Panics while using iwlagn wifi on some networks

[Matt Zimmerman]

While away from home, I've been experiencing occasional kernel panics (flashing caps lock) while using wifi. It seems to be related to which wifi network I associate with. This one triggers the panics:

          Cell 10 - Address: 00:1F:F3:F8:9D:C7
                    ESSID:"Canonical"
                    Mode:Master
                    Channel:11
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
                    Quality=49/100 Signal level:-79 dBm Noise level=-127 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    IE: WPA Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (2) : CCMP TKIP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: 2D1A2C0217FFFF000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                              9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Extra:tsf=00000031d1657237
                    Extra: Last beacon: 2416ms ago

while this one does not:

          Cell 11 - Address: 00:03:52:A4:43:B0
                    ESSID:"Domain Hotel"
                    Mode:Master
                    Channel:11
                    Frequency:2.462 GHz (Channel 11)
                    Quality=79/100 Signal level:-55 dBm Noise level=-127 dBm
                    Encryption key:off
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                              9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Extra:tsf=0000012c45ba0181
                    Extra: Last beacon: 2396ms ago

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.10
Package: linux-image-2.6.27-9-generic 2.6.27-9.19
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=305dde78-d20a-4248-aaf4-09447b7c5791 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LC_COLLATE=C
 PATH=/home/username/bin:/usr/lib/ccache:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/games:/usr/lib/surfraw
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/zsh
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.27-9.19-generic
SourcePackage: linux

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

The fact that I saw this after the upgrade seems to have been incidental. I've now reproduced the same problem on 2.6.27-9.19 if I use the same wifi network.

I don't think this is the same as bug 276990 because 1) this isn't an 802.11n network, and 2) it clearly is not fixed in 2.6.27-10.20.

I'm attaching complete output from "sudo iwlist wlan0 scan"

[Julius Thor (joolli)]

I can confirm this bug. I've been having kernel panics either after I upgraded to intrepid or since I started using a wireless network with WPA encryption.

I'm running a system that was installed as 7.04 but has been updated to every new release. It is now at intrepid. It is a IBM Thinkpad T60. I haven't been able to catch the panic messages so I can't provide them but I will attach a lspci -vv and a dmesg report.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi Matt,

Are you still able to trigger these panics with the more recent 2.6.28-11 Jaunty kernel? If so, just curious if you've also tested with linux-backports-modules-jaunty as it contains an updated compat-wireless stack.

@Julius, you may be experiencing a slightly different bug as I notice you have an Atheros card which uses the ath5k driver, not the iwlagn driver. Could you also test the latest Jaunty 9.04 release to confirm if this is still an issue? http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download .

[Julius Thor (joolli)]

Hi Leann,

I'm currently on jaunty. Have been for the last month or so. The ath5k driver was completely unusable, it kept disconnecting every minute... It also had the lockups but not as frequent as ath_pci (madwifi) if I remember correctly. So, I'm currently using ath_pci with the constant lockups... Happens like once to twice a day. I will switch back to ath5k again right now in case there have been any developments for the last month. I'll report back.

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 09:38:47PM -0000, Leann Ogasawara wrote:
> Hi Matt,
>
> Are you still able to trigger these panics with the more recent
> 2.6.28-11 Jaunty kernel? If so, just curious if you've also tested with
> linux-backports-modules-jaunty as it contains an updated compat-wireless
> stack.

I haven't seen this in a while, but it only ever happened with certain
networks while I was traveling, so it's hard to tell if it's still an issue.
I wasn't able to get any kind of trace for the panic, and since we don't
have crash dumps, there's no evidence left behind to debug.

--
 - mdz

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

Hi Matt,

Now that Karmic contains a newer 2.6.31 based kernel as well as the linux-crashdump utility, definitely let us know if you still experience any sort of panics which you might be able to capture now. Thanks.

[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.

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