"Too many aps breaks wpa_supplicant"

[Jim Veneskey]

Hi,
I am attempting to use wpa_supplicant in one of our wireless testing
labs here at Cisco,  and I am running into
the issue discussed here:

http://lists.shmoo.com/pipermail/hostap/2008-May/017853.html

Was this ever resolved?

Our lab probably has a thousand different BSSIDs all beaconing at once -
which is probably the reason why I keep seeing this:

> RTM_NEWLINK, IFLA_IFNAME: Interface 'ath0' added
> Wireless event: cmd=0x8b19 len=8
> Scan results did not fit - trying larger buffer (8192 bytes)
> Scan results did not fit - trying larger buffer (16384 bytes)
> Scan results did not fit - trying larger buffer (32768 bytes)
> Scan results did not fit - trying larger buffer (65535 bytes)
> ioctl[SIOCGIWSCAN]: Argument list too long
> Failed to get scan results

My config is pretty simple:

# This line enables the use of wpa_cli which is used by rc.wireless
# if possible (to check for successful association)
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
# By default, only root (group 0) may use wpa_cli
ctrl_interface_group=0
eapol_version=1
ap_scan=2
fast_reauth=1
#country=US

# WPA protected network, supply your own ESSID and WPAPSK here:
network={
  scan_ssid=1
  ssid="linuxpsk"
  proto=WPA RSN
  key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
  pairwise=CCMP TKIP
  group=CCMP TKIP WEP104 WEP40
  psk="somethingsecret"
  priority=10
}

I thought "ap_scan=2" was supposed to fix this issue, but I have been
searching and searching and really can't
find anything documenting just what "scan_ssid" and "ap_scan" are
actually controlling.

Our windows and OSX boxes work flawlessly in this environment - they
latch onto the correct BSSID instantly - but I'd
really like to use wpa_supplicant since it would allow me to easily
automate the configuration of the wireless networks for my clients.

I'm currently using the ath5k driver in kernel version 2.6.33

I appreciate any advice,

thanks

Jim