[Linux-wlan-ng-devel] Bug#465681: linux-wlan-ng: firmware loading issues

[Tormod Volden]

Package: linux-wlan-ng
Version: 0.2.8+svn1851+dfsg-2
Severity: normal


This is testing from Debian svn 172 (not released). First I removed and purged all old packages. I could then 
install linux-wlan-ng-source, mod-ass-build the module package and install. Rebooted and things worked fine 
(although depmod -a must be run manually). Then I wanted to test firmware loading so I installed linux-wlan-ng 
and -firmware and build the firmware-files package and installed it.

The firmware loading fails because when /etc/wlan/wlan-udev.sh is run, the wlan0 interface is not available 
for wlanctl-ng:

wlanctl-ng: No such device
wlanctl-ng: No such device
prism2dl: No such device

Running it manually later works fine. I inserted a "sleep 2" on the top of wlan-udev.sh and then it works 
fine. It can seem like the udev rule 84-linux-wlan-ng runs the wlan-udev.sh script "too early". I also stopped 
network-manager to verify that it was not to blame.

However, if I echo 0 > /sys/module/p80211/parameters/wlan_wext_write, the firmware loading works. So this 
problem might be related to the new auto-enabling in the driver.

FWIW, there are some hfa384x messages, mostly coinciding with the firmware loading:
$ grep hfa /var/log/syslog
Feb 13 23:26:34 viki kernel: hfa384x_usbin_ctlx: Expected IN[3], received IN[1] - ignored.
Feb 14 00:16:27 viki kernel: hfa384x_usbin_ctlx: Expected IN[1], received IN[3] - ignored.
Feb 14 00:22:59 viki kernel: hfa384x_usbin_rx: Received frame on unsupported port=5
Feb 14 00:29:11 viki kernel: hfa384x_usbin_rx: Received frame on unsupported port=4
Feb 14 00:31:15 viki kernel: hfa384x_usbin_ctlx: Expected IN[1], received IN[3] - ignored.

For the moment I'd recommend adding a "sleep 2" (or "sleep 3" to be sure) to wlan-udev.sh as a workaround. I 
also tried "sleep 1" but that didn't help.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.24-1-486
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages linux-wlan-ng depends on:
ii  libc6                         2.7-6      GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  udev                          0.114-2    /dev/ and hotplug management daemo
ii  wireless-tools                29-1       Tools for manipulating Linux Wirel

Versions of packages linux-wlan-ng recommends:
pn  linux-wlan-ng-doc             <none>     (no description available)

-- no debconf information