Archlinux and wifi

[iafo1]

Lately I have a lot of problems with the wifi connection (RTL8188).

I installed the arch-linux image downloaded from their website and for few months my imx233-mini-wifi was working but disconnecting every few days. I thought it was due to a bad signal but...

lately I upgraded archlinux and the wifi is not working at all.
I tried a different board (imx233-maxi) with the usb-rtl8188 but the result is the same.

Did any of you experimented the same issues?

[iafo1]

I tried to upgrade archlinux and to use connman instead of netctl. It seems to work....I'll let you know

[iafo1]

Ok! I am officially desperate!
With connman the wifi works nicely but after a while the board stop working at all!
I tried using only wpa_supplicant and actually it is seem that is the problem.


How come none of you have the same issue?
If you need more detail ask please.

Thank you!

[iafo1]

Using the UART debug cable I found that the board after a while starts showing continuosly the following error messages:

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[166508.110000] [<c000f780>] (unwind_backtrace) from [<c000d20c>] (show_stack+0x10/0x14)
[166508.110000] [<c000d20c>] (show_stack) from [<c009bf44>] (warn_alloc_failed+0xdc/0x124)
[166508.110000] [<c009bf44>] (warn_alloc_failed) from [<c009e194>] (__alloc_pages_nodemask+0x178/0x860)
[166508.110000] [<c009e194>] (__alloc_pages_nodemask) from [<c009ea7c>] (__alloc_page_frag+0x160/0x194)
[166508.110000] [<c009ea7c>] (__alloc_page_frag) from [<c051aa84>] (__netdev_alloc_skb+0x84/0xec)
[166508.110000] [<c051aa84>] (__netdev_alloc_skb) from [<bf168574>] (_rtl_rx_completed+0xac/0x1bc [rtl_usb])
[166508.110000] [<bf168574>] (_rtl_rx_completed [rtl_usb]) from [<c03f08c8>] (__usb_hcd_giveback_urb+0x70/0x108)
[166508.110000] [<c03f08c8>] (__usb_hcd_giveback_urb) from [<c03f09e8>] (usb_giveback_urb_bh+0x88/0xcc)
[166508.110000] [<c03f09e8>] (usb_giveback_urb_bh) from [<c00216bc>] (tasklet_action+0x74/0xd8)
[166508.110000] [<c00216bc>] (tasklet_action) from [<c002196c>] (__do_softirq+0xe0/0x244)
[166508.110000] [<c002196c>] (__do_softirq) from [<c0021d6c>] (irq_exit+0xc4/0x10c)
[166508.110000] [<c0021d6c>] (irq_exit) from [<c00514b8>] (__handle_domain_irq+0x50/0xa8)
[166508.110000] [<c00514b8>] (__handle_domain_irq) from [<c000dcf0>] (__irq_svc+0x50/0x64)
[166508.110000] [<c000dcf0>] (__irq_svc) from [<c02b7d0c>] (__loop_delay+0x4/0x10)
[166508.110000] Mem-Info:
[166508.110000] active_anon:424 inactive_anon:20 isolated_anon:0
[166508.110000]  active_file:14 inactive_file:41 isolated_file:0
[166508.110000]  unevictable:0 dirty:0 writeback:0 unstable:0
[166508.110000]  slab_reclaimable:248 slab_unreclaimable:1864
[166508.110000]  mapped:4 shmem:62 pagetables:19 bounce:0
[166508.110000]  free:89 free_pcp:2 free_cma:0
[166508.110000] Normal free:356kB min:944kB low:1180kB high:1416kB active_anon:1696kB inactive_anon:80kB active_file:56kB inactive_file:164kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB present:65536kB managed:56220kB mlocked:0kB dirty:0kB writeback:0kB mapped:16kB shmem:248kB slab_reclaimable:992kB slab_unreclaimable:7456kB kernel_stack:480kB pagetables:76kB unstable:0kB bounce:0kB free_pcp:8kB local_pcp:8kB free_cma:0kB writeback_tmp:0kB pages_scanned:1896 all_unreclaimable? yes
[166508.110000] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0
[166508.110000] Normal: 85*4kB (UM) 2*8kB (M) 0*16kB 0*32kB 0*64kB 0*128kB 0*256kB 0*512kB 0*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 356kB
[166508.110000] 117 total pagecache pages
[166508.110000] 0 pages in swap cache
[166508.110000] Swap cache stats: add 0, delete 0, find 0/0
[166508.110000] Free swap  = 0kB
[166508.110000] Total swap = 0kB
[166508.110000] 16384 pages RAM
[166508.110000] 0 pages HighMem/MovableOnly
[166508.110000] 2329 pages reserved
[166508.370000] kworker/u2:0: page allocation failure: order:0, mode:0x20
[166508.370000] CPU: 0 PID: 1430 Comm: kworker/u2:0 Tainted: G         C      4.3.0-1-ARCH #1
[166508.370000] Hardware name: Freescale MXS (Device Tree)



What is this? What should I do?

[lambda]

Looks like you are running out of RAM.

Maybe you have some memory leak - i think it would need to be from some module or the kernel, because otherwise the oom-killer should "fix" this. But then I don't know if the oom-killer is disabled by some setting in your kernel.

Anyway: Have a close look at your memory usage.

HTH,
Harald

[iafo1]

Hi!

You are right. I do

Code Select Expand

free -m

and I see the "available Memory" slowly decreasing untill it doesn't stop working.
To me seems clear it is related to the wifi because if I use a board without wifi but with ethernet I have no problems.
But how can I go deeper in the issue? Is it a bug of archlinux or my fault?
Thank you

[lambda]

To me seems clear it is related to the wifi because if I use a board without wifi but with ethernet I have no problems.
But how can I go deeper in the issue? Is it a bug of archlinux or my fault?

You could try to test if/how you can influence the rate of memory consumption.
You could also try if unloading some module frees the memory.

And as I just recently recommended in the other thread: If you don't actually need the legacy kernel for something then switching to mainline will fix lots of problems.

HTH,
Harald

[iafo1]

Sorry for the naive question.
What is the difference between mainline and legacy kernel?
Thanks.

[lambda]

Sorry for the naive question.
What is the difference between mainline and legacy kernel?

See https://www.olimex.com/forum/index.php?topic=4883.msg20319#msg20319

If you still have questions feel free to ask here.

HTH,
Harald

[swahren]

Here is a short table to compare the supported Kernel features for i.MX233 (without any warranty):

	legacy	mainline
Kernel version	2.6.35	4.3+
LRADC	yes	yes (staging)
Audio	yes	WIP
cpufreq	yes	WIP
DCP	yes	yes
devicetree	no	yes
GPIO	yes	yes
I2C	yes	yes
LCDIF	yes	yes
NAND	yes	yes
OCOTP	yes	available in 4.4
PMU	yes	WIP
PSWITCH	yes	WIP
PXP	yes	no
PWM	yes	yes
RTC	yes	yes
SD/MMC	yes	yes
SPI	yes	yes
TV-Out	yes	no
UART	yes	yes
USB Host	yes	yes
USB Gadget	yes	yes
Watchdog	yes	yes