Path.resolve() doesn't raise on a nonexistent path — it just returns the syntactic path unchanged — so when driver_name() ran before the radio's netdev had enumerated (startup race with USB re-enum), it silently returned the literal string "driver" instead of None. The loop's retry guard (`if driver is None: retry`) never fired since "driver" is truthy, so the bogus value was cached for the service's entire uptime and the queue-flush wedge regex could never match real driver names — the 3rd check added 2026-08-19 was silently inert. Fixes 2026-08-23 recurrence where the 5GHz SSID went invisible and hostapd never got restarted. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YJfEELeh3ercpRBp8yYrYS
215 lines
9.1 KiB
Python
215 lines
9.1 KiB
Python
#!/usr/bin/env python3
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"""van-ap-watchdog — keep the VanLink AP beaconing.
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The AP wlan (rtw89, USB) shares a USB hub with the Starlink ethernet (r8152, USB).
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When Starlink's link flaps the hub can re-enumerate and take the Wi-Fi radio down
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with it. The hostapd.service drop-in (restart.conf) handles the common case — hostapd
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exits and systemd restarts it (Restart=always, no start limit) until the interface
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returns. This daemon is the backstop for the case systemd *can't* see: hostapd stays
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running but the radio has wedged and stopped serving (dmesg "timed out to flush queues").
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Every `interval` seconds it checks three things: hostapd's self-reported state via the
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control socket (hostapd_cli status -> state=ENABLED), the kernel's ground truth for the
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netdev (operstate up + still a port of the bridge), and the kernel log for a TX-queue
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wedge on this radio's driver (rtw88/rtw89 "timed out to flush queue(s)"). All three
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matter because they fail independently: hostapd_cli keeps answering state=ENABLED off
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stale in-memory state after the USB radio is torn down and re-enumerated underneath a
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still-running hostapd — the netdev is recreated DOWN and dropped from the bridge, but
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hostapd never noticed and never exited, so Restart=always never fired. The link check
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catches exactly that. Separately, the radio can wedge without any re-enumeration at
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all: hostapd keeps reporting state=ENABLED and the netdev stays up/bridged throughout,
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but the driver silently stops moving frames (2026-08-19: 5GHz AP unreachable for ~1.5h,
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hostapd and link both reported healthy the whole time; dmesg showed
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"rtw89_8852bu ...: timed out to flush queues" at the moment clients dropped). The
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queue-flush check catches that. If the AP is unhealthy for `fail_threshold` checks in a
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row, it clears any failed state and restarts hostapd. If the interface is simply gone
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(mid re-enumeration) it waits — there is nothing to restart onto, and Restart=always
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reclaims it when it reappears. Stdlib only.
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Usage: van-ap-watchdog [hostapd.conf path] [systemd unit]
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Defaults watch the 5GHz AP (/etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf, unit hostapd); the 2.4GHz
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instance (van-ap-watchdog-2g.service) passes hostapd-2g.conf + hostapd-2g.
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"""
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import re
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import subprocess
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import sys
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import time
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from datetime import datetime
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from pathlib import Path
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HOSTAPD_CONF = sys.argv[1] if len(sys.argv) > 1 else "/etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf"
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HOSTAPD_UNIT = sys.argv[2] if len(sys.argv) > 2 else "hostapd"
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CTRL_DIR = "/var/run/hostapd"
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INTERVAL = 15 # seconds between health checks (backstop cadence, not first response)
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FAIL_THRESHOLD = 2 # consecutive bad checks before restarting (debounces re-enum blips)
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def log(msg, level="info"):
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# systemd journal severity prefixes (sd-daemon), same convention as van-thermal.
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pri = {"info": "<6>", "warn": "<4>", "crit": "<2>"}.get(level, "<6>")
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print(pri + msg, flush=True)
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def _conf_value(key):
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"""Read a `key=value` from hostapd.conf so there's one source of truth."""
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try:
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for line in Path(HOSTAPD_CONF).read_text().splitlines():
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m = re.match(rf"\s*{key}=(\S+)", line)
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if m:
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return m.group(1)
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except OSError as e:
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log(f"cannot read {HOSTAPD_CONF} ({e})", "crit")
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return None
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def ap_ifname():
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"""The AP interface name."""
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return _conf_value("interface")
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def ap_bridge():
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"""The bridge the AP netdev is enslaved to, or None if hostapd isn't bridging."""
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return _conf_value("bridge")
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def iface_present(ifname):
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return Path(f"/sys/class/net/{ifname}").exists()
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def link_healthy(ifname, bridge):
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"""True when the netdev is actually carrying traffic: operationally up and, if
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hostapd bridges the AP, still a port of that bridge. This is the ground truth
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hostapd_cli can't see — after a USB re-enumeration the radio comes back as a fresh
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DOWN netdev outside the bridge while a stale hostapd still reports state=ENABLED."""
