current CVS hostap problem with management frames (0.0.3 OK)

Petr Novak pen
Tue Sep 30 09:08:33 PDT 2003


Dear all, 

I have a nasty problem causing suddenly stations not to associate, it works 
fine with 0.0.3 but not with the CVS version from early September. The MASTER 
answers are not ACKed by the stations in the recent versions of hostap. Any 
idea or help is appreciated. 

We were running STA 1.7.4 together with the CVS version of HostAP (from early 
September - so the recent changes from this weekend were not in). All ran 
well for about 2 weeks, until one of the APs crashed and did associate 
stations after reboot any more. Analyzing the logs identified the problem to 
be that the AP receives authentication requests from stations and tries to 
answer them, but these packets are never delivered and are returned back 
through TxExc event with the Retry limit bit on. We have downgraded to 
version 0.0.3 of HostAP and everything runs just perfect again. I have tried 
to upgrade back to the CVS version again several times, all the time with the 
same result - the stations do not authenticate for the same reason as above. 
I even patched the driver to modify the TxRate field in prism2_send_mgmt() to 
1Mbit to have the management frames more robust (instead of the firmware 
control), which has helped to solve the problem on 2 of the cards, but not on 
the 3rd. We use fixed txpower matching the local regulation for the type of 
cable and antenna we use (manually enabled RAW_TXPOWER_SETTING for the CVS 
version). 

Here are some logs from the current HostAP and 0.0.3 to compare (the 0.0.3 
did not have the same level of debug as had the CVS version). 

CVS: 

Sep 29 23:59:00 dobgw kernel: wlan2: TXEXC - status=0x0001 ([RetryErr]) 
tx_control=000e 
Sep 29 23:59:00 dobgw kernel:    retry_count=0 tx_rate=10 fc=0x08b0 
(Mgmt::11) 
Sep 29 23:59:00 dobgw kernel:    A1=00:60:b3:6b:3a:67 A2=00:60:b3:6b:6c:07 
A3=00:60:b3:6b:6c:07 A4=00:00:00:00:00:00 
Sep 29 23:59:01 dobgw kernel: wlan2: 00:60:b3:6b:96:65 auth_cb - frame was 
not ACKed 
Sep 29 23:59:01 dobgw kernel: wlan2: TXEXC - status=0x0001 ([RetryErr]) 
tx_control=000e 
Sep 29 23:59:01 dobgw kernel:    retry_count=0 tx_rate=10 fc=0x08b0 
(Mgmt::11) 
Sep 29 23:59:01 dobgw kernel:    A1=00:60:b3:6b:96:65 A2=00:60:b3:6b:6c:07 
A3=00:60:b3:6b:6c:07 A4=00:00:00:00:00:00 
Sep 29 23:59:01 dobgw kernel: wlan2: 00:60:b3:6b:6c:05 auth_cb - frame was 
not ACKed 
Sep 29 23:59:01 dobgw kernel: wlan2: TXEXC - status=0x0001 ([RetryErr]) 
tx_control=000e 
Sep 29 23:59:01 dobgw kernel:    retry_count=0 tx_rate=10 fc=0x08b0 
(Mgmt::11) 
Sep 29 23:59:01 dobgw kernel:    A1=00:60:b3:6b:6c:05 A2=00:60:b3:6b:6c:07 
A3=00:60:b3:6b:6c:07 A4=00:00:00:00:00:00 
Sep 29 23:59:02 dobgw kernel: wlan2: 00:60:b3:6b:a9:91 auth_cb - frame was 
not ACKed 
Sep 29 23:59:02 dobgw kernel: wlan2: TXEXC - status=0x0001 ([RetryErr]) 
tx_control=000e 
Sep 29 23:59:02 dobgw kernel:    retry_count=0 tx_rate=10 fc=0x08b0 
(Mgmt::11) 
Sep 29 23:59:02 dobgw kernel:    A1=00:60:b3:6b:a9:91 A2=00:60:b3:6b:6c:07 
A3=00:60:b3:6b:6c:07 A4=00:00:00:00:00:00 
Sep 29 23:59:02 dobgw kernel: wlan2: 00:60:b3:6b:3a:67 auth_cb - frame was 
not ACKed 
Sep 29 23:59:02 dobgw kernel: wlan2: TXEXC - status=0x0001 ([RetryErr]) 
tx_control=000e 
Sep 29 23:59:02 dobgw kernel:    retry_count=0 tx_rate=10 fc=0x08b0 
(Mgmt::11) 
Sep 29 23:59:02 dobgw kernel:    A1=00:60:b3:6b:3a:67 A2=00:60:b3:6b:6c:07 
A3=00:60:b3:6b:6c:07 A4=00:00:00:00:00:00 
Sep 29 23:59:02 dobgw kernel: wlan2: 00:60:b3:6b:a9:4d auth_cb - frame was 
not ACKed 
Sep 29 23:59:02 dobgw kernel: wlan2: TXEXC - status=0x0001 ([RetryErr]) 
tx_control=000e 
Sep 29 23:59:02 dobgw kernel:    retry_count=0 tx_rate=10 fc=0x08b0 
(Mgmt::11) 
Sep 29 23:59:02 dobgw kernel:    A1=00:60:b3:6b:a9:4d A2=00:60:b3:6b:6c:07 
A3=00:60:b3:6b:6c:07 A4=00:00:00:00:00:00 
Sep 29 23:59:03 dobgw kernel: wlan2: 00:60:b3:6b:96:65 auth_cb - frame was 
not ACKed 
Sep 29 23:59:03 dobgw kernel: wlan2: TXEXC - status=0x0001 ([RetryErr]) 
tx_control=000e 
Sep 29 23:59:03 dobgw kernel:    retry_count=0 tx_rate=10 fc=0x08b0 
(Mgmt::11) 
Sep 29 23:59:03 dobgw kernel:    A1=00:60:b3:6b:96:65 A2=00:60:b3:6b:6c:07 
A3=00:60:b3:6b:6c:07 A4=00:00:00:00:00:00 
Sep 29 23:59:03 dobgw kernel: wlan2: 00:60:b3:6b:6c:05 auth_cb - frame was 
not ACKed 
Sep 29 23:59:03 dobgw kernel: wlan2: TXEXC - status=0x0001 ([RetryErr]) 
tx_control=000e 
Sep 29 23:59:03 dobgw kernel:    retry_count=0 tx_rate=10 fc=0x08b0 
(Mgmt::11) 
Sep 29 23:59:03 dobgw kernel:    A1=00:60:b3:6b:6c:05 A2=00:60:b3:6b:6c:07 
A3=00:60:b3:6b:6c:07 A4=00:00:00:00:00:00 
Sep 29 23:59:04 dobgw kernel: wlan2: 00:60:b3:6b:a9:4d auth_cb - frame was 
not ACKed 
Sep 29 23:59:04 dobgw kernel: wlan2: TXEXC - status=0x0001 ([RetryErr]) 
tx_control=000e 
Sep 29 23:59:04 dobgw kernel:    retry_count=0 tx_rate=10 fc=0x08b0 
(Mgmt::11) 
Sep 29 23:59:04 dobgw kernel:    A1=00:60:b3:6b:a9:4d A2=00:60:b3:6b:6c:07 
A3=00:60:b3:6b:6c:07 A4=00:00:00:00:00:00 
Sep 29 23:59:04 dobgw kernel: wlan2: 00:60:b3:6b:a9:91 auth_cb - frame was 
not ACKed 
Sep 29 23:59:04 dobgw kernel: wlan2: TXEXC - status=0x0001 ([RetryErr]) 
tx_control=000e 
Sep 29 23:59:04 dobgw kernel:    retry_count=0 tx_rate=10 fc=0x08b0 
(Mgmt::11) 
Sep 29 23:59:04 dobgw kernel:    A1=00:60:b3:6b:a9:91 A2=00:60:b3:6b:6c:07 
A3=00:60:b3:6b:6c:07 A4=00:00:00:00:00:00 

