Atheros - no association problem

avoulk · 2008-08-18 07:48:09

Hello!

After a long time on vacation, i decided to upgrade my system.
I own the following atheros wireless card:

05:01.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR5212/AR5213 Multiprotocol MAC/baseband processor (rev 01)
        Subsystem: D-Link System Inc D-Link AirPlus DWL-G520 Wireless PCI Adapter(rev.B)
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 96, IRQ 17
        Memory at febf0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
        Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2
        Kernel driver in use: ath_pci
        Kernel modules: ath5k, ath_pci

I had no problems connecting to the internet, till this update.
Now, I keep getting the following error message:

Could not associate ath0 - try increasing WIRELESS_TIMEOUT and check networkis WEP or has no security

I cannot figure out what went wrong!

My rc.conf networking options are the following:

eth0="eth0 192.168.1.100 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255"
ath0="dhcp"
wlan_ath0="ath0 essid MyEssid"
INTERFACES=(eth0 ath0)

gateway="default gw 192.168.1.1"
ROUTES=(gateway)

I have also tried to create a net-profile like this:

CONNECTION="wireless"
DESCRIPTION="Very verbose complete wireless example"

INTERFACE=ath0
HOSTNAME=my_hostname

# Interface Settings (use IP="dhcp" for DHCP)
#IP="static"
#IFOPTS="192.168.1.29 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255"
#GATEWAY=192.168.1.1

# DHCP Example
IP=dhcp
DHCP_TIMEOUT=20 # Default is 10.
DHCP_OPTIONS="" # Extra arguments for dhcpcd

# DNS Settings (optional)
#DOMAIN=localdomain
#DNS1=192.168.1.1
#DNS2=194.251.25.60
#SEARCH=

# Standard Wireless Settings
ESSID=MyEssid
SECURITY=none # One of wep, wpa, wpa-config, none
#KEY="SomePasskey"

# Scans to see if network is available before connecting (reccomended)
SCAN="YES"

# Time to wait to connect to a network. Default 15.
TIMEOUT=20

# Pass *custom* options to iwconfig. Usually not needed (optional)
#IWOPTS="mode managed essid $ESSID channel 6 key restricted $KEY"

# Any extra arguments for wpa_supplicant
WPA_OPTS=

# For SECURITY='wpa-config' only - filename of a wpa-supplicant config
WPA_CONF=

# Commands to run at various stages of configuration
PRE_UP=
POST_UP=
PRE_DOWN=
POST_DOWN="some command"

Of course i then added the

NETWORKS=(home)

line, while erasing the other lines relating the ath0 interface to the network in rc.conf.
This way, i get no error, but i still cannot connect to my router..

Anyone having any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,
avoulk

zenlord · 2008-08-18 08:47:02

Check ifconfig and iwconfig output. I thought that the atheros-devices changed devicename from ath0 to wlan0.

HTH

Zl.

avoulk · 2008-08-18 09:00:15

Thank you for the quick reply!

The interfaces remain the same for me:

[hd@quad ~]$ ifconfig -a
ath0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1C:F0:C9:DD:28  
          BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1        
          RX packets:500 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:55 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0                            
          RX bytes:243898 (238.1 Kb)  TX bytes:3424 (3.3 Kb)  

[hd@quad ~]$ iwconfig
ath0      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"MyEssid"  Nickname:""
          Mode:Managed  Channel:0  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Bit Rate:1 Mb/s   Tx-Power:18 dBm   Sensitivity=1/1
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=0/70  Signal level=-94 dBm  Noise level=-94 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

avoulk · 2008-08-18 11:18:04

Hmmm

I just switched to the ath5k module and now the interface is name wlan0 as zenlord said..
The problem remains exactly the same though...

avoulk · 2008-08-18 14:28:56

I have tried that already
You can see that in the iwconfig output i posted earlier..
Thank you for the try!
It is quite weird isn't it?

avoulk · 2008-08-18 14:50:19

I think i made it:

I created a new net-profile, and modified a bit the gateway part of the rc.conf (i commented it) and now it connects fine..
I still don't know why i cannot connect via rc.conf (without a net-profile) though..

Anyway,
Thank you all for your concern, i am glad to be a member of this forum

monstermudder78 · 2008-08-18 15:41:43

You are not alone. http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=53565If you read through the thread you will see that there are others with your exact same problem that ended up fixing it the same way you did. I too had the same problem and I apologize that I cannot shed any light on what caused the problem, although I must say I like the "fix" better than my old way of doing things.

avoulk · 2008-08-18 15:45:21

I had read this topic!
The basic difference is that in my case, in contrast to the users of the ohter threads, all my attempts to connect were failing, not just the first one..
It's a shame such a problem exists..

