ipw3945 driver issues with Debian Sid

[Josh Richard <jrichar4@d.umn.edu>]

Good Day,

I am having connection issues with a new laptop running the ipw3945
driver.  Hopefull something jumps out at someone.

Here are the details...

Debian sid on HP Compaq NC6320.
The wireless interface is eth2.

/lib/modules/2.6.21-2-686/contrib/ipw3945.ko
version=1.2.1dmpr

/sbin/ipw3945d
version: 1.7.22

iwlist    Wireless-Tools version 29
          Compatible with Wireless Extension v11 to v22.

Kernel    Currently compiled with Wireless Extension v22.

eth2      Recommend Wireless Extension v16 or later,
          Currently compiled with Wireless Extension v22.

eth2      Available private ioctls :
          set_power        (8BE0) : set   1 int   & get   0
          get_power        (8BE1) : set   0       & get  80 char
          set_mode         (8BE2) : set   1 int   & get   0
          get_mode         (8BE3) : set   0       & get  80 char
          set_preamble     (8BE4) : set   1 int   & get   0
          get_preamble     (8BE5) : set   0       & get  16 char
          reset            (8BE7) : set   0 int   & get   0
          monitor          (8BE6) : set   2 int   & get   0

###
#
## Symptoms
#
###

ipw3945 associates to the wireless infrastructure using:

iwconfig eth2 essid any

which in turn associates with our SSID.  I am able to obtain an ip 
address using DHCP after many DHCPREQUESTs.  Network traffic does pass 
very slowly and frequent timeouts occur.  Overall, I would consider 
wireless unusable.

What is important to take away is the following:

0. Similar behavior running etch on different versions of the module,
regulatory daemon and microcode.

1. In watching the signal meter using wavemon, I notice the link is
available, then drops out and returns.

I can correlate link drops with the following syslog messages:

/var/log/syslog

Jul  6 10:46:15 shakey2 kernel: ipw3945: tx cmd rate scale  failed.
Jul  6 10:46:15 shakey2 kernel: ipw3945: ERROR: No TX rate available.
Jul  6 10:46:15 shakey2 kernel: ipw3945: tx cmd rate scale  failed.
Jul  6 10:46:15 shakey2 kernel: ipw3945: ERROR: No TX rate available.
Jul  6 10:46:15 shakey2 kernel: ipw3945: tx cmd rate scale  failed.
Jul  6 10:46:15 shakey2 kernel: ipw3945: ERROR: No TX rate available.
Jul  6 10:46:15 shakey2 kernel: ipw3945: tx cmd rate scale  failed.
Jul  6 10:46:15 shakey2 kernel: ipw3945: ERROR: No TX rate available.
Jul  6 10:46:15 shakey2 kernel: ipw3945: tx cmd rate scale  failed.
Jul  6 10:46:15 shakey2 kernel: ipw3945: ERROR: No TX rate available.
Jul  6 10:46:15 shakey2 kernel: ipw3945: tx cmd rate scale  failed.
Jul  6 10:46:15 shakey2 kernel: ipw3945: ERROR: No TX rate available.
Jul  6 10:46:15 shakey2 kernel: ipw3945: tx cmd rate scale  failed.

/var/log/ipw3945d/ipw3945d.log

2007-07-06 10:58:06: WARNING: scan complete while not in scan.

It seems to be associating continously and unable to maintain a
reliable connection.

Has anyone else experienced this issue?

Any assistance provided is greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Josh Richard