ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration *failed* (not *timeout*)

This bug affects me too. I have Ubuntu jaunty jackalope minimal on a MacBook 1.1 with openbox and no dm (like gmd, kdm, xdm..). I'm unable to log in because the message comes with intervals of 2-3 seconds. I have this message only when I'm in University, there is a WPA2 Enterprise connection with CA certificate, I guess this can cause the problem. I had no messages using the madwifi drivers on Ubuntu-Gnome.

Same problem here Karmic Koala with latest updates.

[ 474.193993] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2462MHz)
[ 474.293245] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2467MHz)
[ 474.537266] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2472MHz)

Connection seems to die for second when this happens - radio streams hang, torrent download rate goes to zero and so on.

Syslog attachment

Same problem here after upgrading - does not make it to login screen, message every 10 seconds.

Oddly enough, no problems when I boot with the 2.6.28-16-generic kernel. Hope this helps... Jamie

I'm also hitting this issue on Acer Aspire One d150 - Karmic NBR with latest updates

Nov 4 22:43:32 fish-laptop kernel: [ 75.578555] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration timeout (2412MHz)
Nov 4 22:43:32 fish-laptop kernel: [ 75.680194] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2417MHz)
Nov 4 22:43:32 fish-laptop kernel: [ 76.082569] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration timeout (2422MHz)
Nov 4 22:43:34 fish-laptop wpa_supplicant[1124]: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS
Nov 4 22:44:12 fish-laptop kernel: [ 115.529736] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2412MHz)
Nov 4 22:44:12 fish-laptop kernel: [ 115.630263] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2417MHz)
Nov 4 22:44:12 fish-laptop kernel: [ 115.990275] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2422MHz)
Nov 4 22:44:13 fish-laptop wpa_supplicant[1124]: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS
Nov 4 22:45:12 fish-laptop kernel: [ 175.406822] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2412MHz)
Nov 4 22:45:12 fish-laptop kernel: [ 175.504132] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2417MHz)
Nov 4 22:45:12 fish-laptop kernel: [ 175.702510] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2422MHz)
Nov 4 22:45:13 fish-laptop wpa_supplicant[1124]: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS
Nov 4 22:46:32 fish-laptop kernel: [ 255.591596] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2412MHz)
Nov 4 22:46:32 fish-laptop kernel: [ 255.687784] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2417MHz)
Nov 4 22:46:32 fish-laptop kernel: [ 256.052286] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2422MHz)
Nov 4 22:46:34 fish-laptop wpa_supplicant[1124]: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS
Nov 4 22:48:12 fish-laptop kernel: [ 355.391029] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2412MHz)
Nov 4 22:48:12 fish-laptop kernel: [ 355.490069] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2417MHz)
Nov 4 22:48:12 fish-laptop kernel: [ 355.762439] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2422MHz)
Nov 4 22:48:13 fish-laptop wpa_supplicant[1124]: CTRL-EVENT-SCAN-RESULTS

I'm also have the same issue on acer aspire one d250. karmic the latest update. i noticed that wifi signal lamp is not blipping as i found when i'm using it with XP as it's host.

I think I fixed the problem of the repeating message that appears in dmesg tail -
"ath5k noise floor calibration failed" on my system.
I am using kernel 2.6.31-16-generic.

I blacklisted ath5k and ath9k then listed ath5k in
/etc/modules.

hope this helps.

Hi all,

We'd like to know whether this is still an issue for you. If so, please can you try with last kernel version, which is located on http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v2.6.32/

Thanks in advance.

Hi Pepe,

Installed the kernel you mentioned above and the first result is positive. Currently no "noise floor calibration failed" issue. Will report again after some longer tests.

Device used:

Atheros Communications Inc. Atheros AR5001X+ Wireless Netwotk Adapter (rev 01) (according to lspci)
Atheros AR5213A chip (according to dmesg)

Hi,

Hopefully other reporters can confirm this behaviour as well.

After that, we'll change this bug as solved

Hi ^_Pepe_^,

I have to disappoint you. Today I had another "noise floor calibration failed" issue. It just took longer to occur.

I added the dmesg output. If you need additional info, just let me know.

I have the same issue on eee pc 701 with 2.6.32

I can confirm this for the AR5001X+ on a Thinkpad T42 laptop.

Hi all,

Thanks for confirming this issue.

Can you please try installing the following package? It contains an updated compat wireless stack which may help.

linux-backports-modules-wireless-karmic-generic

If the issue still remains even after this, I'd encourage you to also try installing the latest compat-wireless stack from upstream -
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download . This will allow us to escalate this issue to the upstream developers.

Please let us know your results.

Thanks.

Hi ^_Pepe_^,

I just installed the backport modules and will keep you informed about my experiences.

Thanks

Hi ^_Pepe_^,

no noise calibration error yet. However, there appear warnings about the backport modules in dmesg, see attached dmesg output.

Hi touwslgr,

Thank you very much for your tests.

Please, note that this warning can be same as reported here: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=561288

I'd like to encourage all reporters to test also backport modules.

Thanks to all.

Hi ^_Pepe_^,
I've just installed the
  linux-backports-modules-wireless-karmic-generic
package and the ath5k phy0: noise... messages still keep popping up in dmesg.
I'm using UNR-karmic on a Toshiba NB100
(Linux 2.6.31-19-generic, Atheros AR5001 Wireless Network Adapter).

Thanks for looking into this problem.

