ath, wpa_supplicant and ioctl(SIOCS80211)

[Stephen Borrill <netbsd%precedence.co.uk@localhost>]

I'm having a problem on some machines with ath(4) (5.0_STABLE). The 
symptoms are that the interface connects to the network well enough to get 
an IP address, but then communication ceases even though wpa_supplicant 
claims it is connected. If I stop wpa_supplicant and restart it will not 
reconnnect. At another site, it generally seems to work, but if 
wpa_supplicant needs to re-associate (e.g. moving between access points), 
it will not reconnect until the machine is rebooted.

/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf contains:

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=wheel
network={
        ssid="woodland"
        scan_ssid=1
        priority=1
        key_mgmt=NONE
        wep_tx_keyidx=0
        wep_key0=XXXXXXXXXX
}

wpa_supplicant says:

State: DISCONNECTED -> SCANNING
Starting AP scan (broadcast SSID)
ioctl[SIOCS80211, op 23, arg 0x0]: Invalid argument
Failed to initiate AP scan.
Setting scan request: 10 sec 0 usec
RTM_IFINFO: Interface 'ath0' UP
Starting AP scan (specific SSID)
Scan SSID - hexdump_ascii(len=8):
     77 6f 6f 64 6c 61 6e 64                           woodland
ioctl[SIOCS80211, op 23, arg 0x0]: Invalid argument
Failed to initiate AP scan.
Setting scan request: 10 sec 0 usec
^CCTRL-EVENT-TERMINATING - signal 2 received
Removing interface ath0
State: SCANNING -> DISCONNECTED

dmesg says:
ath0: ath_chan_set: unable to reset channel 12 (2467 MHz, flags 0x2e0 hal flags 
0xc0)
ath0: setting keyix 0 w/o power
ath0: ath_chan_set: unable to reset channel 12 (2467 MHz, flags 0x2e0 hal flags 
0xc0)
ath0: deleting keyix 0 w/o power
ath0: unable to reset hardware; hal status 3

The device is:
ath0 at pci2 dev 0 function 0
ath0: interrupting at ioapic1 pin 0
ath0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
ath0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 
36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps
ath0: mac 14.2 phy 7.0 radio 10.2
Skipping broken PCI header on 2:0:0

I have my own identical machine here for testing (the others are at a 
customer's site) and I'm unable to get it to go wrong.

I noticed that on my (working) machine, because of power management 
the output of "pcictl pci2 list" alters as I ifconfig up and down the 
interface. ifconfig ath0 down makes it return nothing. ifconfig ath0 up 
gives: 
002:00:0: Atheros Communications product 0x001c (ethernet network, revision 0x01)

This behaviour is independent of the kill switch.

--
Stephen