Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Mon, 23 Mar 2015 06:19:18 -0700
From:      David Wolfskill <david@catwhisker.org>
To:        net@freebsd.org
Subject:   iwn(4) works (mostly) in stable/10; fails to associate in head
Message-ID:  <20150323131918.GN7594@albert.catwhisker.org>

next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help

--/TUrtqMIkCP4YtJm
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

After about 7 years of service (including rebuilding FreeBSD stable &
head daily), I replaced my dell Precision M4400 laptop with a Dell
Precision 4800.

The transition is mostly complete, though it's had a bit of turbulence
at times.

One of the issues was that I found the provided WLAN device:

none1@pci0:3:0:0:       class=3D0x028000 card=3D0x00171028 chip=3D0x43b114e=
4 rev=3D0x03=20
hdr=3D0x00
    vendor     =3D 'Broadcom Corporation'
    class      =3D network

completely unusable -- I was unable to get a driver to recognize it.


So I swapped WLAN devices with the old M4400; the M4800 now has:

iwn0@pci0:3:0:0:        class=3D0x028000 card=3D0x13218086 chip=3D0x4232808=
6 rev=3D0x00 hdr=3D0x00
    vendor     =3D 'Intel Corporation'
    device     =3D 'WiFi Link 5100'
    class      =3D network


I find that this (iwn(4) device):
* Works a bit better in the M4800 than in the M4400.  I suspect
  that after 7 years of fairly heavy use, including transport on
  my bike when I was commuting to & from my former employer, may
  have helped some connections to get a bit flaky: I had noticed
  that in the last year or so, the WiFi connection was flaky enough
  that I could no longer reasonably expect to arise in the morning
  and expect that the laptop would have updated its local private
  mirror of the SVN repo, for example (so I reverted to using the
  wired NIC).  I still see that to some extent for the M4800, but
  rather less frequently.

* Completely fails to associate when running head (@ r280342 or
  r280361).  And yes, /etc/{rc,wpa_supplicant}.conf are identical
  in the 2 environments.  stable/10 was @ r280343 & r280356,
  respectively (though I suppose "is" would be a better tense in
  the latter case).

Caveat: the laptop arrived with BIOS A11 installed.  One of the first
things I did was swap out the disk drive, both to leave it pristine in
case I needed to send the machine in for repair, and to replace it with
a larger, faster drive.  (I thought this was worth the ~$85 or so.)  I
have since found that BIOS A13 is available, and purportedly addresses
some keyboard issues when running non-MS OSes (which I believe I've
experienced).  It is certainly plausible that updating the BIOS will
have other effects; some of those might actually be good (or at least
useful).  I'm working on figuring out how to perform the update while
trying to minimize the probability of bricking the machine.

Here's an excerpt from a verbose boot of head, showing info about the iwn(4)
device:

=2E..
pcib3: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> irq 18 at device 28.2 on pci0
pcib0: allocated type 3 (0xf7000000-0xf70fffff) for rid 20 of pcib3
pcib3:   domain            0
pcib3:   secondary bus     3
pcib3:   subordinate bus   3
pcib3:   memory decode     0xf7000000-0xf70fffff
pci3: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib3
pcib3: allocated bus range (3-3) for rid 0 of pci3
pci3: domain=3D0, physical bus=3D3
found-> vendor=3D0x8086, dev=3D0x4232, revid=3D0x00
        domain=3D0, bus=3D3, slot=3D0, func=3D0
        class=3D02-80-00, hdrtype=3D0x00, mfdev=3D0
        cmdreg=3D0x0006, statreg=3D0x0010, cachelnsz=3D16 (dwords)
        lattimer=3D0x00 (0 ns), mingnt=3D0x00 (0 ns), maxlat=3D0x00 (0 ns)
        intpin=3Da, irq=3D10
        powerspec 3  supports D0 D3  current D0
        MSI supports 1 message, 64 bit
        map[10]: type Memory, range 64, base 0xf7000000, size 13, enabled
pcib3: allocated memory range (0xf7000000-0xf7001fff) for rid 10 of pci0:3:=
0:0
pcib3: matched entry for 3.0.INTA
pcib3: slot 0 INTA hardwired to IRQ 18
iwn0: <Intel WiFi Link 5100> mem 0xf7000000-0xf7001fff irq 18 at device 0.0=
 on pci3
iwn0: attempting to allocate 1 MSI vectors (1 supported)
msi: routing MSI IRQ 269 to local APIC 0 vector 65
iwn0: using IRQ 269 for MSI
iwn0: MIMO 1T2R, MoW, address 00:24:d6:7a:03:ce
iwn0: 11a rates: 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
iwn0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
iwn0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbp=
s 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
iwn0: 1T2R
iwn0: 11na MCS 20MHz
iwn0: MCS 0-7: 6.5Mbps - 65Mbps
iwn0: 11na MCS 20MHz SGI
iwn0: MCS 0-7: 7Mbps - 72Mbps
iwn0: 11na MCS 40MHz:
iwn0: MCS 0-7: 13.5Mbps - 135Mbps
iwn0: 11na MCS 40MHz SGI:
iwn0: MCS 0-7: 15Mbps - 150Mbps
iwn0: 11ng MCS 20MHz
iwn0: MCS 0-7: 6.5Mbps - 65Mbps
iwn0: 11ng MCS 20MHz SGI
iwn0: MCS 0-7: 7Mbps - 72Mbps
iwn0: 11ng MCS 40MHz:
iwn0: MCS 0-7: 13.5Mbps - 135Mbps
iwn0: 11ng MCS 40MHz SGI:
iwn0: MCS 0-7: 15Mbps - 150Mbps


