Upgrading to OpenWRT 10.03.1-rc4

OpenWRT 10.03.1-rc4 has just been released, so I’m once again upgrading my Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH home router. Each release candidate in the 10.03.1 series has improved performance of the Atheros wireless chipset, but I still see occasional network interruptions when the laptop is idle overnight. How does wireless on rc4 stack up against rc3?

I followed the same upgrade process as I used to upgrade to rc3. I ran tests with fping and iperf before and after upgrading. All tests were performed from my laptop (on 802.11g wireless) to gozer (on gigabit Ethernet) and frances (another laptop on 802.11g wireless). fping results:

# 10.03.1-rc3
gozer   : xmt/rcv/%loss = 400/389/2%, min/avg/max = 0.79/9.55/273
frances : xmt/rcv/%loss = 400/387/3%, min/avg/max = 1.80/22.8/230

# 10.03.1-rc4
frances : xmt/rcv/%loss = 400/393/1%, min/avg/max = 1.75/15.3/1158
gozer   : xmt/rcv/%loss = 400/388/3%, min/avg/max = 0.86/5.06/144

For the iperf tests, I send various streams of UDP traffic between my laptop (wireless) and gozer (gigabit Ethernet). I monitored the running throughput with bwm-ng, which confirmed iperf‘s output.

10.03.1-rc3 – 29.0 mbit
10.03.1-rc4 – 29.5 mbit

Conclusion: general wireless performance hasn’t changed since rc3. Now to wait and see if it disconnects in the middle of the night.

I also note that the rc3 results vary from the results in the last upgrade post. The slight improvements there fall within the margin of error. Wireless performance varies with numerous external factors, and the 2.4 GHz spectrum is notoriously crowded in London. What matters is that these tests were performed within an hour of one another, and presumably are subject to the same interference issues. I’m concerned only with the difference between them, not the absolute numbers.

As with previous releases, it is still not possible to support multiple wireless networks with different encryption types.

Update: yes, rc4 still has problems with disconnections on this hardware.

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  1. giandude’s avatar

    do let us know if this version disconnects in the middle of the night.

    i’m using gargoyle’s latest version and so far it doesn’t have wifi disconnecting.

    Reply

    1. Tyler Wagner’s avatar

      I’ve had several disconnects. Behaviour seems to be the same as -rc3.

      Reply

    2. Tristan’s avatar

      That is stange, isn’t gargoyle a web frontend for openwrt?

      I have a Buffalo WZR-HP-300GN as well, running openwrt 10.03.1-rc4. So far I have experienced very few wifi disconnections only with a Mac client (nothing so far with a Win client).

      Reply

      1. car insurance quote’s avatar

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        Reply

      2. Brandon’s avatar

        For some reason 10.03.1-rc4 appeared to drop the wan connection for me after some random period of time. Maybe not dropping the wan, but somehow preventing me from accessing anything outside my local network. Rebooting fixed it, but it would continue to break.

        The latest trunk seems to be better, but LUCI fails :(

        http://min.ie/0Acj78

        Reply

        1. Tyler Wagner’s avatar

          I’ve definitely not had this problem.

          Reply

        2. Connor1’s avatar

          Disabling WMM option solved my disconnection problems.

          Look here: https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=27953

          Reply

          1. Tyler Wagner’s avatar

            Thanks, Connor1! On which line did you put wmm_enabled=0? My guess is in mac80211_hostapd_setup_base(), around lines 36-55, with the other wmm_ variables.

            Reply

          2. Connor1’s avatar

            Actually the wmm_enabled option is already there, you just have to change it to: wmm_enabled=0. It should be line 110.

            Reply

            1. Tyler Wagner’s avatar

              Doh! I found it, changed it, and restarted. If this solves it, I’ll document it for others in a full post. Thanks!

              I don’t think adding this to /etc/config/wireless does anything:

              config ‘wifi-iface’
              option ‘wmm’ ‘0’

              According to documentation, off is the default.

