Atheros Wi-Fi card does not always work after suspend

[Thomas Hood]

I have a ThinkPad X61 running Jaunty. After suspend and resume the Atheros card does not always work: sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. In the latter case, removing and reinserting ath5k does *not* help. Thus this bug seems to be other than bug #275692. When it happens again I will add more information about the exact circumstances and symptoms.

$ lspci |grep -i ath
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)
$ lsmod|grep ath
ath5k 107008 0
mac80211 217080 1 ath5k
led_class 12036 2 ath5k,thinkpad_acpi
cfg80211 38032 2 ath5k,mac80211
root@triffid:~# dmidecode -s system-manufacturer
LENOVO
root@triffid:~# dmidecode -s system-product-name
7673CTO
root@triffid:~# dmidecode -s system-version
ThinkPad X61

[Chris Bainbridge (chris-bainbridge)]

For what it's worth, I had this problem with ath_pci and Intrepid, but with Jaunty and ath5k suspend/resume works ok. Are you sure this is a driver problem and not wpa_supplicant / NetworkManager ?

[Thomas Hood (jdthood)]

There is a driver problem because the ath5k driver loses the ability to control the Atheros device.

<pre>
[ 569.672373] ath5k phy1: gain calibration timeout (2412MHz)
[ 569.672383] ath5k phy1: can't reset hardware (-11)
</pre>

I do use NetworkManager, however, and the flaw in the driver may be activated by NM.

I attach a long dmesg log covering several suspend-and-resume cycles.

[Chris Moschini (g-admin-soopahman-com)]

There's a lot of useful history and workarounds for this bug in 2 previous bugs:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-restricted-modules/+bug/272300/
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-restricted-modules/+bug/275692

I'm using Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid on a Thinkpad T400 (Atheros chipset) using madwifi - haven't otherwise messed with the default networking setup.

madwifi works flawlessly except for this suspend issue. Specifically, resuming from suspend results in a message saying I'm not connected. Checking the list of networks shows no wifi APs available. Eventually I'm prompted for a password, which is already correctly entered. Leaving it be and click OK or reentering it and click OK both cause it to fail.

Brian's workaround fixes the glitch for me:

In /usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/10NetworkManager

        hibernate|suspend)
                suspend_nm
                ;;
        thaw|resume)
                ifconfig wifi0 up <-----
                resume_nm

Add the line with the arrow pointing at it.

Without having this workaround in place, I can instead work around this issue by running the following 3 commands at a Terminal:

sudo madwifi-unload
sudo /sbin/modprobe ath_pci
sudo ifconfig wifi0 up

[Chris Moschini (g-admin-soopahman-com)]

A workaround that does not work - adding this:

/etc/pm/config.d/madwifi

Containing this:

SUSPEND_MODULES=ath_pci

Does not improve the situation - the bug continues to be an issue. Adding double-quotes around ath_pci doesn't help either.

[Thomas Hood (jdthood)]

Thanks for the ideas; but neither of the suggested workarounds is relevant to the problem reported here. There is no wifi0 interface and no ath_pci module.

<pre>
$ lsmod|grep ath
ath5k 107008 0
mac80211 217080 1 ath5k
cfg80211 38032 2 ath5k,mac80211
led_class 12036 2 ath5k,thinkpad_acpi
$ sudo ifconfig -a
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1d:72:96:e4:31
          inet addr:192.168.1.35 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::21d:72ff:fe96:e431/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:46152 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:51769 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:29586383 (29.5 MB) TX bytes:6669847 (6.6 MB)
          Memory:f8200000-f8220000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
          RX packets:32 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:32 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:2208 (2.2 KB) TX bytes:2208 (2.2 KB)

pan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 72:70:57:30:93:55
          BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1f:e2:86:6a:ab
          inet addr:192.168.2.101 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::21f:e2ff:fe86:6aab/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:138 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:99 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:8220 (8.2 KB) TX bytes:13010 (13.0 KB)

wmaster0 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-1F-E2-86-6A-AB-61-61-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
</pre>

[kdemarest (kdemarest)]

I have a Toshiba U305-S7448 Laptop running Jaunty. I use ath5k. I have noticed from resumes from hibernate and suspend the wlan0 isn't even visible when I do an ifconfig. Sometimes disabling networking (via right-clicking icon in tray, and checking the checkbox) will wake it up again, but sometimes I have to restart.
I will see if:
modprobe ath5k
ifconfig wlan0 up

will work next time it won't work after a suspend/hibernate resume.

[kdemarest (kdemarest)]

Just a thought. Have you tried gconf-editor apps > gnome-power-manager > general > network sleep?

[dispiste (dispiste)]

Hello Kevin,

In my case, Network sleep option is UNCHECKED in
gconf-editor apps > gnome-power-manager > general > network sleep.