ath9k and AR9220 (Mikrotik R52N) initialization error on old small router (Asus WL-500g Premium v1)

Anichang <anichang@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> · Fri, 20 Apr 2018 02:49:16 -0400

Hi,

I'm having issues with a Mikrotik R52N mini-pci board (AR9220) on the old Asus WL-500g Premium v1 and Openwrt/LEDE 17.01.4 (compat-wireless-2017-01-31). 

Dmesg reports:

[  942.063606] ssb: PCI: Fixing up device 0000:00:02.0
[  942.073038] ath: phy3: address test failed addr: 0x00008000 - wr:0x55555555 != rd:0x45555555
[  942.081787] ath: phy3: Unable to initialize hardware; initialization status: -19
[  942.089390] ath9k 0000:00:02.0: Failed to initialize device

lspci -v

00:02.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR922X Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Qualcomm Atheros Device 4205
        Flags: 66MHz, medium devsel, IRQ 6
        Memory at 40000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=65537]
        Memory at <unassigned> (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2]
        Memory at <unassigned> (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2]
        Memory at <unassigned> (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2]
        Memory at <unassigned> (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2]
        Memory at <unassigned> (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2]
        Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=2]
        Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2

It looks like an old problem: https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=97509#p97509 .

I tried to comment out the call to ath9k_hw_chip_test function without results. Then I tried to randomly change some addresses I've found up and there but I didn't get any clue about the driver so ... here I am.

Any idea?

Thanks

Anichang