              Reply

              1. Connor1’s avatar

                No, changing the /etc/config/wireless does not do anything. You can check it from the hostapd conf file that you can find under /var/run.

                Let me know if this works for you as well!

                Reply

                1. Tyler Wagner’s avatar

                  Unfortunately, not. At least not on this hardware. Wireless still disconnects randomly, usually just once or twice a day. It happened last night again:

                  Jan 5 00:08:02 baal kernel: [47048.761661] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:1d:73:b4:da:0c (try 1)
                  Jan 5 00:08:02 baal kernel: [47048.962721] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:1d:73:b4:da:0c (try 2)
                  Jan 5 00:08:02 baal kernel: [47049.160103] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:1d:73:b4:da:0c (try 3)
                  Jan 5 00:08:02 baal kernel: [47049.360069] wlan0: direct probe to AP 00:1d:73:b4:da:0c timed out

                  What hardware are you testing on? My Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH has:

                  0d:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)

                  Reply

                  1. Connor1’s avatar

                    Yes, I think it is a different wireless controller. How did you get the detail of yours?

                    Reply

                      1. Connor1’s avatar

                        Yes, there must be something different. I have already tried the lspci on my router and it returns nothing (blank). And by disabling the WMM option I fixed the “deauthenticated due to inactivity” error. I have never seen the “direct probe to AP”.

                        Let me know if there is anything I can help with. I bought the router less than 1 year ago in Europe.

                        Here is the dmesg output:

