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

[Kim-man 'Punky' TSE]

Hi Edwin,

I was hoping I have time to investigate this but time it didn't allow me 
to do so within 0.6.1 release time frame.  After 0.6.1, I will 
investigate madwifi issues for sure

Meanwhile, you can post your questions to madwifi project mailing list.  
The madwifi driver version used by Voyage 0.6.0 is 
"0.9.4+r3772.20080716-1", which is also the same version from official 
Debian Lenny.

Regards,
Punky



Edwin Whitelaw wrote:
> 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
>>
>


-- 
Regards,
Punky

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