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Question on deauth, reason 4, for hostapd.

DISCUSSION Ben Greear 1 participant 2 messages Jan 13, 2011

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Ben Greear

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I'm trying to figure out why my stations sometimes deauth for reason 4 (which I understand to mean 'inactivity').

I instrumented the hostapd logs a bit, and I see this the output below. Basically, there appears to be no inactivity problems, and as far as I can tell, hostapd isn't forcing the deauth, but is rather dealing with it from somewhere else.

This is on latest wireless-testing, with ath9k as both VAP and Stations.

Any ideas for where to look?

1294947307.409263: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:1c has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.409932: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:1b has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.412581: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:1a has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.413316: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:19 has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.417073: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:18 has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.417753: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:17 has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.418725: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:16 has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.421179: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:15 has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.423661: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:14 has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.424647: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:13 has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.428565: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:12 has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.431005: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:11 has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.431826: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:10 has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.434342: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:0f has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.435146: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:0e has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.442511: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:0d has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.443336: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:0c has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.445830: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:0b has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.446537: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:0a has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.449161: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:09 has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.450024: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:08 has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.455319: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:07 has been active 0 sec ago
1294947307.562973: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:cf:85 has been active 0 sec ago
1294947314.245006: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:03 has been active 0 sec ago
1294947314.245214: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:05 has been active 0 sec ago
1294947322.175976: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:2e has been active 0 sec ago
1294947325.635492: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:2f has been active 0 sec ago
1294947327.247077: vap0:   Station: 00:76:56:76:01:03 has been active 0 sec ago
1294947374.830568: vap0:   Station: 00:0c:42:61:00:02 has been active 0 sec ago

1294947577.430357: vap0: mgmt::deauth
1294947577.430418: vap0: deauthentication: STA=00:0c:42:61:00:1c reason_code=4
1294947577.430435: vap0: AP-STA-DISCONNECTED 00:0c:42:61:00:1c
1294947577.430473: 1294947577.430508: vap0: wpa_driver_nl80211_set_key: ifindex=15 alg=0 addr=0x95ab720 key_idx=0 set_tx=1 seq_len=0 key_len=0
1294947577.430527: vap0: addr=00:0c:42:61:00:1c

The station machine has these wifi events printed:

2011-01-13 11:39:37.440  sta27 (phy #0): deauth 00:0c:42:61:00:1c -> 00:99:99:99:99:01 reason 4: Disassociated due to inactivity
2011-01-13 11:39:37.440  sta27 (phy #0): disconnected (local request)
2011-01-13 11:39:37.546  sta27 (phy #0): scan started
2011-01-13 11:39:37.743  sta27 (phy #0): scan finished: 2437, ""
2011-01-13 11:39:37.985  sta27 (phy #0): auth 00:99:99:99:99:01 -> 00:0c:42:61:00:1c status: 0: Successful
2011-01-13 11:39:38.003  sta27: new station 00:99:99:99:99:01
2011-01-13 11:39:38.145  sta27 (phy #0): assoc 00:99:99:99:99:01 -> 00:0c:42:61:00:1c status: 0: Successful
2011-01-13 11:39:38.145  sta27 (phy #0): connected to 00:99:99:99:99:01

Thanks,
Ben

Signature · 2 lines
Ben Greear <[email protected]>
Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com
author
#1 lore raw
Quoted 7 lines · Ben Greear

I'm trying to figure out why my stations sometimes deauth for reason 4 (which I understand to mean 'inactivity').

I instrumented the hostapd logs a bit, and I see this the output below. Basically, there appears to be no inactivity problems, and as far as I can tell, hostapd isn't forcing the deauth, but is rather dealing with it from somewhere else.

Ahh, seems the client side is giving up.

sta6: detected beacon loss from AP - sending probe request
sta7: detected beacon loss from AP - sending probe request
sta8: detected beacon loss from AP - sending probe request
ieee80211 wiphy0: sta10: No ack for nullfunc frame to AP 00:99:99:99:99:01, try 1
net_ratelimit: 200 callbacks suppressed
wlan0: detected beacon loss from AP - sending probe request
sta0: detected beacon loss from AP - sending probe request
sta1: detected beacon loss from AP - sending probe request
sta2: detected beacon loss from AP - sending probe request
sta3: detected beacon loss from AP - sending probe request
sta4: detected beacon loss from AP - sending probe request
sta5: detected beacon loss from AP - sending probe request
sta6: detected beacon loss from AP - sending probe request
sta7: detected beacon loss from AP - sending probe request
sta8: detected beacon loss from AP - sending probe request
ieee80211 wiphy0: sta10: Failed to send nullfunc to AP 00:99:99:99:99:01 after 500ms, disconnecting. ieee80211 wiphy0: Removed STA 00:99:99:99:99:01
ieee80211 wiphy0: Destroyed STA 00:99:99:99:99:01
start_sw_scan: running-other-vifs: 0 running-station-vifs: 70, associated-stations: 69 scanning current channel: 2437 MHz
sta10: authenticate with 00:99:99:99:99:01 (try 1)
sta10: authenticated
sta10: associate with 00:99:99:99:99:01 (try 1)
sta10: RX ReassocResp from 00:99:99:99:99:01 (capab=0x411 status=0 aid=60)
sta10: associated
ieee80211 wiphy0: Allocated STA 00:99:99:99:99:01
ieee80211 wiphy0: Inserted STA 00:99:99:99:99:01
net_ratelimit: 76 callbacks suppressed
wlan0: detected beacon loss from AP - sending probe request
sta0: detected beacon loss from AP - sending probe request

Thanks,
Ben

Signature · 2 lines
Ben Greear <[email protected]>
Candela Technologies Inc  http://www.candelatech.com