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try:
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operstate = Path(f"/sys/class/net/{ifname}/operstate").read_text().strip()
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except OSError:
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return False
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if operstate != "up":
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return False
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if bridge and not Path(f"/sys/class/net/{bridge}/brif/{ifname}").exists():
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return False
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return True
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def driver_name(ifname):
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"""Kernel driver bound to the interface's USB device (e.g. rtw89_8852bu). Used to
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scope the queue-flush-timeout check to this radio, so the 2.4GHz and 5GHz watchdog
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instances don't trip on each other's dmesg lines.
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Path.resolve() doesn't raise on a missing path — it just returns the syntactic
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path unchanged — so if this runs before the interface has enumerated (e.g. right
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at watchdog startup, mid USB re-enum) a naive .resolve().name silently returns the
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literal string "driver" instead of None, and that bogus value gets cached forever
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by the caller's `if driver is None: retry` check. Explicitly check existence first
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so a not-yet-enumerated device correctly yields None and gets retried."""
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p = Path(f"/sys/class/net/{ifname}/device/driver")
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try:
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if not p.exists():
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return None
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return p.resolve().name
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except OSError:
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return None
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def queue_flush_wedged(driver, since):
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"""True if this radio's driver logged a TX-queue-flush timeout since `since`. Both
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rtw88 ("timed out to flush queue %d") and rtw89 ("timed out to flush queues") share
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the substring "timed out to flush queue". This is the one signal that still catches
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a wedge when hostapd_cli and the netdev both keep reporting healthy (see module
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docstring, 2026-08-19 incident)."""
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if not driver:
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return False
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pattern = rf"^{re.escape(driver)} .*timed out to flush queue"
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try:
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out = subprocess.run(
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["journalctl", "-k", "--since", since.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"),
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"-g", pattern, "-o", "cat", "--no-pager"],
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capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=10,
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).stdout
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except (OSError, subprocess.SubprocessError) as e:
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log(f"journalctl queue-flush check failed: {e}", "warn")
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return False
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return bool(out.strip())
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def ap_enabled(ifname):
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"""True if hostapd reports the AP as beaconing (state=ENABLED). False if it's
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running but not enabled; None if the control socket is unreachable (hostapd down)."""
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try:
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out = subprocess.run(
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["hostapd_cli", "-p", CTRL_DIR, "-i", ifname, "status"],
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capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=10,
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).stdout
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except (OSError, subprocess.SubprocessError) as e:
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log(f"hostapd_cli failed: {e}", "warn")
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return None
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for line in out.splitlines():
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if line.startswith("state="):
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return line.strip() == "state=ENABLED"
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return None # no state line -> couldn't talk to hostapd
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def recover(ifname):
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log(f"AP {ifname} not beaconing — clearing failed state and restarting {HOSTAPD_UNIT}", "warn")
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# reset-failed first in case some other path parked the unit in a failed state;
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# harmless when it isn't.
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subprocess.run(["systemctl", "reset-failed", HOSTAPD_UNIT],
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capture_output=True, text=True)
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r = subprocess.run(["systemctl", "restart", HOSTAPD_UNIT],
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capture_output=True, text=True)
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if r.returncode != 0:
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log(f"{HOSTAPD_UNIT} restart returned {r.returncode}: {r.stderr.strip()}", "warn")
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def main():
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ifname = ap_ifname()
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if not ifname:
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log("no interface= in hostapd.conf; nothing to watch", "crit")
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sys.exit(1)
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bridge = ap_bridge()
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driver = driver_name(ifname)
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log(f"van-ap-watchdog up: watching {ifname}"
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f"{f' on {bridge}' if bridge else ''}"
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f"{f' (driver {driver})' if driver else ''} every {INTERVAL}s "
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f"(restart after {FAIL_THRESHOLD} bad checks)")
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bad = 0
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waiting = False # latch so "interface absent" logs once, not every tick
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last_check = datetime.now() # window start for the queue-flush dmesg check
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while True:
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now = datetime.now()
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if not iface_present(ifname):
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if not waiting:
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log(f"{ifname} absent — USB re-enumeration in progress; "
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f"waiting for it to return (hostapd Restart=always will reclaim it)", "warn")
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waiting = True
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bad = 0
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else:
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waiting = False
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if driver is None: # fill in late if the watchdog started before the device existed
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driver = driver_name(ifname)
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wedged = queue_flush_wedged(driver, last_check)
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if wedged:
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log(f"{ifname} ({driver}) logged a TX queue flush timeout — "
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f"radio wedged despite healthy hostapd/link state", "warn")
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if ap_enabled(ifname) and link_healthy(ifname, bridge) and not wedged:
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if bad:
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log(f"AP {ifname} beaconing again")
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bad = 0
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else:
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bad += 1
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if bad >= FAIL_THRESHOLD:
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recover(ifname)
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bad = 0
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last_check = now
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time.sleep(INTERVAL)
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if __name__ == "__main__":
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try:
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main()
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except KeyboardInterrupt:
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sys.exit(0)
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