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    Ralink RT3593 freezes system

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    • T
      trilean
      last edited by

      Hi all,

      I'm trying to use a Ralink RT3593 PCIe Wifi card with pfSense. However, anytime I try to do anything with the interface (i.e. bring it up), the system locks up (test rig) or reboots (apu2e4).

      My production system is a PC Engines APU2e4 running the latest pfSense (2.6.0). It currently provides WiFi using a Ralink RT3092 (2.4GHz only, 2x2 MIMO) card. This setup works, but I would really like to move to 5GHz.

      So I've swapped the RT3092 for an RT3593 and added another antenna. This sent pfSense into a boot loop as it reboots every time it tries to bring up the wireless interface. I've booted without any WiFi card and removed all settings / interfaces related to WiFi and added the card back. This allowed the system to boot. However, adding back the wireless interface in the web GUI immediately sent the system into a reboot and back into the boot loop. Running

      ifconfig ral0_wlan0 up scan

      from the console yielded the same result.

      I've installed pfSense on a totally different (ASRock N3700-ITX based) system with much the same result. The only difference is that the system doesn't auto-reboot and instead locks up.

      Unfortunately I cannot provide you with any logs. Nothing related to wireless is written to /var/log close to the system freezing.

      I'm fairly certain that it's not a hardware issue with the card. I've tested it on Linux on the aforementioned test system and it works fine.

      The reason I'm using this particular card is that it a) supports 3x3 MIMO and b) supports 5GHz operation. I've also had very good results with that card on Linux. And those sweet Atheros Peacock based devices (AR94{8,9}0) are very hard to get these days.

      Any help in solving this problem is appreciated!

      Thanks
      Philipp

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        Do you see any sort of error at the console when it reboots?

        Try booting in verbose mode.

        There's probably nothing much we do here. You could try in FreeBSD and see if it behaves the same there.

        Yup, the Atheros 3x3 cards are the way to go if you really need wifi in pfSense directly. They are still relatively easy and cheap here in the UK. Where do you need it?

        Steve

        T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • T
          trilean @stephenw10
          last edited by

          @stephenw10 said in Ralink RT3593 freezes system:

          Do you see any sort of error at the console when it reboots?

          Try booting in verbose mode.

          You mean the kernel output, i.e. dmesg right? I can't find any errors there. What is interesting though is that only 11b/g rates are recognized; a/n is not mentioned.

          There's probably nothing much we do here. You could try in FreeBSD and see if it behaves the same there.

          I was hoping to get around that ;-) But it seems I'll just have to bite the bullet and try with FreeBSD.

          Yup, the Atheros 3x3 cards are the way to go if you really need wifi in pfSense directly. They are still relatively easy and cheap here in the UK. Where do you need it?

          I'm located in Germany. I found a seller in Canada from whom I ordered an AR9580. But despite a confirmed order, they never sent me the device or charged my credit card...

          Thanks
          Philipp

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            You can still get the AR938X cards easily. Those are still 3x3:3 802.11n dual band devices. No MIMO? I use an AR9380 card here.

            Steve

            fireodoF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • T
              trilean
              last edited by

              It seems to be a driver issue with FreeBSD. Vanilla 12.3 and 13.1 behave exactly the same. I opened a bug on FreeBSD's Bugzilla.

              Thank you for the info about the AR938X!

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • fireodoF
                fireodo @stephenw10
                last edited by

                @stephenw10 said in Ralink RT3593 freezes system:

                You can still get the AR938X cards easily.

                Off Topic: Can you post a link where its possible to buy one?

                Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
                SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
                pfsense 2.7.2 CE
                Packages: Apcupsd Cron Iftop Iperf LCDproc Nmap pfBlockerNG RRD_Summary Shellcmd Snort Speedtest System_Patches.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by stephenw10

                  The Apple AR5BXB112 is based on the AR9388. I just bought one on ebay for £4 (including delivery) I'll let you know how well it works.

                  Steve

                  fireodoF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • fireodoF
                    fireodo @stephenw10
                    last edited by fireodo

                    @stephenw10 said in Ralink RT3593 freezes system:

                    I'll let you know how well it works.

                    Thanks!

