Connection droped or system crash whean trying to transfer large files over wi-fi

[Korek]

I have Acer Aspire One. It is happening as well on ath5k and Madwifi drivers. I was trying to send files via wifi with WEP and without encryption. Both samba and SSH have the same issue. error sometimes drops connection after around 200Mb transfered or make computer unrespondable after transfering less then 1Mb.

[aleritty (aleritty)]

Same for me with ath9k or madwifi!

Net is unusable, to file this bug i need to connect to wired network.

[^_Pepe_^ (jose-angel-fernandez-freire)]

This bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in
it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? Can you try
with the latest Karmic 9.10 release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are
available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

If the issue remains, could you run the following command from a
Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal) while running Karmic. It
will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this
report.

apport-collect -p linux 389891

Thanks in advance

[Korek (korczyk-l)]

Hi i'm already at Karmic. Wifi seems to work better. I'll try to
transfer some large file (in ad-hoc)tomorrow or day after it to make
sure it is working and then I'll let you know.
It's nice that it wasn't forgotten.

Łukasz

Dnia 2009-12-15, wto o godzinie 08:33 +0000, ^_Pepe_^ pisze:
> This bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in
> it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? Can you try
> with the latest Karmic 9.10 release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are
> available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .
>
> If the issue remains, could you run the following command from a
> Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal) while running Karmic. It
> will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this
> report.
>
> apport-collect -p linux 389891
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> ** Changed in: linux (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>

[Paul Cullum (paul-cullum)]

I find it drops not just with large file transfers but when I stream mythtv.

[Paul Cullum (paul-cullum)]

In Karmic.

[aleritty (aleritty)]

With backports enabled the problem is solved, but without backports the problem is still here.

[^_Pepe_^ (jose-angel-fernandez-freire)]

Hi Korek,

Since you are the original bug reporter, can you confirm this issue is resolved for you after having installed the linux-backports-modules-wireless-karmic-generic package? It contains and updated compat-wireless stack which hopefully contains the fix to resolve this issue. Please let us know your results.

Thanks!

[Korek (korczyk-l)]

Hi
I need to get second computer first which will happen tomorrow. So
please be patient. I'll send you info asap.

Dnia 2009-12-18, pią o godzinie 08:23 +0000, ^_Pepe_^ pisze:
> Hi Korek,
>
> Since you are the original bug reporter, can you confirm this issue is
> resolved for you after having installed the linux-backports-modules-
> wireless-karmic-generic package? It contains and updated compat-
> wireless stack which hopefully contains the fix to resolve this issue.
> Please let us know your results.
>
> Thanks!
>

[Korek (korczyk-l)]

Ok i tested it.
        Without backport modules i was able to transfer about 150 MB in ad-hoc
        mode at normal transfer rate. After 150 MB other computer (with orinoco
        gold, no WEP nor WPA enabled) lost connection and my atheros machine
        become unresponsible(although i was able to shutdown it normally with
        power button).
        After installing backports modules my transfer rate was limited to 185
        Kbps and after around 15 MB connection was droped but i have responsible
        system.

        I'm attaching my dmesg and movie with my strange network manager after
        it(not possible to take screenshot)

[Korek (korczyk-l)]

my network manager(it is not possible to take screenshot)

[Mikael Hjelm (j-m-hjelm)]

I seem to be affected by this problem also.
When it happens i see either of two error messages in dmesg:
ath5k phy0: can't alloc skbuff of size 2559
and
ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration timeout .....

The first error message lead me to believe that there might be an issue with running out of memory.
Running top when downloading a large file over WLAN i can see that the memory is reducing rapidly.
Then when the memory is almost out top freezes for a while and all of a sudden there is a large chunk of memory available again, that time the download didn't fail but i beleive that if the timing is off then it might.

So my assumption is that a high speed wlan download, the problem is more severe when loading large chunks of data from local server or streaming video from local server, combined with a slow disk write speed and small RAM is the problem here.

[Mikael Hjelm (j-m-hjelm)]

With the backports installed i get better error behaviour but unfortunately it still means that the link is lost, i dmesg shows deassociation reason 3.

[Mikael Hjelm (j-m-hjelm)]

Relevant dmesg output:

[ 1616.389292] wlan0: deauthenticating from 00:14:bf:6b:a1:3a by local choice (reason=3)
[ 1616.389461] wlan0: deauthenticating from 00:14:bf:6b:a1:3a by local choice (reason=3)
[ 1616.418806] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:1b:2f:5d:40:1c (try 1)
[ 1616.422039] wlan0: direct probe responded
[ 1616.422052] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:1b:2f:5d:40:1c (try 1)
[ 1616.423861] wlan0: authenticated
[ 1616.444542] wlan0: associate with AP 00:1b:2f:5d:40:1c (try 1)
[ 1616.447384] wlan0: RX ReassocResp from 00:1b:2f:5d:40:1c (capab=0x431 status=0 aid=3)
[ 1616.447393] wlan0: associated

[Mikael Hjelm (j-m-hjelm)]

Just to indicatet that the small ram and slow disk, perhaps also slower processor, seems to be part of the problem i have a second computer with more RAM and better processor with an atheros WLAN chipset, also ath5k driver, and it performs without problem at the same location that the aspire one has issues.
This is without installing the backports package.

[Mikael Hjelm (j-m-hjelm)]

Tried installing wicd to see if that helped but it still looses authentication.

The only thing i saw that changes was the reason. The reason stated was that there was no response on a directed probe which i find odd. Why does it do a directed probe in the middle of an active connection with full load on the interface. My thinking is that as an AP i would ignore directed probes from devices that i am already sending a lot of data to, and receive ack from.

Simple way to reproduce this error for those who do not have a local server to download from is to flood ping a stable device, the AP itself or some other device.

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

This bug report was marked as Incomplete and has not had any updated comments for quite some time. As a result this bug is being closed. Please reopen if this is still an issue in the current Ubuntu release http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . Also, please be sure to provide any requested information that may have been missing. To reopen the bug, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

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