WiFi suddenly gone (ath0 beacon stuck)

[Meliver]

I have two SSID and suddenly they vanished, after rebooting the device, the SSIDs did not become visible again. When checking the logs, I saw that ath0 was throwing a lot of errors:
Oct 31 12:04:25 kernel ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 6)
Oct 31 12:04:25 kernel ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 6)
Oct 31 12:04:25 kernel ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 6)
Oct 31 12:04:25 kernel ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 6)
Oct 31 12:04:25 kernel ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 6)
Oct 31 12:04:26 kernel ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 6)
Oct 31 12:04:26 kernel ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 6)
Oct 31 12:04:26 kernel ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 6)
Oct 31 12:04:26 kernel ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 6)
Oct 31 12:04:27 kernel ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 6)
Oct 31 12:04:27 kernel ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 6)
Oct 31 12:04:27 kernel ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 6)
Oct 31 12:04:27 kernel ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 6)
Oct 31 12:04:27 kernel ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 6)
Oct 31 12:04:28 kernel ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 6)
Oct 31 12:04:28 kernel ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 6)

Even when disabling one of the interfaces the same errors are there. There have been no changes to the configuration since July. What could be the root cause or steps to debug?

Set-up
pfSense 2.4.5-RELEASE-p1 (amd64)
pcengines APU2 with WLE200
https://www.pcengines.ch/wle200nx.htm

[fireodo]

@Meliver

Hi,

this settings in tuning section helped me:

dev.ath.0.tpc=1
dev.ath.0.tpscale=1
hw.ath.bstuck=8192
dev.ath.0.hal.force_full_reset=1

Give them a try.

Regards,
fireodo

[Meliver]

Thanks, looks like the card might be broken :(

Oct 31 12:55:54 kernel ath0: device timeout
Oct 31 12:56:24 kernel ath0: device timeout

[fireodo]

@Meliver said in WiFi suddenly gone (ath0 beacon stuck):

Thanks, looks like the card might be broken :(

Oct 31 12:55:54 kernel ath0: device timeout
Oct 31 12:56:24 kernel ath0: device timeout

those timeouts I get from time to time too but wlan is continuing to work.

[Meliver]

Unfortunately, for me, the SSID is still not showing up.
Oct 31 12:55:54 kernel ath0: device timeout
Oct 31 12:56:24 kernel ath0: device timeout
Oct 31 12:56:54 kernel ath0: device timeout
Oct 31 12:57:24 kernel ath0: device timeout
Oct 31 12:57:54 kernel ath0: device timeout
Oct 31 12:58:24 kernel ath0: device timeout
Oct 31 12:58:54 kernel ath0: device timeout
Oct 31 13:02:24 kernel ath0: stuck beacon; resetting (bmiss count 8192)
Oct 31 13:02:54 kernel ath0: device timeout
Oct 31 13:03:24 kernel ath0: device timeout
Oct 31 13:03:54 kernel ath0: device timeout
Oct 31 13:04:24 kernel ath0: device timeout
Oct 31 13:04:54 kernel ath0: device timeout
Oct 31 13:05:24 kernel ath0: device timeout

Will probably check with pcengines on the WLE

[stephenw10]

@fireodo said in WiFi suddenly gone (ath0 beacon stuck):

hw.ath.bstuck=8192

That seems a little extreme to me. I usually use 8 for that sysctl. Though it's not often an actual problem, usauly just a sign you are in a congested wifi area.

Steve

[JonathanLee]

hw.ath.bstuck=8192 that's a massive increase, Netgate docs recommended 8 or higher as default was at 4

What about your antenna settings are you using 1 or 2?

"Options 0,1,2 (antenna port 1 or 2, both=0) dev.ath.0.diversity: options 0,1(0=disable 1=enable)"

Ref:
https://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-wireless/2011-September/000682.html

[fireodo]

@JonathanLee said in WiFi suddenly gone (ath0 beacon stuck):

What about your antenna settings are you using 1 or 2?

2 antennas

[JonathanLee]

@fireodo what displayed when you ran

sysctl -a | grep dev.ath.0.txantenna

sysctl -a | grep dev.ath.0.rxantenna

sysctl dev.ath

I am curious to see if yours uses 0 for both or 1 or 2 for the antenna. I am working on a mini pcie card that is working but some of my devices don't like the kitchen. Again, on the old AP they worked in the kitchen. I have been researching old posts and reading about PfSense, freeBSD Netgate docs, Netgate forum posts to find anything about commands and information on PfSense as an AP. I found it never enabled my second antenna but had one marked as 0 meaning used both and the other as 1. I assumed that it should transmit on one antenna and receive on the other.

The offsets between the timing and other software seems to be missing like diversity settings for me also.

[fireodo]

@JonathanLee said in WiFi suddenly gone (ath0 beacon stuck):

sysctl -a | grep dev.ath.0.txantenna

dev.ath.0.txantenna: 0

sysctl -a | grep dev.ath.0.rxantenna

dev.ath.0.rxantenna: 1

sysctl dev.ath

sysctl dev.ath.txt

EDIT:
From what I know is if the WiFi-Card has 2 slots for antennas that should be 0 or 1.
If there are 3 Antenna slots then it can be 0,1, or 2 ...

[johnpoz]

Why would you not just get an AP? Why go through all of this for shitty wifi. When you could pick up most likely a some cheap $20 AC wifi router and using it as an AP, shoot you could put dd-wrt or openwrt on it and have vlan support..

[provels]

@johnpoz Sometimes we do things just because we can!

[johnpoz]

@provels yeah get that. I might see it more if it was an actual viable solution. But best your going to get is N and when is router in optimal location for Wi-Fi coverage. And more than likely it’s going to be shit for stable - which sometimes you can overlook fast if it’s rock solid.

I just don’t get the point of this - let me see if I can get this crap setup to function??

For a few bucks you could have AC Wi-Fi rock solid stable and able to place the ap where it makes sense vs where my edge router is.

Good luck I guess. Getting say OpenWrt running on some hardware is because we can as well and that would actually have a productive outcome

[provels]

@johnpoz Why ask why?

[fireodo]

@provels

[provels]

That said, I just ordered a Compex WLE600VX in the hope that I live long enough that FreeBSD someday supports AC.

LOL, and I just saw the main thread here is almost 3 years old!

[fireodo]

@provels said in WiFi suddenly gone (ath0 beacon stuck):

I live long enough that FreeBSD someday supports AC.

I'm with you ...

[fireodo]

@provels said in WiFi suddenly gone (ath0 beacon stuck):

I just ordered a Compex WLE600NX

You can search for AR5BXB112 (thanks @stephenw10 ) that is also very good for experiments ...

[JonathanLee]

@johnpoz I do it because it's very educational from a code programing perspective. Plus it works great, the firewall now controls traffic at a more graingular level. I was amazed it worked this well. The GUI has no antenna options anymore fyi, the old PfSense version did.

https://m.facebook.com/DudeDadVlog/videos/couple-more-days-construction-were-always-almost-done-with-a-lot-of-things/3391960031077578/

[JonathanLee]

@provels three years old? It just needed a couple more days/years of programming and configuration to get it to run right.