Ral0: device timeout while enabling WIFI interface based on RT2560 chipset

[biGdada]

Hi all.
I'm evaluating pfSense as my firewall. - so far it looks great, much better than ZeroShell that i'm using now.
unfortunately, there is a really weird problem with my WIFI card.
when i activate the WIFI interface in hostap mode and reboot, i start to receive "ral0: device timeout" messages on the console.
of course,  i cant see the wireless network essid.

the same card works in hostap mode on linux and m0n0wall (which is based on FreeBSD under the hood).
any ideas ?

[wallabybob]

What version of pfSense are you running?

What is the brand and model of the WiFI PCI card you are using?

[biGdada]

@wallabybob:

What version of pfSense are you running?

2.0 release, both 32 and 64 bit.
@wallabybob:

What is the brand and model of the WiFI PCI card you are using?

Edimax EW-7128g

[wallabybob]

I have a Gigabyte PCI card (I have forgotten the model number) in a pfSense box. Startup reports it as:

ral0: <ralink technology="" rt2560="">mem 0xef000000-0xef001fff irq 12 at device 8.0 on pci0
ral0: MAC/BBP RT2560 (rev 0x04), RF RT2525
ral0: [ITHREAD]</ralink>

I configured it as an AP and enabled it. On the console I saw:

wlan1: changing name to 'ral0_wlan1'
ral0: need multicast update callback
ral0: need multicast update callback
ral0: need multicast update callback
ral0: need multicast update callback
ral0: need multicast update callback
ral0: device timeout
stray irq7
ral0: device timeout
stray irq7

vmstat -i

interrupt                          total      rate
irq0: clk                      317219412        999
irq7:                                  3          0
stray irq7                            3          0
irq8: rtc                      40601014        127
irq10: rl0 ehci0                2773531          8
irq11: vr0 uhci0                1493474          4
irq12: ral0 uhci1                  1753          0
irq14: ata0                      935061          2
Total                          363024251      1143

Near where I live there are two retail computer shops from which I can buy, for under the local equivalent of US$15, the Tenda W311U or the TP-Link TL-WN321G. Both are USB devices, can operate as Access Points and have given me satisfactory WiFi performance. I haven't thought it an effective use of my time to figure out the problem with the PCI card.

[biGdada]

i'm not sure i want to replace my WORKING Edimax card with tenda/tplink crap. besides, as i stated before - it works in windows/linux and even in monowall, from which pfSense was forked