Anyway, thanks again

monstermudder78 · 2008-08-18 15:50:59

avoulk wrote:

I had read this topic!
The basic difference is that in my case, in contrast to the users of the ohter threads, all my attempts to connect were failing, not just the first one..
It's a shame such a problem exists..
Anyway, thanks again

I'm sorry I wasn't more clear in my posts in the other thread, but ALL my attempts were failing, same as yours. This problem has something to with the update that came out on Friday (8/15) and included this message:

-----------------------------------------------------------
Attention netcfg users: netcfg is no longer included as
part of the initscripts package.
Be aware that rc.conf's NET_PROFILES has changed to
NETWORKS, and that netcfg must be installed separately.
For more info, see the netcfg man page.
-----------------------------------------------------------

I hope that someone who is more knowlegeable about this than I am can sort this out. Even though a work-around is found, I think it is always best to find the actual cause of the problem as well.

ghostcat · 2008-08-18 19:49:28

The /etc/rc.d/network script released as part of "initscripts 2008.08-1" has a new test to see if the wireless LAN is associated. This fails with the message "Could not associate ath0 - try increasing WIRELESS_TIMEOUT and check network is WEP or has no security".

It turns out that the driver does not get a valid association until it is given a valid IP address. The new association test is performed immediately after configuring the Wireless interface and prior to the IP address being set. Thus, regardless of the timeout value, the association test will always fail.

monstermudder78 · 2008-08-18 19:55:53

@ghostcat: It seems you have a better grasp of this than I do, would you say this is a bug that should be filed? Or does the driver need to be fixed to come into line with the way the initscripts are written?

zenlord · 2008-08-18 23:22:48

I also read that the new ath5k doesn't get on with other network-modules, and that on some systems the old modules are still loaded, together ith the ath5k-module. Blacklisting the superfluous modules have helped some people - it might help you guys.

Zl.

avoulk · 2008-08-19 08:05:48

zenlord wrote:

I also read that the new ath5k doesn't get on with other network-modules, and that on some systems the old modules are still loaded, together ith the ath5k-module. Blacklisting the superfluous modules have helped some people - it might help you guys.
Zl.

Unfortunately, this did not work for me..
The result was the same, even when using the older ath_pci module..

Abakaba · 2008-08-20 08:24:03

Same problem here. But I state my wireless arguments not in rc.conf or network profiles but in etc/conf.d/wireless. I added the bold face iwconfig arguments to the file, rebooteed and voila. Might work directly in rc.conf as well (?)

etc/conf.d/wireless

#
# Settings for wireless cards
#
# For each wireless interface declared in INTERFACES (in rc.conf), declare
# a wlan_${IF} variable that contains the arguments to be passed to
# iwconfig(8). Then list the original interface name in the
# WLAN_INTERFACES array.
#
ifconfig ath0 up dhcpcd ath0
wlan_ath0="ath0 mode managed essid linksys key ########"
WLAN_INTERFACES=(ath0)

Last edited by Abakaba (2008-08-20 08:24:52)

ghostcat · 2008-08-20 08:53:29

monstermudder78 wrote:

@ghostcat: It seems you have a better grasp of this than I do, would you say this is a bug that should be filed? Or does the driver need to be fixed to come into line with the way the initscripts are written?

Well the wireless worked until the script was changed. Also, reading other threads, it appears there are issues with other drivers. Therefore, I suggest that it should be reported as a bug on initscripts. It will then be up to the package maintainer to decide if its actually a driver issue.

I am reluctant to report this as a bug as I use build my kernel and madwifi driver from source, rather than use the distributions packages.

kclive18 · 2008-08-20 18:39:35

Where can I increase the WIRELESS_TIMEOUT variable? I don't see it anywhere in /etc/conf.d/wireless or /etc/rc.d/network...

ConnorBehan · 2008-08-20 23:27:25

This bug is annoying me so I filed it here http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/11273. I looked for duplicates and didn't see one.

Misfit138 · 2008-08-26 03:40:51

ConnorBehan wrote:

This bug is annoying me so I filed it here http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/11273. I looked for duplicates and didn't see one.

Same problem here. Voted and added comments. I guess it's the only bug listed for this problem. I searched under network, wireless and initscripts.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-08-18 07:48:09

Atheros - no association problem

#2 2008-08-18 08:47:02

Re: Atheros - no association problem

#3 2008-08-18 09:00:15

Re: Atheros - no association problem

#4 2008-08-18 11:18:04

Re: Atheros - no association problem

#5 2008-08-18 14:28:56

Re: Atheros - no association problem

#6 2008-08-18 14:50:19

Re: Atheros - no association problem

#7 2008-08-18 15:41:43

Re: Atheros - no association problem

#8 2008-08-18 15:45:21

Re: Atheros - no association problem

#9 2008-08-18 15:50:59

Re: Atheros - no association problem

#10 2008-08-18 19:49:28

Re: Atheros - no association problem

#11 2008-08-18 19:55:53

Re: Atheros - no association problem

#12 2008-08-18 23:22:48

Re: Atheros - no association problem

#13 2008-08-19 08:05:48

Re: Atheros - no association problem

#14 2008-08-20 08:24:03

Re: Atheros - no association problem

#15 2008-08-20 08:53:29

Re: Atheros - no association problem

#16 2008-08-20 18:39:35

Re: Atheros - no association problem

#17 2008-08-20 23:27:25

Re: Atheros - no association problem

#18 2008-08-26 03:40:51

Re: Atheros - no association problem

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