Oops, sorry for the noise. I had not realized that you had recommended to use kernel 2.6.32.
After updating to Linux 2-6-32-020632, I'm getting the ath5k messages less often, but they still persist:

[ 209.311282] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration timeout (2462MHz)
[ 220.197227] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration timeout (2462MHz)
[ 220.925276] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration timeout (2462MHz)
[ 223.101346] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration timeout (2462MHz)
[ 223-829260] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration timeout (2462MHz)
...

Jaime,

please read the title of the bug. It reads: noise floor calibration failed (not timeout).

The "timeout" bug is Bug 427439
This is the "failed" bug.

Well, in bug #427439 sent me to this bug page, and I'm glad they did because the fix recommend by ^_Pepe_^ in #20 solved my problem :)

Hi ^_Pepe_^,

I installed compat-wireless-2.6.32.8 and have not had the warnings I mentioned in #22. I'll keep you informed if anything changes.

Thank you so far!!

Just to let you know that I upgraded to Lucid. I also returned the Atheros card in my computer (I was using a Ralink USB stick for a while). I still see the "failed" messages.

I would wait for a while (this weekend) to see how many I get and then I will install linux-backports-modules-wireless-2.6.32.15 to see if I can get rid of them as suggested.

Thanks.

I had this issue, but was able to access gnome. Now after changing some settings on my router these messages are gone.
I changed the following UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) settings on the router (a NetGear WNDR3300) :

Advertisement Period: 1, or as low as possible.
"The Advertisement Period is how often the router will advertise (broadcast) its UPnP information. Shorter durations will ensure that control points have current device status at the expense of additional network traffic. Longer durations may compromise the freshness of the device status but can significantly reduce network traffic."

Advertisement Time To Live: 225, or as high as possible.
"The time to live for the advertisement is measured in hops (steps) for each UPnP packet sent. A hop is the number of steps allowed to propagate for each UPnP advertisement before it disappears. The number of hops can range from 1 to 255. If you notice that some devices are not being updated or reached correctly, then it may be necessary to increase this value a little."

I have this issue also, doesn't seem to affect the function of my wireless network but repeats the whole time the computer is running.
I am running Lucid but I noticed it when I had Karmic also. My wireless card is Atheros. Kernel is 2.6.32.22

436.887066] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2412MHz)
May 15 10:37:47 gayez-komputa kernel: [ 437.315401] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2417MHz)
May 15 10:39:47 gayez-komputa kernel: [ 556.888182] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2412MHz)
May 15 10:39:47 gayez-komputa kernel: [ 557.330673] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2417MHz)
May 15 10:41:47 gayez-komputa kernel: [ 676.890725] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2412MHz)
May 15 10:41:47 gayez-komputa kernel: [ 677.337024] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2417MHz)
May 15 10:43:47 gayez-komputa kernel: [ 796.888738] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2412MHz)
May 15 10:43:47 gayez-komputa kernel: [ 797.325437] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2417MHz)
May 15 10:45:47 gayez-komputa kernel: [ 916.891603] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2412MHz)
May 15 10:45:47 gayez-komputa kernel: [ 917.334169] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2417MHz)

Hi Folks,

    I just have de same error: ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2412MHz).

    The message floods my system _AFTER_ wired card 02 installation - everything is working, but the message apears everywhere.

    My configuration:

    Kernel: 2.6.32-22-generic

    Wireless Card: TP-LINK WN-651g
       product: Atheros AR5001X+ Wireless Network Adapter
       vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.

    Wired Card 01:
        product: RTL-8189/8139C/8189C+
        vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.

    Wired Card 02:
        product: DGE-530T Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (rev 11)
        vendor: D-Link System Inc

    Any sugestions, downgrade maybe?

hey everyone, this bug is also present in 10.04 64-bit, with kernel 2.6.32-22, I really am not going to hold my breath on it ever being fixed seeing as it is nearly a year old

Running lucid:
Current linux-image-2.6.32-24-generic (2.6.32-24.38) in lucid exhibits this for me as well, however the linux-backports-modules-wireless-2.6.32-24-generic (2.6.32-24.17, built July 2nd) seems to have resolved it.

It's been 8 hours since I've installed the backports modules, and I've not seen a single "calibration failed" error message. I was receiving an error nearly every couple seconds before.

Happy to announce that I don't see this anymore on Maverick.

I have same problem on debian. Latest updates.

uname -a
Linux t42 2.6.32-5-686 #1 SMP Sat Oct 30 22:47:19 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux

[ 998.489386] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2412MHz)
[ 998.913401] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2417MHz)
[ 999.341718] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2422MHz)
[ 1038.489290] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2412MHz)
[ 1038.921328] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2417MHz)
[ 1039.349289] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2422MHz)
[ 1098.489465] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2412MHz)
[ 1098.917485] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2417MHz)
[ 1099.349566] ath5k phy0: noise floor calibration failed (2422MHz)

lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Debian
Description: Debian GNU/Linux testing (squeeze)
Release: testing
Codename: squeeze

lspci -vv

02:02.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)
 Subsystem: Phillips Components Device 8331
 Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 168 (2500ns min, 7000ns max), Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
 Region 0: Memory at c0210000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
 Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
  Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
  Status: D0 NoSoftRst- PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=2 PME-
 Kernel driver in use: ath5k

This bug was filed against a series that is no longer supported and so is being marked as Won't Fix. If this issue still exists in a supported series, please file a new bug.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.