# 8.2 hangs with Atheros AR8152



## jcd (Sep 19, 2011)

Hi, I just installed FreeBSD 8.2 on an Acer Aspire One model D255E-13815 and the computer hangs when the adapter is brought up. 

Since the computer hanged during the network adapter configuration step, I am manually bringing it up by calling either 

[CMD=""]dhclient alc0[/CMD]
[CMD=""]ifconfig alc0 ip_address[/CMD]

and it hangs after a few seconds of issuing the command.  Before it hangs, the adapter works fine (I am able to ping another host).

The adapter is recognized as "Atheros AR8152 v1.1 PCIe Fast Ethernet" /var/log/messages.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

Regards.

Juan


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## wblock@ (Sep 19, 2011)

There have been updates to the alc(4) driver since 8.2-RELEASE.  Short of that, or trying 9.0-BETA2, there are loader and sysctl tunables that can be disabled.  Try those msi/msix settings.  If that doesn't work, try 9.0-BETA2 or 8-STABLE, or post to the freebsd-net mail list.


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## jcd (Sep 19, 2011)

Thanks for your reply wblock, I am sorry but lots of pressure right now so I cannot think clearly.  If you could just direct me on how to obtain/install the updated driver I would really appreciate it.  Or event what you mean by "those msi/msix settings"?


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## wblock@ (Sep 19, 2011)

alc(4) is a link to the man page for alc, or just
`% man alc`

It shows there are a couple of loader entries that can be used to disable MSI (message signalled interrupts) usage.

```
hw.alc.msi_disable
hw.alc.msix_disable
```

They're easy to test, so try them first.  Specifically, enable them one at a time in /boot/loader.conf:

```
hw.alc.msi_disable=1
#hw.alc.msix_disable=1
```
Note that the second one is commented out.  With it that way, reboot and test.  If it still doesn't work, comment the first, uncomment the second, reboot and test again.  If that doesn't work, uncomment them both.


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## jcd (Sep 19, 2011)

with either 

```
#hw.alc.msi_disable=1
hw.alc.msix_disable=1
```
or

```
hw.alc.msi_disable=1
#hw.alc.msix_disable=1
```
the symptom is the same (system hangs), and disabling both:


```
hw.alc.msi_disable=1
hw.alc.msix_disable=1
```

a non-stop list of messages is displayed on the console:


```
alc0: phy write timeout
alc0: DMA read error!
alc0: DMA write error!
```

I will now try with 9.0-beta2

Thanks a lot.


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## jcd (Sep 26, 2011)

The Acer Aspire One is running fine under 9.0-beta2.

It seems that the system hanged at some point, but this is just a guess because I was off-site and lost connection to the system while remotely connected via SSH, and asked somebody to reboot it.  

After that, the system has been running for almost a week.

Thanks a lot.


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