On Fri, 3 Aug 2007 14:42:44 +0200
Jukka Salmi <j+nbsd@2007.salmi.ch> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> since running 4.99.26 on my i386 laptop, the kernel logs
> 
> 	ath0: device timeout (txq 1)
> 
> every few seconds, and several times even lost connection (ifconfig(8)
> reporting `status: no network'). Stopping wpa_supplicant, bringing the
> interface down and up again and restarting wpa_supplicant seems to
> reestablish connection so far.
> 
> I remember seeing some `ath0: device timeout' messages previously
> (4.99.20), but fewer than now, and connection was never lost.
> 
> Anybody else seeing this? Any hints?
> 
Yes, I'm seeing it, too.  ath worked well for me on a 15 July kernel;
the failures started (for me) with 4.99.25 built on 31 July.  I see
this in the CVS log for ic/ath.c:


revision 1.84
date: 2007/07/17 01:26:17;  author: dyoung;  state: Exp;  lines: +22 -16
Suppress spurious timeouts and avoid wedging in OACTIVE state:

        1 Set or clear OACTIVE as transmit buffers are depleted or
        replenished, respectively.  Do not use 802.11 acknowledgements
        as a criteria for clearing OACTIVE.

        2 Let each transmit queue count down to timeout independently,
        and get rid of the shared countdown (sc_tx_timer).  When
        we add a packet to a transmit queue, restart the queue's
        countdown.  Stop a transmit queue's countdown when the
        queue empties.

I haven't yet tried reverting it and ./ic/athvar.h.



		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb