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#1 2007-05-05 16:34:52

comfortably_numb
Member
Registered: 2007-04-23
Posts: 12

Wireless networking BROKEN, used to work

Hi,
I'm an Arch64 user and I have an always updated laptop with kernel26ck, networkmanager and madwifi to manage networking.
I've always had no problems at all with this configuration, and never changed it, but now it has started to cause me problems for apparently no reason.

When I boot and login into my account, gnome networkmanager applet sometimes says I'm connected to the wired network, even if I'm not!!
If I plug in my ethernet cable I get connected, but strange things now happen if I'm next to a hot-spot: instead of detecting the wireless network, networkmanager simply drops the wired connection, and then I have no connections at all (and I can't see the wireless network in the applet).

Now, this is a very odd problem since I actually need wireless networking (and networking in general) to work automatically as it used to do.
Since I did not change any configuration, I suspect the problem is related to some updated package..
I've also tried recompiling networkmanager and madwifi from ABS, but with no luck.

Anyway, here are the relevant package versions:

# pacman -Q kernel26ck
kernel26ck 2.6.20.7.ck1-2
# pacman -Q madwifi-ck
madwifi-ck 0.9.2.1-3
# pacman -Q networkmanager
networkmanager 0.6.5-1
# pacman -Q gnome-network-manager
gnome-network-manager 0.6.5-1

ath_pci module is loaded:

# lsmod | grep ath
ath_rate_sample        13440  1 
ath_pci                92976  0 
wlan                  200136  4 wlan_scan_sta,ath_rate_sample,ath_pci
ath_hal               216816  3 ath_rate_sample,ath_pci

Here's my rc.conf (never changed from the time it worked well):

#
# /etc/rc.conf - Main Configuration for Arch Linux
#

#
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# LOCALIZATION
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# LOCALE: available languages can be listed with the 'locale -a' command
# HARDWARECLOCK: set to "UTC" or "localtime"
# TIMEZONE: timezones are found in /usr/share/zoneinfo
# KEYMAP: keymaps are found in /usr/share/kbd/keymaps
# CONSOLEFONT: found in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts (only needed for non-US)
# CONSOLEMAP: found in /usr/share/kbd/consoletrans
# USECOLOR: use ANSI color sequences in startup messages
#
LOCALE="en_US.utf8"
HARDWARECLOCK="UTC"
TIMEZONE="Europe/Rome"
KEYMAP="it"
CONSOLEFONT=
CONSOLEMAP=
USECOLOR="yes"

#
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# HARDWARE
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Scan hardware and load required modules at bootup
MOD_AUTOLOAD="yes"
# Module Blacklist - modules in this list will never be loaded by udev
MOD_BLACKLIST=(m560x)
#
# Modules to load at boot-up (in this order)
#   - prefix a module with a ! to blacklist it
#
MODULES=(fglrx ath_pci tun powernow-k8 cpufreq_ondemand i2c-piix4 eeprom 
k8temp ac battery button fan)
# Scan for LVM volume groups at startup, required if you use LVM
USELVM="no"

#
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# NETWORKING
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
HOSTNAME="apresta"
#
# Interfaces to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each interface then list in INTERFACES
#   - prefix an entry in INTERFACES with a ! to disable it
#   - no hyphens in your interface names - Bash doesn't like it
#
# Note: to use DHCP, set your interface to be "dhcp" (eth0="dhcp")
#
lo="lo 127.0.0.1"
#eth0="eth0 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255"
eth0="dhcp"
INTERFACES=(lo !eth0 !ath0)
#
# Routes to start at boot-up (in this order)
# Declare each route then list in ROUTES
#   - prefix an entry in ROUTES with a ! to disable it
#
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1"
ROUTES=(!gateway)
#
# Enable these network profiles at boot-up.  These are only useful
# if you happen to need multiple network configurations (ie, laptop users)
#   - set to 'menu' to present a menu during boot-up (dialog package required)
#   - prefix an entry with a ! to disable it
#
# Network profiles are found in /etc/network-profiles
#
#NET_PROFILES=(main)

#
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
# DAEMONS
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Daemons to start at boot-up (in this order)
#   - prefix a daemon with a ! to disable it
#   - prefix a daemon with a @ to start it up in the background
#
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network @crond hal !@alsa dhcdbd networkmanager @cpufreqd @sensors @fam gdm)

# End of file

I'm a bit disappointed to see how often Arch gets broken in some area these days...
All claims about Arch's goodness are justified, except those on stability which, according to my experience, is still lacking.

I often had problems after updates (xorg and metacity for example), some critical, some not... new versions of applications crashing for apparently no reason.. and now the gnome move from /opt to /usr that made disappear my launchers, screensavers, gdm themes and god knows what else...

I think we really need more testing on packages in base and extra, I accept that some package in AUR don't work as expected, but updates of the base system and applications should be painless.

I hope that at least this networkmanager problem gets solved, or I'll have to switch to some well-tested mainstream distro like Ubuntu and lose all the advantages of Arch.

Sorry to be so harsh, but I'm getting more and more exasperated...

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#2 2007-05-05 16:42:20

comfortably_numb
Member
Registered: 2007-04-23
Posts: 12

Re: Wireless networking BROKEN, used to work

and YES, I've added my user to the network group

EDIT: after reading some other posts, I just switched to 0.6.4 version (both daemon and gnome applet) and now it works.

So I repeat, I think we need more testing before updating critical packages like those related to network.

Last edited by comfortably_numb (2007-05-05 16:59:08)

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#3 2007-05-05 17:00:47

IceRAM
Member
From: Bucharest, Romania
Registered: 2004-03-04
Posts: 772
Website

Re: Wireless networking BROKEN, used to work

Slightly off-topic:

I don't have the problem, but I have to ask: what network group? what is it used for? It doesn't appear in this list
Thanks.

Last edited by IceRAM (2007-05-05 17:01:22)

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#4 2007-05-06 01:49:31

ravster
Member
From: Queen's U, Kingston, Canada
Registered: 2004-05-02
Posts: 285
Website

Re: Wireless networking BROKEN, used to work

More testing requires more testers. The developers do what they can.
Having said that, I agree that more testing would be a good thing for regular users.
Finally, could you post this to the bug tracker? The bug wasn't caught during the testing stage but now that it has been caught the developers will be able to solve it when they are told about it.

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#5 2007-05-06 09:34:14

comfortably_numb
Member
Registered: 2007-04-23
Posts: 12

Re: Wireless networking BROKEN, used to work

ravster wrote:

More testing requires more testers. The developers do what they can.
Having said that, I agree that more testing would be a good thing for regular users.
Finally, could you post this to the bug tracker? The bug wasn't caught during the testing stage but now that it has been caught the developers will be able to solve it when they are told about it.

I'll post it right now.

EDIT: http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/7077
here it is, this is the first time I report a bug, don't know if I did it the right way..

Last edited by comfortably_numb (2007-05-06 09:43:08)

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#6 2007-05-06 22:19:03

ravster
Member
From: Queen's U, Kingston, Canada
Registered: 2004-05-02
Posts: 285
Website

Re: Wireless networking BROKEN, used to work

It seems pretty good. The developers who have been assigned the bug may contact you if they have any questions.
Thanks for posting it.

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