                    PS. I took one like this:
                    AR5BXB112

                    PPS. From dmesg:
                    ath0: <Atheros AR938x> mem 0xf7c00000-0xf7c1ffff irq 40 at device 0.0 on pci3
                    ar9300_flash_map: unimplemented for now
                    Restoring Cal data from DRAM
                    Restoring Cal data from EEPROM
                    ar9300_hw_attach: ar9300_eeprom_attach returned 0
                    ath0: [HT] enabling HT modes
                    ath0: [HT] enabling short-GI in 20MHz mode
                    ath0: [HT] 1 stream STBC receive enabled
                    ath0: [HT] 1 stream STBC transmit enabled
                    ath0: [HT] LDPC transmit/receive enabled
                    ath0: [HT] 3 RX streams; 3 TX streams
                    ath0: AR9380 mac 448.3 RF5110 phy 632.11
                    ath0: 2GHz radio: 0x0000; 5GHz radio: 0x0000

                    Works like a charm! Thanks again Steve for the advice!

                    Kettop Mi4300YL CPU: i5-4300Y @ 1.60GHz RAM: 8GB Ethernet Ports: 4
                    SSD: SanDisk pSSD-S2 16GB (ZFS) WiFi: WLE200NX
                    pfsense 2.7.2 CE
                    Packages: Apcupsd Cron Iftop Iperf LCDproc Nmap pfBlockerNG RRD_Summary Shellcmd Snort Speedtest System_Patches.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      Seems to work as expected here:

                      [22.05-RC][root@6100-2.stevew.lan]/root: pciconf -lvb ath0
ath0@pci0:17:0:0:       class=0x028000 card=0x009a106b chip=0x0030168c rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Qualcomm Atheros'
    device     = 'AR93xx Wireless Network Adapter'
    class      = network
    bar   [10] = type Memory, range 64, base 0x81600000, size 131072, enabled

                      [22.05-RC][root@6100-2.stevew.lan]/root: ifconfig -vvm ath0_wlan0
ath0_wlan0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
        description: wifi0
        ether e4:ce:8f:5b:73:e9
        inet6 fe80::e6ce:8fff:fe5b:73e9%ath0_wlan0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0xd
        groups: wlan
        ssid test123 channel 13 (2472 MHz 11g ht/20) bssid e4:ce:8f:5b:73:e9
        regdomain ETSI country GB indoor ecm authmode WPA2/802.11i -wps -tsn
        privacy MIXED deftxkey 2
        AES-CCM 2:128-bit
        AES-CCM 3:128-bit powersavemode OFF powersavesleep 100 txpower 30
        txpowmax 50.0 -dotd rtsthreshold 2346 fragthreshold 2346 bmiss 7
        11a     ucast NONE    mgmt  6 Mb/s mcast  6 Mb/s maxretry 6
        11b     ucast NONE    mgmt  1 Mb/s mcast  1 Mb/s maxretry 6
        11g     ucast NONE    mgmt  1 Mb/s mcast  1 Mb/s maxretry 6
        11na    ucast NONE    mgmt  6 Mb/s mcast  6 Mb/s maxretry 6
        11ng    ucast NONE    mgmt  1 Mb/s mcast  1 Mb/s maxretry 6
        scanvalid 60 -bgscan bgscanintvl 300 bgscanidle 250
        roam:11a     rssi    7dBm rate 12 Mb/s
        roam:11b     rssi    7dBm rate  1 Mb/s
        roam:11g     rssi    7dBm rate  5 Mb/s
        roam:11na    rssi    7dBm  MCS  1    
        roam:11ng    rssi    7dBm  MCS  1    
        -pureg protmode OFF ht htcompat ampdu ampdulimit 64k ampdudensity 8
        amsdu shortgi htprotmode RTSCTS -puren -smps -rifs stbc ldpc -uapsd
        -vht -vht40 -vht80 -vht160 -vht80p80 wme burst -dwds -hidessid
        -apbridge dtimperiod 1 doth -dfs inact bintval 100
        AC_BE cwmin  4 cwmax  6 aifs  3 txopLimit   0 -acm ack
              cwmin  4 cwmax 10 aifs  3 txopLimit   0 -acm
        AC_BK cwmin  4 cwmax 10 aifs  7 txopLimit   0 -acm ack
              cwmin  4 cwmax 10 aifs  7 txopLimit   0 -acm
        AC_VI cwmin  3 cwmax  4 aifs  1 txopLimit  94 -acm ack
              cwmin  3 cwmax  4 aifs  2 txopLimit  94 -acm
        AC_VO cwmin  2 cwmax  3 aifs  1 txopLimit  47 -acm ack
              cwmin  2 cwmax  3 aifs  2 txopLimit  47 -acm
        parent interface: ath0
        media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect mode 11ng <hostap>
        status: running
        supported media:
                media MCS mode autoselect mediaopt hostap
                media MCS mode 11ng mediaopt hostap
                media autoselect mode 11ng mediaopt hostap
                media MCS mode 11na mediaopt hostap
                media autoselect mode 11na mediaopt hostap
                media DS/11Mbps mode autoselect mediaopt hostap
                media DS/5.5Mbps mode autoselect mediaopt hostap
                media DS/2Mbps mode autoselect mediaopt hostap
                media DS/1Mbps mode autoselect mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/54Mbps mode autoselect mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/48Mbps mode autoselect mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/36Mbps mode autoselect mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/24Mbps mode autoselect mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/18Mbps mode autoselect mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/12Mbps mode autoselect mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/9Mbps mode autoselect mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/6Mbps mode autoselect mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/54Mbps mode 11g mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/48Mbps mode 11g mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/36Mbps mode 11g mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/24Mbps mode 11g mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/18Mbps mode 11g mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/12Mbps mode 11g mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/9Mbps mode 11g mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/6Mbps mode 11g mediaopt hostap
                media DS/11Mbps mode 11g mediaopt hostap
                media DS/5.5Mbps mode 11g mediaopt hostap
                media DS/2Mbps mode 11g mediaopt hostap
                media DS/1Mbps mode 11g mediaopt hostap
                media autoselect mode 11g mediaopt hostap
                media DS/11Mbps mode 11b mediaopt hostap
                media DS/5.5Mbps mode 11b mediaopt hostap
                media DS/2Mbps mode 11b mediaopt hostap
                media DS/1Mbps mode 11b mediaopt hostap
                media autoselect mode 11b mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/54Mbps mode 11a mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/48Mbps mode 11a mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/36Mbps mode 11a mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/24Mbps mode 11a mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/18Mbps mode 11a mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/12Mbps mode 11a mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/9Mbps mode 11a mediaopt hostap
                media OFDM/6Mbps mode 11a mediaopt hostap
                media autoselect mode 11a mediaopt hostap
                media autoselect mode autoselect mediaopt hostap
        nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>

