Hi,

I've installed a new link with epia board and CM9 in nstreme and its'c constantly locking-up, but not the hardware itself, but the mikrotik


System is:

Via Epia ML6000EA
256DDR PC333 Samsung
CM-9 card in PCI-mini-PCI
DC-DC power supply, 90W, M1-ATX
Mikrotik OS 2.9.10


Nstreme runs fine, but when full loaded or sometimes in any condition, it locks-up and stops responding on ethernet and wireless interface.

Weird is when I took the system to lab and tested it, I managed to hang it and when connected to monitor, in console it was showing this messages, repeated once a 5s.

ATH: tx_watchdog scheduling reset!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ap_reset
a5212: updating SLOT/IFS
a5212: ack_generate 0

w_polling_rx: OVER, but master in XMIT state
w_polling_watchdog: TIMEOUT (some numbers)
....

not the driver is the problem - the via board makes the troubels !!
use mikrotik rb532 or itx boards from http://www.lippert-at.com for exampel they run smooth and have much more power......

I don't think so. When I run linux+madwifi on the same board, It runs just fine.

The system is not dead, just the drivers stop working. I'm able to log-in from console and reboot system and that's weird.

If the whole system is locked, I would say it's a problem of Epia, but is it realy problem of epia?

Perhaps you can try madwifi at full load. It is most likely a problem of the PCI bus setup by the bios.

In the past, we tested the EPIA V and found that the bios made PCI errors with the Atheros card -- and lock-up at high speed. We burned the EPIA (original old board -- not V) boot firmare on the EEPROM and it worked fine with wireless (though there were some other bios features that didn't work well -- like boot after power loss).

So, it might be that there is still some problem with the bios firmware on the newer boards. We don't have any reports (and not for a long time) with any wireless lock-ups. I am talking about v2.8.last one and about v2.9.x

John

We tried several different EPIA (via and others) boards a year back, had the exact same lock-up problems at high load through atheros wireless, bridged with Nstreme.
As John says, almost certainly a PCI bus problem in the BIOS. There was a custom BIOS built but it slowed the throughput down.

At low usage you can probably use EPIA, but heavily loaded, no - IMHO.

Regards

CableFree Solutions

Sorry for blaming the driver.

As you said, it's problem of the chipset. DMA or something like this.
It's really piece of shit. It locks up even when copying new
mikrotik on ftp and atheros card in the slot.

Reality is that it locks-up even under little load after an hour or two.

I'll try the pentium M itx boards, they should be better.

stephenpatrick>

could you provide me a custom bios you used? i don't want to throw them to trash, they could act as slow speed ethernet router, but they mustn't lock-up.


thank you guys!

Hi Megy,

The custom bios wasn't for an VIA-brand motherboard, it was for a custom solution.
We don't have the code for it here, and I think it would probably lock your board as the hardware on it is different.
To be honest, I'd just forget about using VIA for wireless, just use it as a nice firewall or router or something ...

Regards

CableFree Solutions

Yes that's what I plan to do. I hope they will not lock up with ethernet card.

How about using it for a mikrotik PPPOE concentrator. I have 2 matching 533mhz that I would like to use as concentrator with VRRP for my main pop. I need to route about 25mbit ethernet only. With my testing on a single PPPOE connection I can get 25mbit through the machine easily.

I've the similar problem here. Board VIA EPIA TC10000 and 2x AR5413 PCI cards in Nstreme2. It hangs sometimes with the same results except for these messages in console. Console works but nothing unusuall can be found there, even in logs.
I've tried disabling / enabling all interfaces without any success. Neighter ethernet nor wireless doesn't respond.
Only way to make it works again is system reset.

I'm quite disapointed about this, because EPIA and Atheros were mentioned in manual to be tested and working:

http://www.mikrotik.com/docs/ros/2.8/interface/wireless

Some chipsets are not stable with Atheros cards and cause radio to stop working. Via Epia, MikroTik RouterBoard and systems based on Intel i815 and i845 chipsets are tested and work stable with Atheros cards.

Hi,

I've installed a new link with epia board and CM9 in nstreme and its'c constantly locking-up, but not the hardware itself, but the mikrotik

System is:
Via Epia ML6000EA
256DDR PC333 Samsung
CM-9 card in PCI-mini-PCI
DC-DC power supply, 90W, M1-ATX
Mikrotik OS 2.9.10


Nstreme runs fine, but when full loaded or sometimes in any condition, it locks-up and stops responding on ethernet and wireless interface.

Weird is when I took the system to lab and tested it, I managed to hang it and when connected to monitor, in console it was showing this messages, repeated once a 5s.

ATH: tx_watchdog scheduling reset!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
watchdog: TIMEOUT (some numbers)
....

The problems occur with all EPIA M and V boards and 3 other "via-powered" boards from other vendors that I know of.
It is a PCI bus lockup, console still works but the network interfaces are dead.

Sorry folks, advice is: just don't bother trying to get this to work.

Regards