Subject: time and wlan (atheros AR2413) issues in 4.0 rc4 on a PC-ENGINES
To: None <netbsd-help@NetBSD.org>
From: theo borm <theo_nbsdhelp@borm.org>
List: netbsd-help
Date: 11/29/2007 00:09:26
Hi,

I seem have two problems with NetBSD 4.0 rc4, both in the kernel and 
(putatively) in the userland, and was wondering if anyone has a clue 
what to do about them.


1) Running a 4.0 rc 4 kernel on my PC-ENGINES WRAP board causes the 
clock to run approximately 37 times too slow.

The kernel is a custom one (derived from the SOEKRIS one) with options 
TIMER_FREQ=1189200

brouter -> ping 10.0.0.1

will broadcast a packet ~ 1 per 37 seconds, but only only the first will 
be received (the others lost).
10.0.0.1 is one of the wired (sip0) interfaces, NOT the wlan.

brouter -> while true
 > do
 >     date
 >     sleep 1
 > done

will print the same date/time 37 times at one second intervals 
(apparently sleep is not affected?)

Essentially the same kernel configuration file and a stock 3.0 source 
tree will produce a 3.0 kernel without this issue:

bdesk -> diff WRAPATH3 WRAPATH4
< makeoptions   COPTS="-Os -mcpu=i486"
---
 > makeoptions   CPUFLAGS="-march=i486 -mtune=i486"
 > makeoptions   COPTS="-Os"


The issue occurs if I use a 4.0_rc4 kernel with a virgin 4.0_rc4 install 
AND if I use a 4.0_rc4 kernel with a virgin 3.0 install (compiling the 
4.0_rc4 kernel with COMPAT 30, replacing only the 3.0 kernel with the 
4.0rc4 one), which leads me to suspect that this is a 4.0_rc4 kernel issue.

between 3.0 and 4.0 there has been some work on "timecounters", and I'm 
wondering if this could be related.



2) Running a 4.0 rc4 kernel on my PC-ENGINES WRAP board with a virgin 
4.0 rc4 install causes the wireless lan not to work

brouter -> ifconfig ath0 ssid mywlan nwkey 0x0123456789abc 10.0.1.100/24

will /appear/ to bring up the interface, but no communications are 
possible (e.g. ssh times out)

If I use a 4.0 rc4 kernel with a virgin *3.0* install, then the wireless 
lan works like a charm. This leads me to suspect that this is a userland 
issue.



If anyone is interested I can post dmesg-s and kernel configuration files.
Do these issues sound familliar to anyone, and does anyone have a solution?


with kind regards,

Theo Borm