very frequent warnings in kernel log with BCM43224

[Steven Noonan]

My kernel log is being filled by this:

WARNING: at /build/buildd/linux-3.0.0/net/mac80211/rx.c:2910 ieee80211_rx+0x9b/0x1b0 [mac80211]()
[... stack trace, etc ]

at a very very fast rate. Since the stack trace shows it is in ieee80211_rx and the rate is so high, I'm guessing this is happening with every interrupt for the device.

Any ideas as to the cause/fix for this? It makes it difficult to gather meaningful data from the kernel log when it's being filled by those messages. And any amount of traffic causes /var/log/kern.log to grow at a rather fast rate.

This is mostly an annoying issue, as there seem to be no other real symptoms. Speedtest.net tests show it's achieving the same bandwidth I'd get if I was connected via ethernet (although kern.log grew from 7.2MB to 7.6MB just by running a single test on there).

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: linux-image-3.0.0-12-generic 3.0.0-12.20
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl nvidia
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC269VB Analog [ALC269VB Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: snoonan 1546 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: snoonan 1546 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xf5efc000 irq 44'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC269VB'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0269,1043841c,00100100'
   Controls : 12
   Simple ctrls : 8
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'NVidia'/'HDA NVidia at 0xfbffc000 irq 17'
   Mixer name : 'Nvidia GPU 0b HDMI/DP'
   Components : 'HDA:10de000b,10de0101,00100200'
   Controls : 16
   Simple ctrls : 4
Date: Sun Oct 16 23:27:47 2011
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=70ce1aac-7194-4741-80d3-2b71d3850fbb
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110427.1)
MachineType: ASUSTeK Computer INC. 1015PN
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-12-generic root=UUID=7900e58c-b6cc-4c2d-819a-51d3ebcd14d2 ro
PulseSinks: Error: command ['pacmd', 'list-sinks'] failed with exit code 1: No PulseAudio daemon running, or not running as session daemon.
PulseSources: Error: command ['pacmd', 'list-sources'] failed with exit code 1: No PulseAudio daemon running, or not running as session daemon.
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.0.0-12-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.0.0-12-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.60
SourcePackage: linux
StagingDrivers: brcmsmac brcmutil
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-10-15 (1 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 11/10/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 0402
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: 1015PN
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.board.version: x.xx
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: 0x00000000
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.chassis.version: x.x
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr0402:bd11/10/2010:svnASUSTeKComputerINC.:pn1015PN:pvrx.x:rvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:rn1015PN:rvrx.xx:cvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:ct10:cvrx.x:
dmi.product.name: 1015PN
dmi.product.version: x.x
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.

[Eduardo Trujillo (eduard4444)]

I have the same problem on my Alienware M11xR2 (since the 11.10 beta), and it currently is the main reason that is preventing me from switching to Ubuntu as my main OS. The speed of my connection seems to change depending on the number of people connected to the access point, but it is not stable. I can get a 3 Mbps speed at one point and then suddenly fall to 2 Kbps. The only way I can connect to the internet with my laptop is by using an Ethernet cable.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the release candidate kernel versus the daily build. 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.

[Eduardo Trujillo (eduard4444)]

The problem persists in the daily kernel build. However, I noticed that the error now only shows up if I'm connected to a 5.22 Ghz network. If I'm connected to a 2.4 Ghz network everything works fine. The previous kernel had some troubles when connecting to 2.4 Ghz networks. I tested this using an old router and my phone's hotspot function (both can only transmit in 2.4 Ghz).

Error in the log:

Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.167769] ------------[ cut here ]------------
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.167824] WARNING: at /home/kernel-ppa/COD/linux/net/mac80211/rx.c:2922 ieee80211_rx+0xc1/0x1e0 [mac80211]()
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.167832] Hardware name: M11x R2
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.167836] Modules linked in: bnep rfcomm parport_pc ppdev binfmt_misc snd_hda_codec_hdmi snd_hda_codec_realtek bcma arc4 snd_hda_intel snd_hda_codec joydev brcmsmac(C) snd_hwdep snd_pcm nouveau i915 mac80211 snd_seq_midi snd_rawmidi snd_seq_midi_event uvcvideo snd_seq btusb ttm snd_timer brcmutil(C) videodev snd_seq_device bluetooth drm_kms_helper drm v4l2_compat_ioctl32 dell_wmi psmouse cfg80211 snd sparse_keymap soundcore serio_raw snd_page_alloc jmb38x_ms i2c_algo_bit memstick intel_ips mxm_wmi wmi video lp parport usbhid hid sdhci_pci sdhci ahci libahci firewire_ohci atl1c firewire_core crc_itu_t
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.167966] Pid: 0, comm: kworker/0:1 Tainted: G WC 3.1.0-999-generic #201110171146
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.167973] Call Trace:
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.167977] <IRQ> [<ffffffffa023ea01>] ? ieee80211_rx+0xc1/0x1e0 [mac80211]
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.168029] [<ffffffff810660b0>] warn_slowpath_common+0x90/0xc0
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.168040] [<ffffffff810660fa>] warn_slowpath_null+0x1a/0x20
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.168071] [<ffffffffa023ea01>] ieee80211_rx+0xc1/0x1e0 [mac80211]
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.168094] [<ffffffffa02238ef>] ieee80211_tasklet_handler+0x7f/0xb0 [mac80211]
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.168107] [<ffffffff8106d89a>] tasklet_action+0x6a/0x110
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.168117] [<ffffffff8106cdf2>] __do_softirq+0xb2/0x1c0
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.168131] [<ffffffff816003ac>] call_softirq+0x1c/0x30
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.168143] [<ffffffff81015265>] do_softirq+0x65/0xa0
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.168153] [<ffffffff8106d80e>] irq_exit+0x8e/0xb0
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.168162] [<ffffffff81600c69>] do_IRQ+0x69/0xe0
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.168174] [<ffffffff815f5e2e>] common_interrupt+0x6e/0x6e
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.168179] <EOI> [<ffffffff8135a0d3>] ? intel_idle+0xc3/0x120
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.168197] [<ffffffff8135a0b9>] ? intel_idle+0xa9/0x120
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.168209] [<ffffffff814c0a9e>] cpuidle_idle_call+0xde/0x1a0
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.168219] [<ffffffff810127b7>] cpu_idle+0xc7/0x100
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.168231] [<ffffffff815eedb7>] ? setup_APIC_timer+0x87/0x90
Oct 17 21:45:41 ubuntu kernel: [ 360.168240...

