[Voyage-linux] Loss of AP function with Wistron DCMA-82 radio - v0.6

[Edwin Whitelaw]

More info...

On System B, I changed the Atheros-based DCMA-82 to one of my older 
non-Atheros Engenius NL2611 and have been up for 4 days w/o problems. 
The problem would typically occur a couple of times a day prior so I'm 
going to cautiously say it's fixed.

On System A, I swapped the DCMA-82 running in 2.4 AP mode for an 
Ubiquiti XR2 yesterday about 2pm.  It has lost connection to the clients 
twice by 9:00a this morning.  Running arp -an shows all the MAC 
addresses as incomplete (Nagios keeps trying to ping the IPs so the arp 
table shows the status.  "wlanconfig ath0 list" still shows the clients 
associated but there is no IP connectivity. Doing ifdown followed by 
ifup immediately restores connection for another few hours.

The one thing in common between these two is VL 0.6.   I will be 
rebuilding a CF for System A with release 0.5.2 and see if that fixes 
it.  I have a number of VL 0.5.2 units with DCMA-82 (5GHz) and XR2 APs 
with no problems for months.

I'll let the list know my results with the OS downgrade.  Any thoughts 
on how to fix this w/o downgrading would be nice.  :-)

Edwin

Edwin Whitelaw wrote:
> Very weird problem here now occurring on two different systems both 
> with fresh and updated loads of Voyage 0.6
>
> A note, I've used the DCMA-82 w/o problems as 5GHz backhauls but these 
> two installations are the first as 2.4GHz APs
>
> System A - ALIX with two DCMA-82 radios, one as 5GHz backhaul, the 
> other as normal AP.  System comes up and runs well, good throughput 
> and power but will spontaneously lose all client connections typically 
> within 12 hours.  Dropping the interface (ifdown ath0:0, ifdown ath0) 
> and bringing it back up restores function.
>
> -----/etc/network/interfaces-----
> laf-new:/etc/network# cat interfaces
> # Used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8). See the interfaces(5) manpage or
> # /usr/share/doc/ifupdown/examples for more information.
> auto lo
> iface lo inet loopback
>
> auto eth0
> iface eth0 inet static
>        address 192.168.10.200
>        netmask 255.255.255.0
>        broadcast 192.168.10.255
> #        gateway 192.168.10.254
>
> auto ath0
> iface ath0 inet static
>        address 172.23.2.1
>        netmask 255.255.255.0
>        broadcast 172.23.2.255
>        madwifi-base wifi0
>        wireless-mode Master
>        wireless-essid nrvu-lafayette
>        wireless-key s:XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
>        wireless-channel 4
>        up iwpriv ath0 mode 3
>        up iwconfig ath0 txpower 21
>        up athctrl -i wifi0 -d 8000
>        down wlanconfig ath0 destroy
>
> auto ath0:0
> iface ath0:0 inet static
>        address 172.22.2.1
>        netmask 255.255.255.0
>        broadcast 172.22.2.255
>
> auto ath1
> iface ath1 inet static
>        address 10.226.3.2
>        netmask 255.255.255.0
>        broadcast 10.226.3.255
>        gateway 10.226.3.1
>        madwifi-base wifi1
>        wireless-mode Managed
>        wireless-essid poor-garrett
> #       wireless-txpower 14
>        wireless-key s:XXXXXXXXXXXXX
> #        up iwconfig ath1 txpower 14
>        up athctrl -i wifi1 -d 8000
>        up iwpriv ath1 mode 1
>        down wlanconfig ath1 destroy
>
>
>
> System B - WRAP with one DCMA-82 set for bridging also v0.6
>
> ----interfaces----------
> redhawk2:/etc/network# cat interfaces
> # Used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8). See the interfaces(5) manpage or
> # /usr/share/doc/ifupdown/examples for more information.
> auto lo
> iface lo inet loopback
>
> #auto eth0
> #iface eth0 inet dhcp
>
> ##########################################################
> #       Sample WDS Bridge Settings
>
> # madwifi-ng WDS Bridge
> auto br0
> iface br0 inet static
>       address 172.16.28.254
>       netmask 255.255.255.0
>       network 172.16.28.0
>       broadcast 172.16.28.255
>       gateway 172.16.28.1
>       bridge_ports eth0 ath0
>       pre-up wlanconfig ath0 create wlandev wifi0 wlanmode ap
>       pre-up iwconfig ath0 essid "redhawk2" channel 11
>       pre-up iwpriv ath0 mode 11g
>        pre-up iwconfig ath0 key s:XXXXXXXXXXXX
>        up iwconfig ath0 txpower 16
>       post-down wlanconfig ath0 destroy
>
> auto br0:0
> iface br0:0 inet static
>       address 192.168.10.200
>       netmask 255.255.255.0
>       broadcast 192.168.10.255
>
> -----------------------
>
> This was installed two days ago and has lost AP function three times.  
> Due to bridging, I reboot the board to restore function previously but 
> this morning even that is not working.
>
> I'm going to try an XR2 this morning to see if there's a difference.
>
> Anyone else seen this or used this radio as 2.4 AP successfully?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Edwin
>

-- 
<=+=+=+==+=+=+==+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=>
Edwin Whitelaw, P.E.
New River Valley Unwired, LLC
2200 Lonesome Dove Dr
Christiansburg, VA 24073
540-239-0318