                        Linux version 2.6.32.25 (openwrt@ampere) (gcc version 4.3.3 (GCC) ) #1 Fri Nov 19 20:27:50 PST 2010
                        prom: fw_arg0=00000007, fw_arg1=a3f57fb0, fw_arg2=a3f58480, fw_arg3=00000020
                        MyLoader: sysp=00000000, boardp=00000000, parts=00000000
                        bootconsole [early0] enabled
                        CPU revision is: 00019374 (MIPS 24Kc)
                        Atheros AR9132 rev 2, CPU:400.000 MHz, AHB:200.000 MHz, DDR:400.000 MHz
                        Determined physical RAM map:
                        memory: 04000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
                        Initrd not found or empty – disabling initrd
                        Zone PFN ranges:
                        Normal 0x00000000 -> 0x00004000
                        Movable zone start PFN for each node
                        early_node_map[1] active PFN ranges
                        0: 0x00000000 -> 0x00004000
                        On node 0 totalpages: 16384
                        free_area_init_node: node 0, pgdat 802d2710, node_mem_map 81000000
                        Normal zone: 128 pages used for memmap
                        Normal zone: 0 pages reserved
                        Normal zone: 16256 pages, LIFO batch:3
                        Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on. Total pages: 16256
                        Kernel command line: rootfstype=squashfs,yaffs,jffs2 noinitrd console=ttyS0,115200 board=WZR-HP-G300NH
                        PID hash table entries: 256 (order: -2, 1024 bytes)
                        Dentry cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
                        Inode-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
                        Primary instruction cache 64kB, VIPT, 4-way, linesize 32 bytes.
                        Primary data cache 32kB, 4-way, VIPT, cache aliases, linesize 32 bytes
                        Writing ErrCtl register=00000000
                        Readback ErrCtl register=00000000
                        Memory: 61716k/65536k available (2113k kernel code, 3744k reserved, 395k data, 152k init, 0k highmem)
                        SLUB: Genslabs=7, HWalign=32, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=1, Nodes=1
                        Hierarchical RCU implementation.
                        NR_IRQS:56
                        Calibrating delay loop… 266.24 BogoMIPS (lpj=1331200)
                        Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
                        NET: Registered protocol family 16
                        MIPS: machine is Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH
                        bio: create slab at 0
                        Switching to clocksource MIPS
                        NET: Registered protocol family 2
                        IP route cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
                        TCP established hash table entries: 2048 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
                        TCP bind hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
                        TCP: Hash tables configured (established 2048 bind 2048)
                        TCP reno registered
                        NET: Registered protocol family 1
                        squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher
                        Registering mini_fo version $Id$
                        JFFS2 version 2.2. (NAND) (SUMMARY) © 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc.
                        yaffs Nov 19 2010 20:21:41 Installing.
                        msgmni has been set to 120
                        io scheduler noop registered
                        io scheduler deadline registered (default)
                        Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 1 ports, IRQ sharing disabled
                        serial8250.0: ttyS0 at MMIO 0x18020000 (irq = 11) is a 16550A
                        console [ttyS0] enabled, bootconsole disabled
                        ar91xx-flash ar91xx-flash: 02000000 at 1e000000
                        ar91xx-flash: Found 1 x16 devices at 0x0 in 16-bit bank
                        CFI mfr 0x00000001
                        CFI id 0x00002201
                        Amd/Fujitsu Extended Query Table at 0x0040
                        Amd/Fujitsu Extended Query version 1.3.
                        ar91xx-flash: CFI does not contain boot bank location. Assuming top.
                        number of CFI chips: 1
                        cfi_cmdset_0002: Disabling erase-suspend-program due to code brokenness.
                        ar91xx-flash ar91xx-flash: using static partition mapping
                        Creating 7 MTD partitions on “ar91xx-flash”:
                        0x000000000000-0x000000040000 : “u-boot”
                        0x000000040000-0x000000060000 : “u-boot-env”
                        0x000000060000-0x000000160000 : “kernel”
                        0x000000160000-0x000001fc0000 : “rootfs”
                        mtd: partition “rootfs” set to be root filesystem
                        mtd: partition “rootfs_data” created automatically, ofs=380000, len=1C40000
                        0x000000380000-0x000001fc0000 : “rootfs_data”
                        0x000001fc0000-0x000001fe0000 : “user_property”
                        0x000001fe0000-0x000002000000 : “art”
                        0x000000060000-0x000001fc0000 : “firmware”
                        Atheros AR71xx SPI Controller driver version 0.2.4
                        Realtek RTL8366S ethernet switch driver version 0.2.2
                        rtl8366s rtl8366s: using GPIO pins 19 (SDA) and 20 (SCK)
                        rtl8366s rtl8366s: RTL8366 ver. 1 chip found
                        rtl8366s: probed
                        eth0: Atheros AG71xx at 0xb9000000, irq 4
                        eth0: using fixed link parameters
                        eth1: Atheros AG71xx at 0xba000000, irq 5
                        eth1: connected to PHY at rtl8366s:04 [uid=001cc960, driver=Realtek RTL8366S]
                        Atheros AR71xx hardware watchdog driver version 0.1.0
                        ar71xx-wdt: timeout=15 secs (max=21)
                        TCP westwood registered
                        NET: Registered protocol family 17
                        802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8 Ben Greear
                        All bugs added by David S. Miller
                        VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly on device 31:3.
                        Freeing unused kernel memory: 152k freed
                        Please be patient, while OpenWrt loads …
                        input: gpio-buttons as /devices/platform/gpio-buttons/input/input0
                        Button Hotplug driver version 0.3.1
                        ar71xx: pll_reg 0xb8050014: 0x1e000100
                        eth0: link up (1000Mbps/Full duplex)
