hostap_plx weirdness

[Thomas Themel]

Hi,

I'm having trouble getting hostap to work with a Netgear MA-401 card in
a MA-301 PLX adapter.  I've tried numerous kernel, driver and firmware
versions with varying results, but none of them seem to work.

Here's what the startup kernel log has to say (using the driver in
2.6.14-rc1):

| ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'NULL'
| hostap_plx: 0.4.4-kernel (Jouni Malinen <jkmaline at cc.hut.fi>)
| PCI Interrupt 0000:00:07.0[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
| PLX9052 PCI/PCMCIA adapter: mem=0xdfffc000, plx_io=0xe400, irq=18, pccard_io=0xe000
| hostap_plx: CIS: 01 03 00 00 ff 17 ...
| hostap_plx: manfid=0x000b, 0x7300
| hostap_plx: cor_index=0x1 cor_offset=0x3e0
| Prism2/2.5 PC Card detected in PLX9052 adapter
| PLX_INTCSR=0x1001
| PLX_CNTRL=0x100066d2 (Serial EEPROM present=1)
| hostap_plx: Registered netdevice wifi0
| prism2_hw_init: initialized in 200 ms
| wifi0: NIC: id=0x800c v1.0.0
| wifi0: PRI: id=0x15 v1.1.0
| wifi0: STA: id=0x1f v1.4.9
| wifi0: defaulting to bogus WDS frame as a workaround for firmware bug in Host AP mode WDS
| wifi0: registered netdevice wlan0

This is when hostapd starts:

| wifi0: enabling hostapd mode
| wifi0: registered netdevice wlan0ap

And on hostapd shutdown:

| wifi0: CMD=0x0121 => res=0x7f, resp0=0x0004
| wifi0: hfa384x_set_rid: CMDCODE_ACCESS_WRITE failed (res=127, rid=fc48, len=2)

hostapd doesn't complain about anything, but clients can not associate.
Mostly, it seems that the association request are ignored, but when I
let them try long enough, I end up with something like this:

| sophokles:/home/themel# hostapd -ddd /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf 
| Configuration file: /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf
| Opening raw packet socket for ifindex 9
| Using interface wlan0 with hwaddr 00:30:ab:1a:24:a6 and ssid 'test'
| Flushing old station entries
| Deauthenticate all stations
| Received 30 bytes management frame
| RX frame - hexdump(len=30): b0 00 02 01 00 30 ab 1a 24 a6 00 20 e0 8f 55 d8 00 30 ab 1a 24 a6 70 c2 00 00 01 00 00 00
| MGMT
| mgmt::auth
| authentication: STA=00:20:e0:8f:55:d8 auth_alg=0 auth_transaction=1 status_code=0 wep=0
|   New STA
| wlan0: STA 00:20:e0:8f:55:d8 IEEE 802.11: authentication OK (open system)
| wlan0: STA 00:20:e0:8f:55:d8 WPA: event 0 notification
| authentication reply: STA=00:20:e0:8f:55:d8 auth_alg=0 auth_transaction=2 resp=0
| Received 30 bytes management frame
| RX frame - hexdump(len=30): b1 08 3a 01 00 20 e0 8f 55 d8 00 30 ab 1a 24 a6 00 30 ab 1a 24 a6 70 de 00 00 02 00 00 00
| MGMT (TX callback) fail
| mgmt::auth cb
| wlan0: STA 00:20:e0:8f:55:d8 IEEE 802.11: did not acknowledge authentication response
| Wireless event: cmd=0x8c00 len=20
|   Sending disassociation info to STA 00:20:e0:8f:55:d8
| Wireless event: cmd=0x8c00 len=20
|   Sending disassociation info to STA 00:20:e0:8f:55:d8
| wlan0: STA 00:20:e0:8f:55:d8 IEEE 802.11: disassociated due to inactivity
| Wireless event: cmd=0x8c00 len=20
|   Sending deauthentication info to STA 00:20:e0:8f:55:d8
| wlan0: STA 00:20:e0:8f:55:d8 IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to inactivity
| ioctl[PRISM2_IOCTL_HOSTAPD]: No such file or directory
| Could not set station flags for kernel driver.
| ioctl[PRISM2_IOCTL_HOSTAPD]: No such file or directory
| Could not remove station from kernel driver.
| Wireless event: cmd=0x8c00 len=20

The kernel log then has entries like

| wifi0: Could not find STA 00:20:e0:8f:55:d8 for this TX error (@3461401)
| wifi0: Could not find STA 00:20:e0:8f:55:d8 for this TX error (@3761176)
| wifi0: Could not find STA 00:20:e0:8f:55:d8 for this TX error (@3762178)
| wifi0: Could not find STA 00:20:e0:8f:55:d8 for this TX error (@3763179)

The hostapd.conf is a vanilla Debian standard config, no authentication
at all.

Using kismet on another machine reveals that the card does send beacons,
but they seem to be rather spurious.

Since hostap works nicely when I run it on a laptop with the same
PCMCIA card that's in the PLX adapter, I think the problem is either a
hardware defect in my PLX adapter or something in hostap_plx. 

Does hostap_plx work for anyone in this configuration?

ciao,
-- 
[*Thomas  Themel*] "The goal of American environmental policy is to clean up the
[extended contact] environment, clearing away scruffy caribou and seals so that
[info provided in] America's drillers for Arctic oil don't get trampled or 
[*message header*] slapped with a flipper."  - P. J. O'Rourke