Corrupted downloads and WiFi disconnects on ath5k devices due to ASPM L0s hardware bug

[Roman Yepishev]

Some Atheros WiFi devices that can be found in Acer laptops and netbooks start misbehaving when they are under load and ASPM L0s is enabled.

This can be seen when the card is transmitting the data at a high rate, then the connection drops for some period of time and later on it is resumed. Usually this is accompanied by the corruption of the downloaded data (i.e. md5sum mismatch).

According to ath5k mailing list[1], this is a bug in the hardware and even the drivers for MS Windows are disabling L0s and leave L1 enabled.

It looks like there are no approved patches for this so it is possible to work-around the issue by using enable-aspm script from [2] by adjusting ASPM_SETTING to be set to 2 (L1 only) and filling out root_complex/endpoint addresses.

[1] https://lists.ath5k.org/pipermail/ath5k-devel/2010-June/003846.html
[2] http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Documentation/ASPM

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: linux-image-2.6.32-24-generic 2.6.32-24.38
Regression: No
Reproducible: Yes
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-24.38-generic 2.6.32.15+drm33.5
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-24-generic i686
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
AplayDevices: aplay: device_list:223: no soundcards found...
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices: arecord: device_list:223: no soundcards found...
AudioDevicesInUse: Error: command ['fuser', '-v', '/dev/dsp', '/dev/snd/by-path', '/dev/snd/controlC0', '/dev/snd/hwC0D0', '/dev/snd/pcmC0D0c', '/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p', '/dev/snd/seq', '/dev/snd/timer', '/dev/sequencer2', '/dev/sequencer'] failed with exit code 1:
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Date: Mon Jul 26 14:41:38 2010
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=e17a5d0e-4532-4135-ad05-51c5dba93a6c
MachineType: Acer AOA150
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=UUID=0cb47387-b208-4eee-8148-c0173619b8e1 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
RelatedPackageVersions: linux-firmware 1.34.1
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
SourcePackage: linux
WpaSupplicantLog:

dmi.bios.date: 10/06/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Acer
dmi.bios.version: v0.3310
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.board.version: Base Board Version
dmi.chassis.type: 1
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacturer
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAcer:bvrv0.3310:bd10/06/2008:svnAcer:pnAOA150:pvr1:rvnAcer:rn:rvrBaseBoardVersion:cvnChassisManufacturer:ct1:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: AOA150
dmi.product.version: 1
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

Hi Roman,

If you could also please 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.

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