Driver debugging

[Bill Moseley]

I have new a Thinkpad T60p with an Atheros card running Ubuntu Feisty
and wpa_supplicant 0.5.7-0ubuntu2.

A number of people have be posting on the NetworkManager list about
frequent disconnects (and reconnects).  We don't believe it's a real
signal drop out (I'm only a few feet from my AP and Linux (Sarge)
running two different wireless cards) and an iBook have no trouble.

So, it was suggested on the NetworkManager list that we get some
wpa_supplicant debugging logs to see exactly what the connection is
being dropped.

Wireless on my Debian Sarge laptop has, well, just worked.  Plus, that
was not using wpa_supplicant.  So, I'm a bit ignorant in how to debug
past simple use of iwconfig/iwlist.

Could someone provide suggestions how to get the driver to generate
useful debugging information?

Any other suggestions how to debug?

I thought about disabling NetworkManager and use a manual
configuration, but I'm not sure how to know if/when the connection
drops.  NetworkManager has the nm-applet that makes it very obvious
when the connection drops and reconnects.



          Cell 01 - Address: 00:09:5B:B3:C7:18
                    ESSID:"hanklan"
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1)
                    Quality=36/70  Signal level=-59 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                              9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100
                    IE: WPA Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP 
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP 
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK  


03:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. Unknown device 0024 (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Atheros Communications, Inc. Unknown device 0033
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 22
        Region 0: Memory at edf00000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2- AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0+,D1+,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold-)
                Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
        Capabilities: [50] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit- Queue=0/0 Enable-
                Address: 00000000  Data: 0000
        Capabilities: [60] Express Legacy Endpoint IRQ 0
                Device: Supported: MaxPayload 128 bytes, PhantFunc 0, ExtTag-
                Device: Latency L0s <512ns, L1 <64us
                Device: AtnBtn- AtnInd- PwrInd-
                Device: Errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-
                Device: RlxdOrd+ ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop-
                Device: MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 512 bytes
                Link: Supported Speed 2.5Gb/s, Width x1, ASPM L0s L1, Port 0
                Link: Latency L0s <512ns, L1 <64us
                Link: ASPM L0s L1 Enabled RCB 128 bytes CommClk+ ExtSynch-
                Link: Speed 2.5Gb/s, Width x1
        Capabilities: [90] MSI-X: Enable- Mask- TabSize=1
                Vector table: BAR=0 offset=00000000
                PBA: BAR=0 offset=00000000



-- 
Bill Moseley
moseley at hank.org