kernel oops involving ath9k module on netbook

[J Cameron Cooper]

Installed Ubuntu Netbook remix on a new Acer Aspire One AO532H-2588. (It's a fairly new model, as well as a new machine.)

Recently updated to kernel 2.6.31-19. Original kernel was 2.6.31-14. The new (-19) kernel caused a variety of problems; terminal and network would lock up after a few minutes, clicking on the network manager icon would lock up the whole thing. The -14 kernel seems to be much better behaved: it was fine when first installed and is fine booted into now.

Didn't notice any non-stability problems with the new kernel.

Have not installed jaunty modules backport package.

[Mark Kempenaar (markkempenaar)]

On my new Compaq mini 110C Intel Atom N270 I have the same difficulty with the new updated kernel. Kernel 2.6.31-14 worked fine 2.6.31-19 generated error messages and stopped on $ prompt. Tried to startup from grub with kernel ...-19 in recovery mode but that did not help.

[Mark Kempenaar (markkempenaar)]

A few day later I tried it again; but that time I was connected to the internet by a wire. After some updates were downloaded and installed, everything was oke. I used the kernel 2.6.31-19 without any further errors. Thereafter I could also make wifi connections.

[J Cameron Cooper (jccooper-gmail)]

Installation of linux-backports-modules-karmic seems to help a great deal; I now find the system quite stable with that installed.

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

Hi J,

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 development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

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

apport-collect -p linux 518666

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

    [This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[J Cameron Cooper (jccooper-gmail)]

Noticing same problems now with 2.6.31-19-generic #56-Ubuntu SMP.

Symptoms:

Wireless reception is vastly under-reported compared to other devices (and this machine under Windows, and also with the one state reported above where it seemed to work right.) Right next to an AP, it'll say 75%.

Wireless will work for a while (maybe a few hours) and then quit; wired will work longer, but eventually will fail as well. Reboot seems the only recourse. When wireless quits, I can plug in and it'll work for a while.

Weak wireless seems to aggravate the problem; connecting to a distant AP will almost immediately kill networking and also lock up terminals and usually Firefox (but not Chrome.) Won't be able to switch to virtual terminals. In this case the system is almost unusable.

The usual case (with strong wireless) doesn't seem to lock the terminals, but I can't say that categorically. It does tend to lock up Firefox. Also, after such failures, reboot doesn't work; it'll kill the WM, and sometimes X, but never does reboot.

Will attach requested debug info. I believe I'm up to date. Haven't tested upstream; I'll try to get to it.

[J Cameron Cooper (jccooper-gmail)]

AplayDevices:
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC272 Analog [ALC272 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC272 Analog [ALC272 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: jccooper 1823 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0x58200000 irq 16'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC272'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0272,10250349,00100001'
   Controls : 14
   Simple ctrls : 9
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=b9d4b34f-cf18-4d80-b0c1-7329d83db344
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Netbook-Remix 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.4)
MachineType: Acer AO532h
Package: linux (not installed)
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-19-generic root=UUID=90a93e9a-aa08-423e-9ded-cedf2328c05f ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 LANGUAGE=
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-19.56-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-backports-modules-2.6.31-19-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.26
Tags: ubuntu-unr
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-19-generic i686
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
dmi.bios.date: 11/12/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Acer
dmi.bios.version: V1.05
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: AO532h
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.board.version: V1.05
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer
dmi.chassis.version: V1.05
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAcer:bvrV1.05:bd11/12/2009:svnAcer:pnAO532h:pvrV1.05:rvnAcer:rnAO532h:rvrV1.05:cvnAcer:ct10:cvrV1.05:
dmi.product.name: AO532h
dmi.product.version: V1.05
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer

[J Cameron Cooper (jccooper-gmail)]

Upgraded to 10.04, with kernel 2.6.31-19-generic #56-Ubuntu SMP, and problems remain.

Wireless fails after a while, then I plug in and later the wired networking fails, and then terminals freeze up--and usually when I click on the network manager applet icon it locks up the machine for a while. Restarts also fail to restart.

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

Is this the same behavior as the original report or different? Are you still seeing the lockups in the same manner as before? In comment #3 you indicated that installing L-B-M seemed to stabilize the system for you.

I'm asking because I want us to make sure we are still drilling down on the same behavior and problem and not something new. I prefer we use one bug report for one issue.

Thanks!

~JFo

[J Cameron Cooper (jccooper-gmail)]

Yes, it is the same behavior as from the original report; I was just adding more symptoms as I became more familiar with the problem. It did seem for a short time, after installing the modules-compat package, that the problem went away, but that was either my imagination or some subsequent update brought back the problem.

[J Cameron Cooper (jccooper-gmail)]

The Aspire One AO532H, by the way, is one of the first with the Atom N450 processor, and presumably a new chipset along with it. It's a fairly different machine from the older and still common AOD250, which uses the Atom N270.

[J Cameron Cooper (jccooper-gmail)]

Attached is a dmesg with some sort of traceback that shows a failure involving ath9k; I don't know that it's directly related to my problem, since I don't get it all the time, but it is suspicious. I have another dmesg from another boot that shows pretty much the same thing; I can provide it if requested.

