[Soekris] Net4521 and AR5414 issue

[Frank Cole]

Hi Eric,

      First thing, check the revision of the BIOS on the Soekris
board and make sure it’s the latest 1.28.  Even if it is the latest,
a reflash wouldn’t hurt.

	Second, pull the Atheros card out, clean the contacts and
reseat it. It sounds weird but it works in some cases.

	If it is still giving you trouble bring it over and I'll take
a look at it.  You could have a bad wifi card.

Frank

> -----Original Message-----
> From: soekris-tech-bounces at lists.soekris.com 
> [mailto:soekris-tech-bounces at lists.soekris.com] On Behalf Of 
> Eric Sargent
> Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2006 2:03 PM
> To: soekris-tech at lists.soekris.com
> Subject: [Soekris] Net4521 and AR5414 issue
> 
> Currently we are using the Mini PCI 802.11 (WLL4070LF – 
> AR5414 chipset) cards in the Soekris net4521/4511 boards. On 
> top of this, the device running a Linux 2.6.17 Kernel using 
> the madwifi drivers for the wireless cards (Version svn 
> r1716) and busybox for the standard utils.  The issue 
> presents itself in the following way:
> 
>  
> 
> On most of the boards, the cards will come up just fine, and 
> then we can use the wlanconfig and standard iwconfig 
> utilities to configure from there.  However, in a few boards 
> the driver fails to load completely from time to time.  The 
> driver doesn't actually spit an error back, but the base 
> "wifi0" device isn't created and thus can't be accessed to 
> create the corresponding ethernet devices.  After 
> investigating a bit more, it is evident that the reason the 
> driver doesn't create the wifi0 interface is because it 
> doesn't recognize the card as one which is supported by the 
> madwifi drivers.
> 
>  
> 
> Under normal conditions, the card shows up on the PCI bus 
> with a Vendor ID of 0168c (Atheros) and a Product ID reading 
> 001b.  The issue then occurs at seemingly random (cold-boot) 
> intervals, where a reading of lspci actually produces _two_ 
> devices, both with the 0168c Atheros Vendor ID. One, however, 
> is termed an Ethernet controller, while the other is deemed 
> to be a Serial controller.  The Product IDs are ff16 and ff96 
> respectively.  Keeping this in mind, the madwifi drivers 
> don't load fully due to the (bogus?) Product Ids.  This 
> points to trouble with the hardware, either reading or 
> writing the PCI IDs, as the drivers themselves behave as they 
> should and don't initialize a card they know nothing about.
> 
>  
> 
> Overall, we have a 5% failure rate over 1097 power-ups at 
> last count. The most distinguishing characteristic we've been 
> able to find is that when utilizing an older set of Atheros 
> wifi cards (SL-5354MP ARIES – AR5212 chipset) the problem 
> disappears on every board involved.  Not sure whether the 
> fault lies with the Soekris boards or the chips themselves 
> (or myself..). Any sort of assistance would be greatly appreciated.
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Eric Sargent, President
> 
> Nexus ISR, LLC
> 
> esargent at nexusisr.com
> 
>