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Bug #3849

closed

Compex WLE200NX wireless card stops responding

Added by Michael von Glasow about 10 years ago. Updated over 3 years ago.

Status:
Rejected
Priority:
Normal
Assignee:
-
Category:
-
Target version:
-
Start date:
09/05/2014
Due date:
% Done:

0%

Estimated time:
Plus Target Version:
Release Notes:
Default
Affected Version:
Affected Architecture:
amd64

Description

Occasionally, my WiFi adapter will stop working. Clients lose their connection to it, and if I scan nearby WiFis with my cell (using SatStat, https://mvglasow.github.io/satstat) my AP no longer appears in the list.

I have tried disabling and re-enabling the adapter in the Web GUI (applying canges after each step), but to no avail. I need to reboot to get the adapter back to life.

I have been running this setup for a few weeks now. I encountered the issue once in 2.1.4 during setup. I upgraded to 2.1.5 a couple of days ago and noticed yesterday morning that the WiFi was down. I investigated in the evening, eventually rebooting, and got the WiFi back to life. Tonight, as I was working, I noticed that the WiFi once dropped out briefly, then came back. About one or two hours later the WiFi dropped out again, this time for good.

I am seeing the following entry in the log file:

Sep 5 22:15:37 kernel: ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 4)
Sep 5 22:15:37 kernel: ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 4)
Sep 5 22:15:37 kernel: ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 4)
Sep 5 22:15:37 kernel: ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 4)
Sep 5 22:15:38 kernel: ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 4)
Sep 5 22:15:38 kernel: ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 4)
Sep 5 22:15:38 kernel: ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 4)

pfSense version:
2.1.5-RELEASE (amd64)
built on Mon Aug 25 07:44:45 EDT 2014
FreeBSD 8.3-RELEASE-p16

Hardware:
APU 1C4 engine
Compex WLE200NX wireless card (Atheros AR9280 chipset)
pfSense installed on SD card (live image)

Common wireless configuration:
Standard: 802.11g
Other settings were left at their defaults.

Network-specific wireless configuration:
Mode: Access point
Allow intra-BSS communication: Yes
Enable Hide SSID: No
WEP: Disabled
WPA: Enabled
WPA Mode: WPA
WPA Key Management Mode: PSK
Other settings were left at their defaults.

Files

pfsense-system-wireless.txt (4.43 KB) pfsense-system-wireless.txt Wireless log Michael von Glasow, 09/05/2014 05:24 PM
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 #1

Updated by Michael von Glasow about 10 years ago

Just rebooted and WiFi is back again. I still get the stuck beacon message in the system log, but less frequently than while the WiFi was down (at that time I got some 4 messages per second, now the rate of messages varies, 1 message per second on average, with gaps up to 5 seconds).

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 #2

Updated by Michael von Glasow about 10 years ago

Wifi's gone again, after just 75 minutes of uptime. Wireless log attached.

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 #3

Updated by Michael von Glasow about 10 years ago

Update: after the last loss of WiFi I just left everything alone and the next morning I noticed the WiFi was back (though later the same on-off game started over again).

Therefore I can't tell for sure if the WiFi is ever gone for good or if all failures are just sporadic in nature and the WiFi eventually recovers by itself.

In any case, this behavior is rendering the WiFi adapter completely unreliable and thus unusable.

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 #4

Updated by Michael von Glasow about 10 years ago

I have downgraded to 2.1.4 (i.e. reinstalled 2.1.4 from scratch and restored config). I noticed that after the first few reboots the WiFi adapter was not detected at all, after a few reboots it was there again and I could configure it.

I'll watch the setup for a few days and will post if going back to 2.1.4 improves the situation.

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 #5

Updated by Mischa De Pol about 10 years ago

I had the same issue, with nearly the same setup (APU 1D4 engine).

What really helped me, was to set the Wireless Standard to 802.11b. Unfortunately you're now limited to 11Mbit/s.

The other wireless settings are the same as yours.

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 #6

Updated by Chris Buechler about 10 years ago

  • Status changed from New to Rejected

driver issue that's outside our control, and is almost certainly fixed in 2.2's base OS.

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 #7

Updated by Guillaume J over 3 years ago

I have a similar issue with an "APU3 C2" board since upgrading pfSense from v2.4.5p1 (FreeBSD 11.3-STABLE) to v2.5.0 (FreeBSD 12.2-STABLE)

Symptoms
WiFi lost after some working hours.

Workaround
Restart pfSense each time the issue appears.

pfSense
2.5.0-RELEASE (amd64)
built on Tue Feb 16 08:56:29 EST 2021
FreeBSD 12.2-STABLE

Hardware
- PC Engines APU3C2 board
- Compex WLE200NX wireless card (Atheros AR9280 chipset)

WiFi Setup
  • Common wireless configuration
    • Persist common settings: unchecked
    • Standard: 802.11ng
    • 802.11g OFDM Protection Mode: Off
    • Channel: 11b/g/n-6
    • Channel width: Auto
    • Distance setting (meters): blank
  • Network-specific wireless configuration
    • Mode: Access point
    • Minimum wireless standard: Any
    • Allow intra-BSS communication: Yes
    • Enable WME: Yes
    • Enable Hide SSID: No
  • WPA
    • Enable : checked
    • WPA Mode: WPA2
    • WPA Key Management Mode: Pre-Shared Key (PSK)
    • WPA Pairwise: AES
    • Group Key Rotation: 60
    • Group Master Key Regeneration: 3600
    • Strict Key Regeneration: unchecked
Logs
  • SysLog - System - General
    "ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 4)" twice per second
  • SysLog - System - WireLess
    "ath0_wlan0: WPA rekeying GTK" every minute
    "ath0_wlan0: WPA GMK rekeyd" every hour

MAJ 2021-04-12
I can see these new improvements with FreeBSD v12.2 :
"Updates to the wireless networking stack and various drivers have been introduced to provide better 802.11n and 802.11ac support."
from https://www.freebsd.org/releases/12.2R/announce/

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