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Would it be possible for you to test the current Oneiric kernel, with the wireless N protocol disabled?

This may be a duplicate of bug 836250

[Steven Noonan (steven-valvesoftware)]

The call stacks do look very similar, but I'm not quite convinced it's a duplicate of bug 836250. I'm not experiencing the performance degradation that Eduardo is.

What's the best way to disable the 802.11n protocol? I tried 'iwconfig wlan0 modulation 11g', but this failed with 'SET failed on device wlan0 ; Operation not supported.' Doing 'iwlist modulation' shows 'unknown modulation information'. So maybe I just don't know how to do this correctly.

I suppose I could just set the access point to only use 802.11g and then troubleshoot that way, if it comes to that.

[Steven Noonan (steven-valvesoftware)]

OK, just tested with the access point set to disable 802.11n entirely, and split 2.4GHz/5GHz to separate SSIDs.

When connected to 2.4GHz, that particular warning has stopped appearing at least. I do see this:
"[122038.374737] ieee80211: phy0: wlc_prec_enq_head: No where to go, prec == 4"
appearing in batches (groups of 5-40). They seemed to show up roughly every 30 seconds or so, but it doesn't seem particularly predictable (sometimes 90 second gap, sometimes 20).

I'm not able to connect to the 5GHz (802.11a, since N is disabled) network at all, getting 90 or so instances of the same kernel warning as in my original report before it decided to give up and try the 2.4GHz SSID.

[Steven Noonan (steven-valvesoftware)]

Apparently my router doesn't support 802.11n on the 2.4GHz band anyway, only supports 802.11n on 5GHz.

To summarize:
- The chipset refuses to connect to 5GHz 802.11a, repeating the warning in the original report before giving up.
- The chipset connects to 5GHz 802.11n, but still frequently repeats the warning in the original report, with no obvious bandwidth degradation compared to other setups.
- 802.11b/g work fine, with the warning stated in post #7. The disadvantage of course is that the bitrate is significantly lower than N (by design). So this isn't an ideal long-term solution.

(Sorry to spam, I just felt I should clarify the state of things.)

[Eduardo Trujillo (eduard4444)]

I tested the current Oneiric kernel with only 802.11g (again using my phone's hotspot and an old router). With this kernel I'm unable to connect to the phone's network and it takes a while to connect to the old router. If I reboot and use the daily build, I'm able to connect to both networks (on 2.4Ghz) without any problems, and I don't notice any speed or performance degradation.

Also, I have noticed that (when connected to a 802.11n network) the amount of errors I get is related to the speed of the connection. There are some moments where I stop getting errors and everything works perfectly (and at full speed), but these usually don't last long. I don't have control over the network I use (University network) to make tests with wireless N disabled. Like I mentioned before, I think that it depends on how many people are using the access point. I'm almost unable to connect in very crowded places. I wish I had a wireless N router to verify this, but at least now I'm able to use Ubuntu on my laptop when it is connected to a B or G hotspot.

[Eduardo Trujillo (eduard4444)]

After reading some forums, I managed to fix the wireless problem on my laptop. It consists on activating the Broadcom STA driver. This was easy on previous versions of Ubuntu, but for some reason when you activate it on 11.10 it keeps using the same kernel driver. So, after I activated the driver using the Additional Drivers tool, I did the rest of the work manually using the following:

sudo modprobe -r brcmsmac
sudo modprobe -r wl
sudo modprobe wl

I haven't rebooted yet, but I'm guessing that I have to blacklist the brcmsmac driver to make it permanent.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Steven Noonan, 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? If so, could you please test for this with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ .

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

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

Also, could you please test the latest upstream kernel available (not the daily folder) following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested. If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested. For example:
kernel-fixed-upstream-v3.13-rc1

This can be done by clicking on the yellow circle with a black pencil icon next to the word Tags located at the bottom of the bug description. As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug's Status as Confirmed. Please let us know your results. Thank you for your understanding.

[Steven Noonan (steven-valvesoftware)]

I no longer have the system in the original report, and cannot verify whether the issue is resolved or not. I would appreciate it if someone else CC'd on this report would chime in -- I don't want to see this issue dropped on the floor if it's still an issue for others.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Steven Noonan, this bug report is being closed due to your last comment https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/876231/comments/12 regarding you no longer have the hardware. For future reference you can manage the status of your own bugs by clicking on the current status in the yellow line and then choosing a new status in the revealed drop down box. You can learn more about bug statuses at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Status. Others who may have a bug would need to file a new report. Thank you again for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please submit any future bugs you may find.