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#26 2009-06-14 00:46:38

iphitus
Forum Fellow
From: Melbourne, Australia
Registered: 2004-10-09
Posts: 4,927

Re: wifi nightmares [Solved]

Grab netcfg from testing if you havn't already, there's some big bug fixes in it.

Then try cutting your config down to a _minimal_ one.

CONNECTION="wireless"
INTERFACE=wlan0
IP="dhcp"
ESSID="ITTwo-wifi"
SECURITY="wpa"
KEY="bbR:)cri2rr"
TIMEOUT=30
DHCP_TIMEOUT=140

Run netcfg by hand, not through a GUI and see if it works, and what message it gives you. netcfg's output is short, but it actually means something!

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#27 2009-06-14 01:27:47

ralvez
Member
From: Canada
Registered: 2005-12-06
Posts: 1,694
Website

Re: wifi nightmares [Solved]

iphitus,

Thanks for the reply.
I have been running netcfg manually, except when I boot it because it is embedded in /etc/rc.conf.
I have also tried a number of different guy options to see if they help but to no avail sad

I'll give this idea a try. Like I say: I want to "nail" the wifi thing and get to understand and be proficient with it. I think wifi is one of the few things in Linux that seems to escape me and now I'm on a roll lol

Thanks gain. I'll test for a few days ... see what I can learn post whatever I find.


R.

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#28 2009-06-14 02:09:11

iphitus
Forum Fellow
From: Melbourne, Australia
Registered: 2004-10-09
Posts: 4,927

Re: wifi nightmares [Solved]

Please make sure it's the [testing] version...

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#29 2009-06-20 02:23:55

ralvez
Member
From: Canada
Registered: 2005-12-06
Posts: 1,694
Website

Re: wifi nightmares [Solved]

OK. I'm back.
I did a significant amount of testing. The problem, I believe, was more related to ndiswrapper than it was to netcfg if it was at all.
This is what I found:
1. ndiswrapper works but as any form of work-around it has it draw backs. The one I can see here is that it, some times, makes for a slow connection due to poor quality link and that affects connections when requesting a DHCP address.
2. The netcfg in testing is a little faster than the one in current but otherwise I see o no significant impact difference in the particular problem I was facing
3. The  solution for me was to:
  a) disable ndiswrapper
  b) enable ath5k and acer_wmi in the MODULES line in /etc/rc.conf

Penalties:
Not using ndiswrapper has it problems too. Since I have no "native" driver from the vendor, the WiFi LED no  longer works. That's a small price to pay for a reliable connection though. I get now 100% quality links (used to be between 60% and 85%) and by the time Arch is ready to show the desktop my wifi connection is already active.

I did a test of the  acer_acpi but was unsuccessful. I understand that acer_acpi could be a way to get the hardware related issues solved but on the other hand we have enough software that  shows an active WiFi link that the  LED is not too critical. If anyone can point me in the right direction to get the hardware working I'll be happy to explore the option (Laptop is ACER Aspire 7720-4697).

I'd like to expess my appreciation for all the help I got from everyone who took the time to post and help.

iphitus, if there is any thing in particular you would like me to test and report back with the new netcfg just let me know. BTW I was looking at the  code in netcfg2 and I was wondering if it would be worth to add testing for link quality. It seems to me that the  type of problem I was having (which I suspect is not that uncommon) is very related to thq quality of the  connection  NOT to what is going on with netcfg and if aside from the report of "could not lease and address" a line reading something along the lines "wifi quality: 42" (as an example) may help as an indicator of the possible source of the  problem.

Just an idea.

Thanks again to all smile

R.

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#30 2009-06-20 08:28:01

iphitus
Forum Fellow
From: Melbourne, Australia
Registered: 2004-10-09
Posts: 4,927

Re: wifi nightmares [Solved]

That might be interesting, add a Feature Request at bugs.archlinux.org

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