this overlap.
Alternatively you can search for how to zap the regdomain setting in
your EEPROM to something that doesn't cause this overlap.

	Sam