Here's what I figure is the important bit at the end:

[ 8877.760576] wlan0: no probe response from AP 00:16:b6:34:22:b2 - disassociating
[ 8877.915547] BUG: unable to handle kernel paging request at 80808080
[ 8877.915574] IP: [<c01bb761>] put_page+0x11/0x100
[ 8877.915606] *pde = 00000000
[ 8877.915620] Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP
[ 8877.915636] last sysfs file: /sys/devices/virtual/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness
[ 8877.915651] Modules linked in: cbc aes_i586 aes_generic binfmt_misc ppdev dm_crypt snd_hda_codec_realtek snd_hda_intel snd_hda_codec arc4 snd_hwdep ecb snd_pcm_oss snd_mixer_oss snd_pcm snd_seq_dummy snd_seq_oss snd_seq_midi snd_rawmidi ath9k snd_seq_midi_event snd_seq snd_timer mac80211 snd_seq_device ath acer_wmi snd uvcvideo soundcore snd_page_alloc videodev atl1c cfg80211 v4l1_compat psmouse serio_raw led_class lp parport fbcon tileblit font bitblit softcursor i915 usbhid drm i2c_algo_bit intel_agp agpgart video output
[ 8877.915859]
[ 8877.915876] Pid: 3208, comm: phy0 Not tainted (2.6.31-19-generic #56-Ubuntu) AO532h
[ 8877.915892] EIP: 0060:[<c01bb761>] EFLAGS: 00010282 CPU: 0
[ 8877.915910] EIP is at put_page+0x11/0x100
[ 8877.915924] EAX: 80808080 EBX: 80808080 ECX: d4b4c540 EDX: c3db4040
[ 8877.915939] ESI: d4b4c540 EDI: d4b4c540 EBP: e0131d84 ESP: e0131d70
[ 8877.915953] DS: 007b ES: 007b FS: 00d8 GS: 00e0 SS: 0068
[ 8877.915970] Process phy0 (pid: 3208, ti=e0130000 task=e0003240 task.ti=e0130000)
[ 8877.915982] Stack:
[ 8877.915990] 00000000 00000000 00000001 d4b4c540 d4b4c540 e0131d94 c0493917 d4b4c540
[ 8877.916010] <0> 00000009 e0131da0 c0493452 f69881a0 e0131da8 c04934ec e0131de4 f8dc2eaf
[ 8877.916010] <0> 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 f6989148 00000000 c3db4024 c3db4020
[ 8877.916010] Call Trace:
[ 8877.916010] [<c0493917>] ? skb_release_data+0x87/0xa0
[ 8877.916010] [<c0493452>] ? __kfree_skb+0x12/0x90
[ 8877.916010] [<c04934ec>] ? consume_skb+0x1c/0x40
[ 8877.916010] [<f8dc2eaf>] ? ieee80211_tx_status+0x43f/0x470 [mac80211]
[ 8877.916010] [<f8e83b24>] ? ath_tx_complete+0x124/0x150 [ath9k]
[ 8877.916010] [<f8e79df7>] ? ath9k_hw_setup_calibration+0x97/0x140 [ath9k]
[ 8877.916010] [<f8e83bc1>] ? ath_tx_complete_buf+0x71/0xc0 [ath9k]
[ 8877.916010] [<c014b295>] ? __do_softirq+0xe5/0x1a0
[ 8877.916010] [<f8e84f94>] ? ath_draintxq+0x134/0x280 [ath9k]
[ 8877.916010] [<f8e861ee>] ? ath_drain_all_txq+0xce/0x140 [ath9k]
[ 8877.916010] [<f8e820e2>] ? ath_set_channel+0x82/0x200 [ath9k]
[ 8877.916010] [<f8e7eaae>] ? ath_update_chainmask+0x7e/0x90 [ath9k]
[ 8877.916010] [<f8e82407>] ? ath9k_config+0x1a7/0x200 [ath9k]
[ 8877.916010] [<f8dc2972>] ? ieee80211_hw_config+0x72/0xb0 [mac80211]
[ 8877.916010] [<f8dc7146>] ? ieee80211_scan_work+0xb6/0x220 [mac80211]
[ 8877.916010] [<c056f07c>] ? schedule+0x40c/0x730
[ 8877.916010] [<c015794e>] ? run_workqueue+0x6e/0x140
[ 8877.916010] [<f8dc7090>]...

[J Cameron Cooper (jccooper-gmail)]

After such an event, a modprobe -r ath9k hangs; before one it works as normal.

[J Cameron Cooper (jccooper-gmail)]

It seems to be a gradual degradation of the ath9k module (or something related). If I periodically unload and reload the ath9k module (as in previous comment), I'm able to keep the system running normally. A reduction in reported signal strength is a good indication, I think, of pending failure. Once the failure (as above) happens, the only cure is a reboot, however.

[J Cameron Cooper (jccooper-gmail)]

On upgraded 11.04 (kernel 2.6.38-8) the network seems to be stable. Signal strength is reported sanely, have not seen a module crash yet. Can't say why, but Natty seems to have fixed the problem.

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug was filed against a series that is no longer supported and so is being marked as Won't Fix. If this issue still exists in a supported series, please file a new bug.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.