prism54 does not work - need to use p54pci and p54common

[Alexandre Otto Strube]

Binary package hint: linux-source-2.6.22

This bug isn't actually new. It has been hanging around for some ubuntu versions.

The network card listed as " Intersil Corporation ISL3886 [Prism Javelin/Prism Xbow] (rev 01) " does not work out of box with ubuntu.

Adding:

rmmod prism54
rmmod p54usb
modprobe p54pci
modprobe p54common

to /etc/init.d/bootmist.sh makes the network suddenly work.

The same happened to feisty (look bug 138979 and others), however at that time the modules were called prism54pci and prism54common, (notice the change from prism54 to p54).

I don't know why prism54, and not p54xxx, is enabled, as it never worked. I had some other network dongles and cards, and I always had to do the same.

[Michael Monreal (mimox)]

I think I am seeing the same problem with my sister's PC.

It is using one of those softmac cards and Gusty tries to load the old prism54 module. dmesg says "irq line busy", this is normal with this driver. I then blacklisted the prism54 driver and on the next boot it loaded another driver (prism54pci or something) which worked without a problem then.

How do you plan do fix this? Doesn't the new driver also support the old "hard" mac cards?

[dorpm (dorpmueller)]

No way!

On my machine I had no problems with the prism54 but the p54pci blocked the network device and it took me 2 days to analyse and to fix it.

After upgrading my ubuntu from 7.04 to 7.10 I was confronted with the problem that my so far reliable working network connection stopped working after finishing the upgrade process.

Regarding lots of postings to the supposedly buggy and not reliable working prism54 I blacklisted the module and tried to establish a network connection with p54 or ndiswrapper. For about a hundred times the system gave me a "ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready" after each "sudo ifup wlan0". The reason I found after heavy googling and reading about 10000 lines of error reports finally in /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules. There I recognized that the p54pci module grabbed the device. Only when I blacklist all the p54 stuff I can reliably connect my net via prism54 or ndiswrapper. The difference between ubuntu 7.04 and 7.10 is that with 7.04 blacklisting of p54 was not necessary.

Regarding the experience above it seems that it has to be considered that on some systems the prism54 module does his work as it should and with the p54 a network connection fails.

Regards,
Florian

[Alexandre Otto Strube (surak)]

Could you please attach more information on your hardware? (like the lspci and lspci -n, or lsusb). It seems it would be useful to know which hardware works better with p54 and which one with prism54..

[dorpm (dorpmueller)]

Here you are:

"lspc -v" tells me:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 645xx (rev 51)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 8086
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32
        Memory at d8000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64M]
        Capabilities: [c0] AGP version 3.5

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS AGP Port (virtual PCI-to-PCI bridge) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 64
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
        I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff
        Memory behind bridge: d7000000-d7ffffff
        Prefetchable memory behind bridge: e0000000-febfffff

00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS963 [MuTIOL Media IO] (rev 25)
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

00:02.1 SMBus: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS961/2 SMBus Controller
        Flags: medium devsel
        I/O ports at e600 [size=32]

00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE] (prog-if 80 [Master])
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 8087
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 128, IRQ 19
        [virtual] Memory at 000001f0 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=8]
        [virtual] Memory at 000003f0 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=1]
        [virtual] Memory at 00000170 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=8]
        [virtual] Memory at 00000370 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=1]
        I/O ports at a400 [size=16]

00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] AC'97 Sound Controller (rev a0)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 80b0
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 22
        I/O ports at 9400 [size=256]
        I/O ports at 9000 [size=128]
        Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 2

00:03.0 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0 Controller (rev 0f) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 8087
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 20
        Memory at d6800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]

00:03.1 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 1.0 Controller (rev 0f) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 8087
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 16
        Memory at d6000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]

00:03.3 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] USB 2.0 Controller (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 8087
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 17
        Memory at d5800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet (rev 91)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 80ff
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 18
        I/O ports at 8800 [size=256]
        Memory at d5000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        E...

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi All,

The following bug might be of some interest, https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/185719 . It basically blacklists the prism54 driver.

[gregdavisfromnj (gregdavis)]

I have a Prism2 PCI card that can do master mode, and so I had previously setup my computer to act as an access point for my laptop using the prism54 driver. I recently did an Ubuntu upgrade, and the kernel toggled over to the p54pci driver. I found that the p54pci driver does not work in master mode, and I don't know if even works in managed mode (I don't care, I have ethernet to my DSL modem). I had to revert back to prism54 which, I might add, works excellent for me.

