Re: Call for Test and Review: bwn(4) - another Broadcom Wireless driver

2010/3/3 John Baldwin <jhb_at_freebsd.org>:
> On Tuesday 02 March 2010 2:08:55 pm Miki wrote:
>> 2010/3/1 Weongyo Jeong <weongyo.jeong_at_gmail.com>:
>> > On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 08:45:32PM +0100, Miki wrote:
>> >> Hi,
>> >>
>> >> Thanks for the work !
>> >>
>> >> I have some problems here when I try to create a wlan interface :
>> >> bwn_v4_ucode5: could not load firmware image, error 2
>> >> bwn0: the fw file(bwn_v4_ucode5) not found
>> >
>> > Did you try to UP the interface withload loading bwn_v4_ucode.ko?  If
>> > yes currently bwn(4) doesn't automatically load firmware module so you
>> > need to do it by hand.
>> >
>> >  # kldload bwn_v4_ucode
>>
>> OK I have loaded bwn_v4_ucode before if_bwn and it works,
>> my bad, I should have read the man page more carefully.
>>
>> >
>> > The patch for this is ready to commit and it'll be happened soon.
>> >
>> >> I have installed bwn-firmware-kmod from ports but the only files I have in
>> >> /boot/modules are bwn_v4_lp_ucode.ko and bwn_v4_ucode.ko. So I tried to
>> >> copy bwn_v4_ucode to bwn_v4_ucode5 and it seems to work : wlan0 is
>> >> created, I can associate to an open Access Point and obtain a DHCP lease.
>> >> But if I try to do some network IO (browsing the web) the interface hang
>> >> (I cannot obtain a lease anymore).
>> >
>> > I have a exact same device like you have but I didn't encounter this
>> > issue.
>> >
>> > Are there any messages from bwn(4) when you the interface becomes hang?
>> > One more question, after the interface hang, does the system be hang
>> > also?
>>
>> I have no messages in the log (appart bwn0: need multicast update callback).
>> In fact it's not a hang, it happens only with the AP that permits me
>> to have a web
>> access. I have another AP (sitting next to me) and I don't have the
>> same behavior :
>> I can have and renew my dhcp lease multiple times and configure the AP with its
>> web interface. With the "buggy" AP I can have a dhcp lease only once and nothing
>> more. If I destroy and recreate the wlan interface the same thing happens.
>> I have no such a problem with if_bwi and this AP.
>>
>> >
>> > One thing you can do is that trying the device with PIO mode not DMA
>> > mode using the following tunable variable:
>> >
>> >  hw.bwn.usedma
>> >
>> > Its default value is 1 to enable DMA operation so if you set it 0, PIO
>> > mode would be used and could see the message like below:
>> >
>> >  bwn0: PIO
>> >
>> > Could you please test with it?
>> >
>>
>> Setting hw.bwn.usedma=0 in loader.conf make no differences
>>
>> by the way, I need to switch from if_bwn to if_bwi to make some test
>> and post the results here, but I have this error message :
>> firmware_register: cannot register image bwi_v3_b0g0initvals5, firmware
>> table full!
>> is this normal ?
>
> Yes, both bwi and bwn use a lot of individual firmware images, so loading
> both of them probably fills up the static array of firmware table entries.
> I think there is a constant in subr_firwmare.c you can increase to make the
> table bigger.
>
> --
> John Baldwin
>

Rising FIRMWARE_MAX from 30 to 60 did the trick ! thanks !
Are there any reasons to have such a "low" default value ?

Another good news : putting my card in 11b mode solves my problem.
FYI it uses to work fine in 11g mode with if_bwi (at OFDM/54Mbs).

posting with if_bwn ! thanks to all