                        Registered led device: wzr-hp-g300nh:orange:security
                        Registered led device: wzr-hp-g300nh:green:wireless
                        Registered led device: wzr-hp-g300nh:green:router
                        Registered led device: wzr-hp-g300nh:red:diag
                        Registered led device: wzr-hp-g300nh:blue:usb
                        mini_fo: using base directory: /
                        mini_fo: using storage directory: /overlay
                        eth0: link down
                        NET: Registered protocol family 10
                        lo: Disabled Privacy Extensions
                        ar71xx: pll_reg 0xb8050014: 0x1e000100
                        eth0: link up (1000Mbps/Full duplex)
                        device eth0 entered promiscuous mode
                        br-lan: port 1(eth0) entering forwarding state
                        ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready
                        Compat-wireless backport release: compat-wireless-2010-10-14-7-gab01eca
                        Backport based on wireless-testing.git master-2010-10-19
                        cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
                        usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
                        usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
                        ar71xx: pll_reg 0xb8050018: 0x13000a44
                        eth1: link up (100Mbps/Full duplex)
                        ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth1: link becomes ready
                        usbcore: registered new device driver usb
                        cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:
                        (start_freq – end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
                        (2402000 KHz – 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
                        (2457000 KHz – 2482000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
                        (2474000 KHz – 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
                        (5170000 KHz – 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
                        (5735000 KHz – 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
                        ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x0
                        ath: EEPROM indicates default country code should be used
                        ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
                        ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x3a
                        ath: Country alpha2 being used: US
                        ath: Regpair used: 0x3a
                        ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm ‘minstrel_ht’
                        ieee80211 phy0: Atheros AR9100 MAC/BB Rev:0 AR2133 RF Rev:a2 mem=0xb80c0000, irq=2
                        cfg80211: Calling CRDA for country: US
                        NET: Registered protocol family 15
                        cfg80211: Regulatory domain changed to country: US
                        (start_freq – end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
                        (2402000 KHz – 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2700 mBm)
                        (5170000 KHz – 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 1700 mBm)
                        (5250000 KHz – 5330000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
                        (5490000 KHz – 5600000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
                        (5650000 KHz – 5710000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
                        (5735000 KHz – 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 3000 mBm)
                        Initializing XFRM netlink socket
                        PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
                        PPP MPPE Compression module registered
                        ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
                        NET: Registered protocol family 24
                        ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 ‘Enhanced’ Host Controller (EHCI) Driver
                        ar71xx-ehci ar71xx-ehci: Atheros AR91xx built-in EHCI controller
                        ar71xx-ehci ar71xx-ehci: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
                        ar71xx-ehci ar71xx-ehci: irq 3, io mem 0x1b000000
                        ar71xx-ehci ar71xx-ehci: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
                        usb usb1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
                        hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
                        hub 1-0:1.0: 1 port detected
                        nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (967 buckets, 3868 max)
                        CONFIG_NF_CT_ACCT is deprecated and will be removed soon. Please use
                        nf_conntrack.acct=1 kernel parameter, acct=1 nf_conntrack module option or
                        sysctl net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_acct=1 to enable it.
                        ath_hal: module license ‘Proprietary’ taints kernel.
                        Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
                        ath_hal: 2009-05-08 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, AR5416, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413, RF5413, RF2133, RF2425, REGOPS_FUNC, XR)
                        ath_pci: trunk
                        wlan: trunk
                        wlan: mac acl policy registered
                        ath_rate_minstrel: Minstrel automatic rate control algorithm 1.2 (trunk)
                        ath_rate_minstrel: look around rate set to 10%
                        ath_rate_minstrel: EWMA rolloff level set to 75%
                        ath_rate_minstrel: max segment size in the mrr set to 6000 us
                        ohci_hcd: USB 1.1 ‘Open’ Host Controller (OHCI) Driver
                        ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
                        device wlan0 entered promiscuous mode
                        br-lan: port 2(wlan0) entering forwarding state
                        br-lan: no IPv6 routers present
                        device wlan0 left promiscuous mode
                        br-lan: port 2(wlan0) entering disabled state
                        device wlan0 entered promiscuous mode
                        br-lan: port 2(wlan0) entering forwarding state
                        eth1: no IPv6 routers present
                        ar71xx-wdt: enabling watchdog timer

                        Reply

                      2. Alex’s avatar

                        Thank you so much. I think I get what I need to help me make a choice. :)

                        Reply

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