Arch Linux

DarthShrine

Member

Registered: 2007-12-08

Posts: 5

Wireless problem

This is my second day on Arch, and I've been trying to get WiFi working on the Arch laptop, but nothing I've tried has worked. I have 2 cards: one has the Ralink rt2500 chipset, the other has the Atheros chipset. I know that both of these cards have worked on this, and other laptops in the past. Using netcfg, both would time out at the DHCP stage. I decided to change to netcfg2 as per a suggestion, and I'm getting a "Wireless association failed" on the Atheros.

iwconfig ath0:

ath0      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"<essid>"  Nickname:""
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Bit Rate:0 kb/s   Tx-Power:18 dBm   Sensitivity=1/1
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:<censored>   Security mode:open
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=0/70  Signal level=-93 dBm  Noise level=-93 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:12139  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

ifconfig ath0:

ath0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr <censored ;)>
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)

And the netcfg2 profile:

CONNECTION="wireless"
INTERFACE=ath0
SCAN="yes"
SECURITY="wep"
ESSID="<essid>"
KEY="<censored>"
IP="dhcp"

elide

Member

From: Russia

Registered: 2007-12-02

Posts: 40

Re: Wireless problem

iwlist scan ?

DarthShrine

Member

Registered: 2007-12-08

Posts: 5

Re: Wireless problem

iwlist scan ?

Oops, good idea.

ath0      Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:11:95:<censored :P>
                    ESSID:"<essid>"
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.347 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Quality=24/70 Signal level=-71 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 22 Mb/s
                              6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s
                              36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Extra:bcn_int=100
          Cell 02 - <snip>

elide

Member

From: Russia

Registered: 2007-12-02

Posts: 40

Re: Wireless problem

-71dBm ?
Maybe, signal level is too low for association ?
My ipw2200 has stable association only if signal level >= -60 dBm.

DarthShrine

Member

Registered: 2007-12-08

Posts: 5

Re: Wireless problem

-71dBm ?
Maybe, signal level is too low for association ?
My ipw2200 has stable association only if signal level >= -60 dBm.

The laptop I'm on right now (working) has a signal level of -69 dBm. I've also tried it closer to the access point, with the same result.

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: Wireless problem

netcfg 1 goes onto dhcp because it's stupid and never checks if you managed to associate, so it's not getting as far as it appears to. netcfg2 checks.

I'll agree that the reception does look miserable but try doing it manually so that we can be sure.

Assuming it's a wep network.

rmmod and then modprobe the module so we have a clean start..
ifconfig ath0 up
iwconfig ath0 scan
iwconfig ath0 mode managed essid <ESSID> key <key>

Then wait... give it a good 20 seconds and then run "iwconfig". If it associates, you'll see your wireless access point's MAC next to "Access Point:". Otherwise, you'll see "Not-Associated". Also check it's the correct key.. I've got that wrong before and wasted over an hour going wondering what was wrong with netcfg2

If it does manage to associate after a long period of time, you might just need to extend the timeout in the netcfg2 profile, set TIMEOUT= to whatever works.

If after waiting a good while, it doesnt associate, then it's either a driver or range issue. Given you've tried 2 cards with entirely separate drivers (no code share between them), it's most likely range. I find I get somewhat less range in Linux than I do under other operating systems.

Last edited by iphitus (2007-12-09 07:40:23)

DarthShrine

Member

Registered: 2007-12-08

Posts: 5

Re: Wireless problem

I tried that sitting right next to the access point, and it's still "Not-Associated".

iwconfig ath0

ath0      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"<essid>"  Nickname:""
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Bit Rate:1 Mb/s   Tx-Power:18 dBm   Sensitivity=1/1
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:<censored>   Security mode:open
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=62/70  Signal level=-32 dBm  Noise level=-94 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:2161  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

The key is 100% correct; I keep checking it
And err, I'd put the iwlist scan stuff there but it froze (O.o) before I could scroll up in the terminal. I believe it showed similar info to the iwconfig output though. I've been focusing on netcfg2 with the Atheros card mostly, so I'll give it a proper shot with the Ralink.

DarthShrine

Member

Registered: 2007-12-08

Posts: 5

Re: Wireless problem

Okay, I feel absolutely stupid! I've not bothered with changing my wireless setup for a while, so I completely forgot to check my access point. I forgot that I had a MAC filter on! Thanks for the help anyway!

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: Wireless problem

Didn't think of that, I'll note that down for next time forgot about mac filtering.