                      [22.05-RC][root@6100-2.stevew.lan]/root: ifconfig ath0_wlan0 list chan
Channel   1 : 2412  MHz 11g ht       Channel  48 : 5240  MHz 11a ht       
Channel   2 : 2417  MHz 11g ht       Channel  52 : 5260* MHz 11a ht       
Channel   3 : 2422  MHz 11g ht       Channel  56 : 5280* MHz 11a ht       
Channel   4 : 2427  MHz 11g ht       Channel  60 : 5300* MHz 11a ht       
Channel   5 : 2432  MHz 11g ht       Channel  64 : 5320* MHz 11a ht       
Channel   6 : 2437  MHz 11g ht       Channel 100 : 5500* MHz 11a ht       
Channel   7 : 2442  MHz 11g ht       Channel 104 : 5520* MHz 11a ht       
Channel   8 : 2447  MHz 11g ht       Channel 108 : 5540* MHz 11a ht       
Channel   9 : 2452  MHz 11g ht       Channel 112 : 5560* MHz 11a ht       
Channel  10 : 2457  MHz 11g ht       Channel 116 : 5580* MHz 11a ht       
Channel  11 : 2462  MHz 11g ht       Channel 120 : 5600* MHz 11a ht       
Channel  12 : 2467  MHz 11g ht       Channel 124 : 5620* MHz 11a ht       
Channel  13 : 2472  MHz 11g ht       Channel 128 : 5640* MHz 11a ht       
Channel  36 : 5180  MHz 11a ht       Channel 132 : 5660* MHz 11a ht       
Channel  40 : 5200  MHz 11a ht       Channel 136 : 5680* MHz 11a ht       
Channel  44 : 5220  MHz 11a ht       Channel 140 : 5700* MHz 11a ht

                      Steve

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