View Full Version : Prism firmware 1.7.4
bobbyc
08-08-2003, 09:20 PM
I hope others can confirm my findings;
After using 1.1.1/1.7.4 in infrastructure mode in in WET11s (bromax card) and starOS (bromax card), I have found that it causes lockups in both platforms. You can still view the signal level updates, but you can not ping the WET11/starOS. It locks up StarOS to the point where the active ping watchdog can not reboot. Motherboards, Bios settings, and different pci to pcmcia adapter cards have shown the same result. I have seen the lockups happen in as early as 15 minutes, or as late as 5 days. Granted one hilltop was still chugging along after 5 days, but I promply unchecked the volatile firmware feature.
I have seen the lockups happen in starOS when using a senao 2.5 card with 1.1.1/1.7.4 also. I haven't used the senao in a WET11 since the WET11 can't provide the 200mw cards enough juice anyways.
Just a FYI... hope someone else can confirm this or else I'm jinxed!!! :)
Bob C
1.1.1/1.5.6 works excellent BTW
georgew
08-09-2003, 12:03 AM
So this is the root cause of all of the crashes you have been having?
bobbyc
08-09-2003, 10:12 AM
Well that's what I would like to find out. One of my towers that is all hermes radios I went into the bios and enabled the parallel port again, it has been solid for 5 days now so we'll see.
But I put in new repeaters this week, with 1.1.1/1.7.4 and they locked up very soon after I installed them. I pulled the cards out and loaded 1.1.1/1.5.6 and fired them back up and they've been solid for a couple days.
Hopefully someone who reads this is using a bromax card in infrastructure mode in a starOS machine in a local environment where they can enable 1.1.1/1.7.4 and see if it locks up.
The WET11 1.7.4 problem is real though; I have a few WET11s in my home and I loaded 1.7.4 onto the bromax cards inside them while the firmware on the WET11 board was 1.4.3. The WET11s would have very slow upload tx to the AP after a few days of being associated. When I loaded 1.5.4 firmware to the WET11 board, I tried the 1.7.4 firmware again on the bromax card and found that it would lock up completly after a day.
Bob C
I recently had a server on a 733 board lock up on me, with 3 hermes cards in 2 pcmcia adapters. I could still associate to it, but it would not pass any traffic, as if I(and everyone else) were tarpitted. Recycling the power brought everything back online. It happened during a storm here, which may have been just coincidence(during summer, we get usually at least 1 major lightning storm a day) or(most likely) it might have been a glitch caused by a nearby lightning strike.
bobbyc
08-10-2003, 02:33 AM
That's the exact same symptoms I found. As if the firmware on the radios is still doing it's thing, but the OS is not functioning... no tcp/ip activity.
it just happened again yesterday. I've now turned on the ping watchdog, and I'm setting up a log server now, maybe that will tell me something. This just started happening, It had 23 days uptime before it happened on thursday. I also just recently started using the ACL with tarpitting, so I have now disabled that as well.
bobbyc
08-10-2003, 10:54 AM
IS parallel port disabled or enabled in the bios?
Bob C
no clue. I think it's disabled, but the box is 500' in the air, and there's no way I'm climbin up there unless I absolutely have to. It locked up again today, once the ping monitor caught it, the second time it didn't. It did the same yesterday. Since then, I've disabled all unnecessary services and flashed to 3395 from 3386. We've been having some pretty nasty weather here, earlier today the humidity inside the box registered at 101.5%, so I'm a long way from ruling out hardware problems.
bobbyc
08-11-2003, 10:39 AM
Did you read this thread last week?
http://forums.star-os.com/viewtopic.php?t=1160
That's where I was told to re-enable the parallel port on my cpu's (regardless of pcmcia to pci adapter type) and since then I haven't had any lockups except for this prism 2.5 firmware 1.7.4 problem.
Bob C
bobbyc
11-29-2003, 12:30 PM
Just an update:
enabling 1.7.4 in starOS on bromax cards cause them to eventually lock up. Same goes for loading 1.7.4 in a bromax card and putting it back in a WET11; the tx of the WET11 will eventually lower to dial-up speeds and then lock up some day/time.
1.7.4 works great in other prism cards; among those tested are 200mw senao and zcomax 2.5 cards.
I use 1.5.6 in the bromax/WET11 2.5 cards.
Bob C