When using an Atheros 5212 PCI controller as a busy 7.x access point, a memory leak occurs frequently and eventually leads to a panic. The problem has been observed on multiple machines. Relevant "vmstat -m" output when the leak is observed: 80211node 12677 101401K - 120901 16,512 Running "ifconfig ath0 down" (ath0 being the controller in hostap mode) frees the memory. The problem occurs with all three rate-control algorithms. I have eliminated some possible allocations that might cause the leak and have narrowed it down to two: Line 595 of /usr/src/sys/net80211/ieee80211_node.c: MALLOC(ni, struct ieee80211_node *, sizeof(struct ieee80211_node), M_80211_NODE, M_NOWAIT | M_ZERO); Line 3164 of /usr/src/sys/dev/ath/if_ath.c: an = malloc(space, M_80211_NODE, M_NOWAIT|M_ZERO); It looks like both are supposed to be freed by node_free() in /usr/src/sys/net80211/ieee80211_node.c, but there is some code path where that doesn't happen, and should.
Responsible Changed From-To: freebsd-bugs->freebsd-net Over to maintainer(s).
Responsible Changed From-To: freebsd-net->freebsd-wireless punt to wireless list
batch change: For bugs that match the following - Status Is In progress AND - Untouched since 2018-01-01. AND - Affects Base System OR Documentation DO: Reset to open status. Note: I did a quick pass but if you are getting this email it might be worthwhile to double check to see if this bug ought to be closed.