Return-path: Received: from an-out-0708.google.com ([209.85.132.248]:6094 "EHLO an-out-0708.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752424AbYBZD5Y (ORCPT ); Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:57:24 -0500 Received: by an-out-0708.google.com with SMTP id d31so449690and.103 for ; Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:57:23 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <40f31dec0802251957o3b5b542vb5bf591fa2e73599@mail.gmail.com> (sfid-20080226_035727_417172_6FEDEAC9) Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:57:22 +0200 From: "Nick Kossifidis" To: "bruno randolf" Subject: Re: [ath5k-devel] [PATCH 6/8] ath5k: Fixes for PCI-E cards Cc: "Bob Copeland" , ath5k-devel@lists.ath5k.org, linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org, linville@tuxdriver.com, jirislaby@gmail.com, mcgrof@gmail.com In-Reply-To: <200802261113.34604.bruno@thinktube.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 References: <200802261113.34604.bruno@thinktube.com> Sender: linux-wireless-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: 2008/2/26, bruno randolf : > On Tuesday 26 February 2008 00:43:07 Bob Copeland wrote: > > > > Hey, that's a good clue... I just switched over to b-only and it seems > > > > to be much more stable. > > > > ...or not. I still got some calibration errors last night in b-mode. Just > > so we're on the same page, I see things in the dmesg like: > > > > ath0: failed to restore operational channel after scan > > ath5k phy0: calibration timeout (2412 MHz) > > ath5k phy0: ath5k_chan_set: unable to reset channel (2412 Mhz) > > ath0: failed to set freq to 2412 MHz for scan > > ath5k phy0: calibration timeout (2417 MHz) > > > > > If i'm correct you should get 4-7Mbit/sec @ 11Mbit. Plz let me know if > > > you have some results, meanwhile i'll try to figure out the i/q > > > calibration algo (we are ok for noise floor calibration i believe). > > > > One thing I noticed from my traces is that the binary driver sets > > bits AR5K_PHY_AGCCTL_NF | AR5K_PHY_AGCCTL_CAL in AR5K_PHY_AGCCTL. > > Then it makes a whole lot of misc register writes, then re-reads > > AR5K_PHY_AGCCTL; in that time only the noise floor bit got cleared > > but _CAL is still high. Dunno if that means anything to you or not. > > > > e.g: > > > > R: 0x9860 = 0x00009d18 - AR5K_PHY_AGCCTL > > W: 0x9860 = 0x00009d1b - AR5K_PHY_AGCCTL <-- set (_CAL | _NF) > > W: 0x1000 = 0x00000001 - AR5K_DCU_QCUMASK_BASE > > W: 0x1004 = 0x00000002 - unknown > > W: 0x1008 = 0x00000004 - unknown > > [... lots more writes to DCU & IMR regs ...] > > W: 0x00a0 = 0x00080965 - AR5K_PIMR > > R: 0x00ac = 0x00000000 - AR5K_SIMR2 > > W: 0x00ac = 0x00070000 - AR5K_SIMR2 > > R: 0x9860 = 0x00009d1b - AR5K_PHY_AGCCTL > > R: 0x9860 = 0x00009d1b - AR5K_PHY_AGCCTL > > R: 0x9860 = 0x00009d1b - AR5K_PHY_AGCCTL > > R: 0x9860 = 0x00009d1b - AR5K_PHY_AGCCTL > > R: 0x9860 = 0x00009d1b - AR5K_PHY_AGCCTL > > R: 0x9860 = 0x00009d1a - AR5K_PHY_AGCCTL <-- _NF cleared > > > > Maybe a red herring as obviously the current method of doing things > > works for me sometimes... > > > so when is AR5K_PHY_AGCCTL_CAL getting cleared? > > i'm not sure if that is related because the error message you are seeing is > not due to noise floor calibration timeout but because AR5K_PHY_AGCCTL_CAL is > not cleared in the time that ath5k expects, but i want to mention it anyways: > > the HAL enables noise floor calibration, and reads the result on then next > calibration interval, then enables calibration again and reads on the next... > i think that way it makes sure there is always enough time for the noise > floor calibration to take place in the mean time (the calibration can only > happen when the channel is otherwise silent). > > if i understand correctly, ath5k currenty expects the noise floor calibration > to finish within 300ms (ath5k_hw_register_timeout) and then we give it > another 20ms for the noise floor value to settle ( for (i = 20; i > 0; i--) > mdelay(1); ) that worked well for older chipsets, but also for 5424 this > results in more noise floor calibration timeouts. > > > bruno > There are 3 types of calibration, noise floor calibration (which gets us the noise floor value), I/Q calibration (which fixes QAM constellation on OFDM rates) and the _CAL bit which is another kind of calibration we don't know about (i'll check out Atheros patent docs again, they might give us a clue)... I know that NF and I/Q calibration must be done periodically (i also had an idea about forcing I/Q calibration on certain rate changes since QAM constellation changes) but i have no idea about _CAL stuff... Noise floor calibration is not the problem, I/Q calibration is where we are failing, that's why we have problems in OFDM rates. Even in madwifi we get weird noise floor values sometimes (and calibration function returns failure sometimes). We might have to add some extra time for noise floor calibration, HAL has one function (phy_calibrate) for both of them (I/Q + noise floor), i guess we can treat them in a different way in our implementation. Anyway we don't get a NF calibration timeout but we get timeout for _CAL stuff and since HAL doesn't seem to check for it (it only sets that bit during reset and during phy_calibrate but doesn't check for it) we can also skip the test i guess... Bob try removing this and see what happens (in terms of performance/stability)... if (ath5k_hw_register_timeout(ah, AR5K_PHY_AGCCTL, AR5K_PHY_AGCCTL_CAL, 0, false)) { ATH5K_ERR(ah->ah_sc, "calibration timeout (%uMHz)\n", channel->center_freq); return -EAGAIN; } -- GPG ID: 0xD21DB2DB As you read this post global entropy rises. Have Fun ;-) Nick