I am also seeing this same issue with a TL-WN722N, it uses the same ath9k_htc driver.
I am running ubuntu 14.04 with the 3.17-rc5 kernel and latest 14.10 firmware. Attached is my kern.log containing at least one instance of this crash from 3.17-rc4.(grep for "oops" =)). I've also seen this crash in rc5 but strangely it's not showing up in the kernel log. Most likely the watchdog didn't catch it in time. ** Attachment added: "Kernel log from incidents on 3.17-rc4" https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-firmware/+bug/1365672/+attachment/4204127/+files/kern.log.1 -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Kernel Packages, which is subscribed to linux-firmware in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1365672 Title: A recent firmware update made ath9k_htc card cause kernel panic/freeze Status in “linux-firmware” package in Ubuntu: Incomplete Bug description: Today there was an update to the linux-firmware package. This apparently changed the firmware used by the ath9k_htc driver required by my wifi dongle. Now if the dongle is plugged in, my computer freezes and if it is plugge don before boot, the computer freezes in the login screen. After careful analysis of the syslogs it can be seen that the hard drive got remounted as readonly meaning that the kernel had a fatal error occur in some driver. I am currently using the linux 3.17 vanilla kernel that is in development and teh linux-firmware package that comes in standard with ubuntu trusty tahr. I am sure teh issue lies with the firmware since the same kernel has been running for a few days without issues before the firmware got updated . To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-firmware/+bug/1365672/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages Post to : kernel-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp