[conspire] kernel crash reported // for wifi ?

Wed Jun 6 18:42:27 PDT 2012

Quoting Daniel Gimpelevich (daniel at gimpelevich.san-francisco.ca.us):

> It was Rick who requested it, not me, because I already knew the info
> wouldn't tell me anything, and it doesn't. There were a number of
> different AR5212's, some better with ar5k, some with MadWifi.

After playing tourist in the manpage for a while, I notice that 'pci
-nn' outputs both the dereference make/model in human form _and_ the
numeric PCI ID number as recorded in the standard Linux PCI IDs database
(http://pciids.sourceforge.net/).  

So, for example, the machine in front of me doesn't have a wireless
card, but here's the entry about its ethernet NIC from 'pci -nn':

  02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme
  BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express [14e4:1677] (rev 01)

The point is that even if there were multiple Broadcom BCM5751 chips,
each requiring a separate driver solution, maybe they can be
distinguished by PCI ID, and this particular one has ID '14e4:1677'.

Looking that up in the current PCI 
IDs list (http://pciids.sourceforge.net/v2.2/pci.ids):

   14e4  Broadcom Corporation
   [...]
	1677  NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express
		1028 0176  Dimension XPS Gen 4
		1028 0177  Dimension 8400
		1028 0179  Optiplex GX280
		1028 0182  Latitude D610
		1028 0187  Precision M70
		1028 01a8  Precision 380
		1028 01ad  OptiPlex GX620
		103c 3006  DC7100 SFF(DX878AV)
		1462 028c  915P/G Neo2
		1734 105d  Scenic W620

And, yeah, it's in the motherboard of a Dell OptiPlex GX620.  And no,
I really don't know what to make of the '1028 01ad' data, in case anyone
is wondering.

Here's the Atheros AR5212 chip family in the current PCI IDs list:

   168c  Atheros Communications Inc.
        # AR5001G, AR5001X+, AR5002G, AR5002X, AR5004G, AR5004X chipsets
        0013  AR5212/AR5213 Wireless Network Adapter
		0308 3402  AG-100 802.11ag Wireless Cardbus Adapter
		0308 3405  G-102 v2 802.11g Wireless Cardbus Adapter
		0308 3408  G-170S 802.11g Wireless CardBus Adapter
		0e11 00e5  NC6000/NC8000 laptop
		10b7 6002  3CRWE154A72 802.11abg Cardbus Adapter
		1113 d301  Philips CPWNA100 Wireless CardBus adapter
		1113 ee23  SMCWPCIT-G 108Mbps Wireless PCI adapter
		1154 033b  Buffalo WLI-CB-AMG54
		1154 034e  Buffalo WLI-CB-AG108HP 802.11abg Cardbus Adapter
		1186 3202  DWL-G650 (Rev B3,B5) Wireless cardbus adapter
		1186 3203  AirPlus DWL-G520 Wireless PCI Adapter (rev. A)
		1186 3a12  D-Link AirPlus DWL-G650 Wireless Cardbus Adapter(rev.C)
		1186 3a13  AirPlus DWL-G520 Wireless PCI Adapter (rev. B)
		1186 3a14  AirPremier AG DWL-AG530 Wireless PCI Adapter (rev.A)
		1186 3a17  D-Link AirPremier DWL-G680 Wireless Cardbus Adapter
		1186 3a18  D-Link AirPremier DWL-G550 Wireless PCI Adapter
		1186 3a1a  WNA-2330 802.11bg Wireless CardBus Adapter
		1186 3a63  D-Link AirPremier DWL-AG660 Wireless Cardbus Adapter
		1186 3a93  Conceptronic C54I Wireless 801.11g PCI card
		1186 3a94  Conceptronic C54C 802.11g Wireless Cardbus Adapter
		1186 3ab0  Allnet ALL0281 Wireless PCI Card
		1385 4900  WG311v1 802.11g Wireless PCI Adapter
		1385 4b00  WG511T 108 Mbps Wireless PC Card (rev.A/B)
		1385 4d00  WG311T 108 Mbps Wireless PCI Adapter (rev.A2)
		1385 4f00  WG511U Double 108 Mbps Wireless PC Card
		1385 5a00  WG311T 108 Mbps Wireless PCI Adapter (rev.A3)
		1385 5b00  WG511T 108 Mbps Wireless PC Card (rev.C)
		1385 5d00  WPN511 RangeMax Wireless PC Card
		1458 e911  Gigabyte GN-WIAG02
		1468 0403  U10H014 802.11g Cardbus Adapter
		1468 0408  ThinkPad 11b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter
		14b7 0a10  8480-WD 802.11abg Cardbus Adapter
		14b7 0a60  8482-WD ORiNOCO 11a/b/g Wireless PCI Adapter
		14b7 aa30  8800-FC 802.11bg Cardbus Adapter
		14b7 aa40  8470-WD 802.11bg Cardbus Adapter
		14b9 cb21  CB21 802.11a/b/g Cardbus Adapter
		1668 1026  IBM HighRate 11 a/b/g Wireless CardBus Adapter
		168c 0013  AirPlus XtremeG DWL-G650 Wireless PCMCIA Adapter
		168c 1025  DWL-G650B2 Wireless CardBus Adapter
		168c 1027  Engenius NL-3054CB ARIES b/g CardBus Adapter
		168c 1042  Ubiquiti Networks SuperRange a/b/g Cardbus Adapter
		168c 1051  EZ Connect g 802.11g 108Mbps Wireless PCI Adapter
		168c 2026  Netgate 5354MP ARIES a(108Mb turbo)/b/g MiniPCI Adapter
		168c 2027  D-Link AirPlus DWL-G520 Wireless PCI Adapter (rev. A)
		168c 2041  Engenius 5354MP Plus ARIES2 b/g MiniPCI Adapter
		168c 2042  Engenius 5354MP Plus ARIES2 a/b/g MiniPCI Adapter
		168c 2051  TRENDnet TEW-443PI Wireless PCI Adapter
		16a5 160a  BWP712 802.11bg Wireless CardBus Adapter
		16ab 7302  Trust Speedshare Turbo Pro Wireless PCI Adapter
		1737 0017  WPC55AG
		1737 0026  WMP55AG v1.1
		1737 0035  WPC55AG v1.2 802.11abg Cardbus Adapter
		1737 0036  WMP55AG v1.2 802.11abg PCI Adapter
		1799 3000  F6D3000 Dual-Band Wireless A+G Desktop Card
		1799 3010  F6D3010 Dual-Band Wireless A+G Notebook Card
		17cf 0042  Z-COMAX Highpower XG-622H (400mw) 802.11b/g mini-PCI Adapter
		185f 1012  CM9 Wireless a/b/g MiniPCI Adapter
		185f 2012  Wistron NeWeb WLAN a+b+g model CB9
		a727 6801  3CRXJK10075 OfficeConnect Wireless 108Mbps 11g XJACK PC Card
        1014  AR5212 802.11abg NIC
		1014 058a  ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini Express Adapter (AR5BXB6)

That might be one way of finding which iteration of a model number
suffering chipset-du-jour syndrome you have.  I.e., try to find the
right driver based on the extra information of PCI ID.  No guarantees, 
just an idea.