host_roaming=1 and essid="" incompatibility?

[Marco Fiore]

Hi,

while playing a little bit with the drivers configuration
parameters, I encountered the following problem.
When a combination of 
 - mode: Managed
 - essid: Any or ""
 - host_roaming: 1
is used, the 
firmware goes into some strange state
which causes the system to slow 
down a lot, up to
complete lock.

The last command issued (either essid 
or host_roaming,
the order does not seems to be important) causes the
following kernel messages in dmesg:

wifi0: LinkStatus: BSSID=00:0f:f7:
6b:c6:a0
wifi0: JoinRequest: BSSID=00:0f:f7:6b:e3:c0 channel=2
wifi0: 
hfa384x_cmd: entry still in list? (entry=f56d3800, type=0, res=0)
wifi0: hfa384x_cmd: command was not completed (res=0, entry=f56d3800, 
type=0, cmd=0x0021, param0=0xfd51, EVSTAT=0000 INTEN=e09f)

the last 
line is repeated continuously.
When it is removed from the PCMCIA slot, 
the
output from dmesg is:

pccard: card ejected from slot 0
wifi0: card 
already removed or not configured during shutdown
wifi0: Interrupt, but 
dev not OK
wifi0: hfa384x_cmd: entry still in list? (entry=f56d3800, 
type=0, res=0)
wifi0: hfa384x_cmd: command was not completed (res=0, 
entry=f56d3800, type=0, cmd=0x0021, param0=0xfd51, EVSTAT=ffff 
INTEN=ffff)
wifi0: interrupt delivery does not seem to work
wifi0: 
hfa384x_get_rid: CMDCODE_ACCESS failed (res=-110, rid=fd51, len=6)
wifi0: card already removed or not configured during shutdown
wifi0: 
removed pending cmd_queue entry (type=1, cmd=0x0011, param0=0xf100)
wifi0: removed pending cmd_queue entry (type=1, cmd=0x0011, 
param0=0xf100)
wifi0: removed pending cmd_queue entry (type=1, 
cmd=0x0011, param0=0xf100)
wifi0: removed pending cmd_queue entry 
(type=1, cmd=0x0011, param0=0xf100)
wifi0: removed pending cmd_queue 
entry (type=1, cmd=0x0011, param0=0xf100)

My configuration is: 
Slackware 2.6.17.13, HostAP 0.4.4-kernel,
SMC2532W-B card, it came with 
firmware 1.4.9, I flashed the secondary
firmware to version 1.7.4 and 
1.8.0 with no difference.

thanks,

Marco