Kernel panics in 10.4.10 - Airport driver

Question

Kernel panics in 10.4.10 - Airport driver

From my panic.log:

-----------
Mon Jul 2 10:09:24 2007
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x001A4A55): Unresolved kernel trap (CPU 0, Type 14=page faul
t), registers:
CR0: 0x8001003b, CR2: 0x0008010a, CR3: 0x00f0e000, CR4: 0x000026e0
EAX: 0x00000006, EBX: 0x3519e107, ECX: 0x0008010a, EDX: 0x349dabd0
CR2: 0x0008010a, EBP: 0x36363bf8, ESI: 0x00080110, EDI: 0x349da2c8
EFL: 0x00010206, EIP: 0x00198d64, CS: 0x00000008, DS: 0x00090010

Backtrace, Format - Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x363639f8 : 0x128d08 (0x3cc0a4 0x36363a1c 0x131de5 0x0)
0x36363a38 : 0x1a4a55 (0x3d24b8 0x0 0xe 0x3d1cdc)
0x36363b48 : 0x19aeb4 (0x36363b60 0x91 0x0 0xa1f44c)
0x36363bf8 : 0x9f9e1e (0x8010a 0x3519e107 0x6 0x63fd67a0)
0x36363dd8 : 0x9fc059 (0x349da2c8 0x536c0e0 0x36363e08 0x32e89d)
0x36363f08 : 0x39b3c3 (0x349da000 0x5031600 0x1 0x4ce6cec)
0x36363f58 : 0x39a595 (0x5031600 0x668e280 0x36363f78 0x4b2038)
0x36363f88 : 0x39a2cb (0x5157dc0 0x360000 0x454db8 0xffffffff)
0x36363fc8 : 0x19ad2c (0x5157dc0 0x0 0x19e0b5 0x55d3d60) Backtrace terminated-in
valid frame pointer 0x0
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.driver.AirPort.Atheros(230.8.5)@0x9c8000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily(1.5.1)@0x700000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.2)@0x577000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family(160.2)@0x835000

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 8.10.1: Wed May 23 16:33:00 PDT 2007; root:xnu-792.22.5~1/
RELEASE_I386
--------------

I've had 18 of these over the last week since I updated to 10.4.10. It only happens when running on battery. All of my co-workers who also have the same MacBook Pro (intel duo core 2, 15") are experiencing the exact same problem with 10.4.10. There are 6 of us here at my office all seeing this problem.

While on battery, the network connection flakes out and my MacBook is unable to connect to anything. Clicking on the airport utility in the menu bar, or bringing up the network system preferences causes a kernel panic.

We are using a cisco wireless access point:

Cisco Aironet
Model# AIR-AP1131AG-A-K9 (v03)
802.11 a/b/g support
2.4 - 5 Ghz

I point this out because I have yet to get the kernel panics at home on my linksys wireless AP. However, at work with the Cisco AP, my Mac panics faster than the mob at the local iStore when they ran out of iPhones. I'm thinking that the Cisco AP might be sending a signal that the Airport drivers don't like.

Anyone have any suggestions?

MacBook Pro 15" Mac OS X (10.4.10)

MacBook Pro 15" Mac OS X (10.4.10) Intel Core Duo 2, 3GB RAM

Posted on Jul 2, 2007 11:09 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 20, 2007 6:44 PM in response to Invalid AppleID

Our ops team figured out the problem. Our wireless access point was misconfigured to used "WPA Personal" encryption instead of WEP.

Even after the updated driver patch to 10.4.10, people at my office were no longer getting kernel panics, but everyone was still getting dropped connections and errors trying to connect. It seems that Apple has bugs in the driver for WAP Personal based encryption.

If you are having any problems with wireless on 10.4.10, check your wireless connection to make sure you're using WEP encryption. If not, reconfigure your wireless access point to use WEP.

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Answer 2

Aug 22, 2007 7:52 AM in response to Invalid AppleID

WEP is the weakest, easiest to crack encryption possible. It's barely better than nothing at all and there are many step-by-step guides to breaking it.

If it's true that WPA Personal causes the problem, I strongly recommend trying something other than WEP. I've been using WPA2 (AES) without problems on a number of 10.4.10 iMacs and C2D MacBook Pros with trusty WRT54GS routers.

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