0.0.3: 

Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan0: 00:60:b3:6b:ac:48 auth_cb - STA 
authenticated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan0: 00:60:b3:6b:ac:48 assoc_cb - STA 
associated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan2: Could not find STA for this TX error 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan2: 00:60:b3:6b:96:65 auth_cb - STA 
authenticated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan2: 00:60:b3:6b:96:65 assoc_cb - STA 
associated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan0: 00:60:b3:6b:0f:2e auth_cb - STA 
authenticated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan0: 00:60:b3:6b:0f:2e assoc_cb - STA 
associated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan1: 00:60:b3:6b:f0:ae auth_cb - STA 
authenticated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan1: 00:60:b3:6b:f0:ae assoc_cb - STA 
associated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan2: 00:60:b3:6b:3a:67 auth_cb - STA 
authenticated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan2: 00:60:b3:6b:3a:67 assoc_cb - STA 
associated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan0: 00:60:b3:6b:0e:99 auth_cb - STA 
authenticated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan0: 00:60:b3:6b:0e:99 assoc_cb - STA 
associated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan0: 00:60:b3:6b:d0:c0 auth_cb - STA 
authenticated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan0: 00:60:b3:6b:d0:c0 assoc_cb - STA 
associated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan2: 00:60:b3:6b:a9:91 auth_cb - STA 
authenticated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan2: 00:60:b3:6b:a9:91 assoc_cb - STA 
associated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan0: 00:60:b3:6b:96:70 auth_cb - STA 
authenticated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan0: 00:60:b3:6b:96:70 assoc_cb - STA 
associated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan2: 00:60:b3:6b:6c:05 auth_cb - STA 
authenticated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan2: 00:60:b3:6b:6c:05 assoc_cb - STA 
associated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan0: 00:60:b3:6b:ac:76 auth_cb - STA 
authenticated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan0: 00:60:b3:6b:ac:76 assoc_cb - STA 
associated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan0: 00:60:b3:6b:3a:a2 auth_cb - STA 
authenticated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan0: 00:60:b3:6b:3a:a2 assoc_cb - STA 
associated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan0: 00:60:b3:6a:dc:61 auth_cb - STA 
authenticated 
Sep 29 23:59:47 dobgw kernel: wlan0: 00:60:b3:6a:dc:61 assoc_cb - STA 
associated 
Sep 29 23:59:49 dobgw kernel: wlan2: 00:60:b3:6b:a9:4d auth_cb - STA 
authenticated 
Sep 29 23:59:49 dobgw kernel: wlan2: 00:60:b3:6b:a9:4d assoc_cb - STA 
associated 
Sep 29 23:59:50 dobgw kernel: wlan0: 00:60:b3:6b:96:5b auth_cb - STA 
authenticated 
Sep 29 23:59:50 dobgw kernel: wlan0: 00:60:b3:6b:96:5b assoc_cb - STA 
associated 

I wonder if anybody ever has experienced something simiar. I have tried to 
analyze the changes between 0.0.3 and the CVS version, but I have not found 
anything which would suggest what the problem might be. 

Thanks to anyone who can help in advance. 

--
Petr Novak
pen at dobnet.cz
+420 776 204 526
+420 603 870 101





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