And "ifconfig -v wlan0" output under stable/10:

g1-254(10.1-S)[6] ifconfig -v wlan0
wlan0: flags=3D8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 15=
00
        ether 34:e6:d7:3c:4a:93
        nd6 options=3D29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
        media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet MCS mode 11ng
        status: associated
        ssid lmdhw-net channel 1 (2412 MHz 11g ht/20) bssid 04:18:d6:22:22:=
1f
        regdomain 0 country US anywhere -ecm authmode WPA2/802.11i -wps -tsn
        privacy ON deftxkey UNDEF
        AES-CCM 2:128-bit powersavemode OFF powersavesleep 100 txpower 15
        txpowmax 50.0 -dotd rtsthreshold 2346 fragthreshold 2346 bmiss 10
        11a     ucast NONE    mgmt  6 Mb/s mcast  6 Mb/s maxretry 6
        11b     ucast NONE    mgmt  1 Mb/s mcast  1 Mb/s maxretry 6
        11g     ucast NONE    mgmt  1 Mb/s mcast  1 Mb/s maxretry 6
        turboA  ucast NONE    mgmt  6 Mb/s mcast  6 Mb/s maxretry 6
        turboG  ucast NONE    mgmt  1 Mb/s mcast  1 Mb/s maxretry 6
        sturbo  ucast NONE    mgmt  6 Mb/s mcast  6 Mb/s maxretry 6
        11na    ucast NONE    mgmt 12 MCS  mcast 12 MCS  maxretry 6
        11ng    ucast NONE    mgmt  2 MCS  mcast  2 MCS  maxretry 6
        half    ucast NONE    mgmt  3 Mb/s mcast  3 Mb/s maxretry 6
        quarter ucast NONE    mgmt  1 Mb/s mcast  1 Mb/s maxretry 6
        scanvalid 60 bgscan bgscanintvl 300 bgscanidle 250
        roam:11a     rssi    7dBm rate 12 Mb/s
        roam:11b     rssi    7dBm rate  1 Mb/s
        roam:11g     rssi    7dBm rate  5 Mb/s
        roam:turboA  rssi    7dBm rate 12 Mb/s
        roam:turboG  rssi    7dBm rate 12 Mb/s
        roam:sturbo  rssi    7dBm rate 12 Mb/s
        roam:11na    rssi    7dBm  MCS  1   =20
        roam:11ng    rssi    7dBm  MCS  1   =20
        roam:half    rssi    7dBm rate  6 Mb/s
        roam:quarter rssi    7dBm rate  3 Mb/s
        -pureg protmode CTS ht htcompat ampdu ampdulimit 64k ampdudensity 8
        -amsdutx amsdurx shortgi htprotmode RTSCTS -puren -smps -rifs wme
        -burst -dwds roaming MANUAL bintval 100
        AC_BE cwmin  4 cwmax 10 aifs  3 txopLimit   0 -acm ack
              cwmin  4 cwmax 10 aifs  3 txopLimit   0 -acm
        AC_BK cwmin  4 cwmax 10 aifs  7 txopLimit   0 -acm ack
              cwmin  4 cwmax 10 aifs  7 txopLimit   0 -acm
        AC_VI cwmin  3 cwmax  4 aifs  2 txopLimit  94 -acm ack
              cwmin  3 cwmax  4 aifs  2 txopLimit  94 -acm
        AC_VO cwmin  2 cwmax  3 aifs  2 txopLimit  47 -acm ack
              cwmin  2 cwmax  3 aifs  2 txopLimit  47 -acm
        groups: wlan=20
g1-254(10.1-S)[7]=20

(FWIW, my access point has both 2.4GHz & 5GHz radios, and I have
wpa_supplicant.conf set up to prefer each equally.)

I also had picked up an Atheros-based NIC, but I've been unable to
get it to associate for for than a couple seconds at a time (and
it doesn't light the WiFi status light, so I'm pretty much "flying
blind" when I try to use it).

What may I do toward getting any of the WLAN NICs to work in both
stable/10 and head?

Peace,
david
--=20
David H. Wolfskill				david@catwhisker.org
Those who murder in the name of God or prophet are blasphemous cowards.

See http://www.catwhisker.org/~david/publickey.gpg for my public key.

--/TUrtqMIkCP4YtJm
Content-Type: application/pgp-signature

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2
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=K5n/
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--/TUrtqMIkCP4YtJm--



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20150323131918.GN7594>