Here is the relevant output from lspci:

00:0b.0 Network controller: Intersil Corporation ISL3890 [Prism GT/Prism Duette]/ISL3886 [Prism Javelin/Prism Xbow] (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Standard Microsystems Corp [SMC] SMC2802W Wireless PCI Adapter
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 80, IRQ 10
        Memory at d1000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
        Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 1

[dorpm (dorpmueller)]

After upgrading to Ubuntu 8.04 my network device (Allnet 271) works fine with the p54 driver. So now I have blacklisted the prism54 module and my contribution from 2007-11-20 can be seen as outdated.

Florian

[Paulo Jacob (paulo-jacob)]

I have a similar problem. My ISL3886 card works just fine with Kubuntu 6.10 (using prism54) in master mode, but on another laptop with Ubuntu 7.04 using prism54pci I cannot get the same card to go into master mode.
Does anyone know how can I "downgrade" prism54pci to prism54?

Paulo

[dorpm (dorpmueller)]

Put the stuff you don't like to load in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Florian

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Beginning with the Hardy Heron 8.04 development cycle, all open Ubuntu kernel bugs need to be reported against the "linux" kernel package. We are automatically migrating this bug to the new "linux" package. However, development has already began for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. It would be helpful if you could test the upcoming release and verify if this is still an issue - http://www.ubuntu.com/testing . If the issue still exists, please update this report by changing the Status of the "linux" task from "Incomplete" to "New". We appreciate your patience and understanding as we make this transition. Thanks!

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

The Ubuntu Kernel Team is planning to move to the 2.6.27 kernel for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. As a result, the kernel team would appreciate it if you could please test this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. There are one of two ways you should be able to test:

1) If you are comfortable installing packages on your own, the linux-image-2.6.27-* package is currently available for you to install and test.

--or--

2) The upcoming Alpha5 for Intrepid Ibex 8.10 will contain this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. Alpha5 is set to be released Thursday Sept 4. Please watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for Alpha5 to be announced. You should then be able to test via a LiveCD.

Please let us know immediately if this newer 2.6.27 kernel resolves the bug reported here or if the issue remains. More importantly, please open a new bug report for each new bug/regression introduced by the 2.6.27 kernel and tag the bug report with 'linux-2.6.27'. Also, please specifically note if the issue does or does not appear in the 2.6.26 kernel. Thanks again, we really appreicate your help and feedback.

[gregdavisfromnj (gregdavis)]

I booted the 8.10 Ibex Alpha5 LiveCD. Verified that p54pci is the module loaded for the PCI adapter. Same behavior as previous 8.04.1 version... adapter can be placed into Managed mode only. Using the older prism54 module, the card supports Managed mode as well Master mode (to act as an access point, and make my Ubuntu box a Ethernet to 802.11 bridge). Would it be illegal or immoral to diff the two modules to see why the new module does not support Master mode for my adapter, while the old prism54 does?

Xserver did not start in 8.10 LiveCD, so I fell back to 8.04.1 and p54pci module to capture these items...

output of lspci:
---------------------------------------
01:06.0 Network controller: Intersil Corporation ISL3890 [Prism GT/Prism Duette]/ISL3886 [Prism Javelin/Prism Xbow] (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Standard Microsystems Corp [SMC] SMC2802W Wireless PCI Adapter
        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 32 (2500ns min, 7000ns max), Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 17
        Region 0: Memory at fcffe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
        Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 1
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0+,D1+,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold+)
                Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-

results of iwconfig commands:
------------------------------------------------------
greg@earth:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 mode Ad-Hoc
Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :
    SET failed on device wlan0 ; Device or resource busy.
greg@earth:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed
greg@earth:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 mode Master
Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :
    SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.
greg@earth:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 mode Repeater
Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :
    SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.
greg@earth:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 mode Secondary
Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :
    SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.
greg@earth:~$ sudo iwconfig wlan0 mode Monitor
Error for wireless request "Set Mode" (8B06) :
    SET failed on device wlan0 ; Device or resource busy.

uname -a:
-----------------------------------------
Linux earth 2.6.24-19-generic #1 SMP Wed Aug 20 17:53:40 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Duane Hinnen (duanedesign)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue for you. Can you try with the latest Ubuntu release? Thanks in advance.

[Alexandre Otto Strube (surak)]

Jaunty works out of box.

[otakuj462 (otakuj462)]

p54pci driver works for me in Managed mode in Jaunty OTB, but manifests other buggy behaviour. See new bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/389545