using a bridge (setting priority eth0 > ath0)

hello,

what i want to do:
having two computers both equipped with:
lspci
01:09.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8169 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)
01:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212/AR5213 Multiprotocol MAC/baseband processor (rev 01)

i create two bridges (one on each host)
pc2b ~ # brctl show br0

bridge name     bridge id               STP enabled     interfaces
br0             0000.0040f4a0b037       yes             ath0

eth0

and then i set all interfaces up using:
ip l set ath0 up
ip l set eth0 up
ip l set br0 up

i put one ath0 interface into master mode and the other ath0 is a normal station (client). the connections eth0-eth0 works great, also the ath0-ath0 link works great (tested with and without bridge).

in general everything works, if i either one of the 4 interfaces down (eth0/eth0/ath0/ath0) stp's work creates a working path in no time.

the issue is - the reason i write to this list however:
when all interfaces are up the data always is going over ath0-ath0 instead of eth0-eth0. (the wireless lan should be my backup link).

i issues setbridgeprio br0 1 and setbridgeprio br0 10. as well as setpathcost with various consistent experiments. say one experiment i set all ath0 pathcosts to a value 100 all eth0 to 999.
i don't see any difference when doing the opposite.

any idea?

dmesg added but i don't see anything special there. there was an error once but i think that might have something todo with the routing loop i caused (which i resolved with adding setfd with a higher value).

thanks,
joachim schiele

============ pc2 ==============
dmesg
br0: port 2(ath0) entering forwarding state
br0: topology change detected, propagating
br0: port 1(eth0) entering forwarding state
eth0: received packet with own address as source address
eth0: received packet with own address as source address
br0: no IPv6 routers present
br0: received tcn bpdu on port 1(eth0)
br0: topology change detected, propagating
br0: port 2(ath0) entering disabled state
br0: port 2(ath0) entering listening state
br0: port 2(ath0) entering learning state
br0: topology change detected, propagating
br0: port 2(ath0) entering forwarding state
ath0: no IPv6 routers present
br0: received tcn bpdu on port 1(eth0)
br0: topology change detected, propagating
br0: port 2(ath0) entering disabled state
br0: port 2(ath0) entering listening state
br0: port 2(ath0) entering learning state
br0: topology change detected, propagating
br0: port 2(ath0) entering forwarding state
ath0: no IPv6 routers present
br0: received tcn bpdu on port 1(eth0)
br0: topology change detected, propagating

ip l
14: ath0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,PROMISC,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN

    link/ether 00:40:f4:a0:b0:37 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,PROMISC,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast 
state UP qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:40:f4:eb:16:45 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

pc2b ~ # brctl show

bridge name     bridge id               STP enabled     interfaces
br0             0000.0040f4a0b037       yes             ath0

eth0
pc2b ~ # brctl showstp br0
br0
bridge id 0000.0040f4a0b037
designated root 0000.0040f4a0b037

 root port                 0                    path cost                  0
 max age                   9.99                 bridge max age             

9.99
hello time 1.99 bridge hello time
1.99
forward delay 2.99 bridge forward delay
2.99
ageing time 3.99
hello timer 1.49 tcn timer
0.00
topology change timer 0.00 gc timer
1.49
flags

ath0 (2)
port id 0402 state
forwarding

 designated root        0000.0040f4a0b037       path cost                999
 designated bridge      0000.0040f4a0b037       message age timer          

0.00
designated port 0402 forward delay timer
0.00
designated cost 0 hold timer
0.48
flags

eth0 (1)
port id 2801 state
forwarding

 designated root        0000.0040f4a0b037       path cost                111
 designated bridge      0000.0040f4a0b037       message age timer          

0.00
designated port 2801 forward delay timer
0.00
designated cost 0 hold timer
0.48
flags

arp -e
10.0.0.1 ether 00:40:f4:a0:b0:00 C br0

============ pc6 ==============
ip l
17: ath0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,PROMISC,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP

    link/ether 00:40:f4:a0:b0:00 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,PROMISC,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast 
state UP qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:40:f4:ec:59:06 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

dmesg
eth0: received packet with own address as source address
eth0: received packet with own address as source address __ratelimit: 9560 callbacks suppressed
eth0: received packet with own address as source address
eth0: received packet with own address as source address
eth0: received packet with own address as source address
eth0: received packet with own address as source address
eth0: received packet with own address as source address
eth0: received packet with own address as source address
eth0: received packet with own address as source address
eth0: received packet with own address as source address
eth0: received packet with own address as source address
eth0: received packet with own address as source address
br0: port 2(ath0) entering disabled state __ratelimit: 7851 callbacks suppressed
eth0: received packet with own address as source address
br0: port 2(ath0) entering listening state
br0: port 2(ath0) entering learning state
br0: topology change detected, sending tcn bpdu
br0: port 2(ath0) entering forwarding state
br0: port 2(ath0) entering disabled state
eth0: received packet with own address as source address
br0: port 2(ath0) entering listening state
br0: port 2(ath0) entering learning state
br0: topology change detected, sending tcn bpdu
br0: port 2(ath0) entering forwarding state
br0: port 2(ath0) entering disabled state
eth0: received packet with own address as source address
br0: port 2(ath0) entering listening state
br0: port 2(ath0) entering learning state
br0: topology change detected, sending tcn bpdu
br0: port 2(ath0) entering forwarding state

arp -e
PC2 ether 00:40:f4:a0:b0:37 C br0

pc2b ~ # brctl  show
bridge name     bridge id               STP enabled     interfaces
br0             0000.0040f4a0b037       yes             ath0

eth0
pc2b ~ # brctl showstp br0
br0
bridge id 0000.0040f4a0b037
designated root 0000.0040f4a0b037

 root port                 0                    path cost                  0
 max age                   9.99                 bridge max age             

9.99
hello time 1.99 bridge hello time
1.99
forward delay 2.99 bridge forward delay
2.99
ageing time 3.99
hello timer 1.20 tcn timer
0.00
topology change timer 0.00 gc timer
0.20
flags

ath0 (2)
port id 0402 state
forwarding

 designated root        0000.0040f4a0b037       path cost                999
 designated bridge      0000.0040f4a0b037       message age timer          

0.00
designated port 0402 forward delay timer
0.00
designated cost 0 hold timer
0.20
flags

eth0 (1)
port id 2801 state
forwarding

 designated root        0000.0040f4a0b037       path cost                111
 designated bridge      0000.0040f4a0b037       message age timer          

0.00
designated port 2801 forward delay timer
0.00
designated cost 0 hold timer
0.20
flags

For this kind of setup, if might be easier to setup a bonding interface, instead of a bridge interface.

With a bonding setup, you can define a primary adapter that will be used when available.

Nicolas.