[Solved] Wireless Networking Randomly Not Working

Velshtein · 2012-01-25 11:41:42

Note: My network card is an Atheros AR9285 PCI-E Adapter. ath9k driver and wicd

Apologies in advance, I'm relatively new to Linux as a whole. With the recent pacman 4 update, my entire system has been somewhat out of whack. I've been unable to figure out how to get it to properly sign keys and update packages, but that's another story entirely. At least my wireless connection still functioned when that was the problem.

I booted my laptop up today and it was suddenly unable to connect to my wireless network. I checked the network to make sure that it was running properly (it is), so came back to the laptop. It said that it was unable to acquire an IP address.

Various googling via my windows box led me to various suggested fixes including restarting wicd and wiping the .conf files, starting from scratch. All that accomplished was making the network hidden, and I'm afraid I've no idea as to how I probed it to show the SSID in the first place.

Again, I'm very sorry, but this is extremely vexing for me, and I'm quite overcome by frustration at the moment. Everything was working fantastically until this pacman update, and now my laptop is good for very little.

Last edited by Velshtein (2012-01-29 05:22:41)

dr_te_z · 2012-01-25 21:29:41

I've got the same problem with my Thinkpad T61. Did not solve but bypassed by using a fixed IP adress (outside of the DHCP range of the router).
I know, I know, but things I do not like to spend time on.

Velshtein · 2012-01-26 04:36:53

dr_te_z wrote:

I've got the same problem with my Thinkpad T61. Did not solve but bypassed by using a fixed IP adress (outside of the DHCP range of the router).
I know, I know, but things I do not like to spend time on.

I'll give it a try, but it seems like a fairly common issue at the moment. Any word on what could be the cause?

Update - No dice on the fixed IP. Still unsolved.

Last edited by Velshtein (2012-01-26 05:11:27)

/dev/zero · 2012-01-26 05:21:41

First of all, can we please check that your network card is up:

ip addr

Secondly, to rule out that it's not just a problem with wicd, let's try doing it from the command line. First put something like this in a file called /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf:

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=network
network={
	ssid="YOUR_ESSID"
	psk="SOME_PASSPHRASE"
}

Then run:

sudo wpa_supplicant -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -B

sudo dhcpcd

ip route

Velshtein · 2012-01-27 03:21:15

Thank you very much zero, I appreciate the help. Here's what I've got:

For ip addr:

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN
	link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
	inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
	inet6 ::1/128 scope host
		valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0 <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state DOWN qlen 1000
	link/ether f4:6d:04:a9:ec:d6 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlan0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN qlen 1000
	link/ether 74:2f:68:1a:84:2e brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Had to create a new wpa_supplicant to get your second set of directions to work, but work it eventually did. The output of dhcpcd looked a little something like this:

dhcpcd[8282]: version 5.2.12 starting
dhcpcd[8282]: wlan0: broadcasting for a lease
dhcpcd[8282]: eth0: waiting for carrier
dhcpcd[8282]: wlan0: offered 192.168.1.106 from 192.168.1.1
dhcpcd[8282]: wlan0: acknowledged 192.168.1.106 from 192.168.1.1
dhcpcd[8282]: wlan0: checking for 192.168.1.106
dhcpcd[8282]: wlan0: hardware address 00:26:ab:00:9a:b1 claims 192.168.1.106
(Lines 4-7 repeat twice more)
dhcpcd[8282]: timed out
dhcpcd[8282]: forked to background, child pid 8327

ip route does nothing (visible anyway)

Last edited by Velshtein (2012-01-27 03:21:39)

Strike0 · 2012-01-27 19:31:25

IP route does not show anything, because the DHCP timed out. Try

sudo dhclient -v

instead of dhcpcd.
You can also check with

iwconfig

that your wpa_supplicant worked before that.

Velshtein · 2012-01-28 05:14:06

@Strike0

For the first command I received

Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client 4.2.3-P2
Copyright 2004-2012 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/

No broadcast interfaces found - exiting.

And for the second:

lo	no wireless extensions.

eth0	no wireless extensions
wlan0	IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:off/any
		Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
		Tx-Power=14 dBm
		Retry long limit:7	RTS thr:off	Fragment thr:off
		Power Management:off

Last edited by Velshtein (2012-01-28 05:14:17)

kwbauson · 2012-01-28 07:54:45

I had this problem too. Fixed by downgrading linux-3.2.2 to linux-3.2.1

Strike0 · 2012-01-28 08:14:22

So your iwconfig output shows wlan0 is not associated to the wifi. In that case it makes no sense to try to get an IP anyway. You wrote before:

Velshtein wrote:

Had to create a new wpa_supplicant to get your second set of directions to work, but work it eventually did. The output of dhcpcd looked a little something like this:

So that may have been the reason there as well. Double-check if your wpa-supplicant works before the dhcp.
If it does, it may still be a specific problem which can only be solved by downgrading. I would'nt know if it is for the card as kwbauson suggests.

edit: Have a look at this also, if it still wont work. (Of course you have fix your wpa_supplicant first).

Last edited by Strike0 (2012-01-28 23:39:55)

Velshtein · 2012-01-29 05:22:16

Strike0 wrote:

So your iwconfig output shows wlan0 is not associated to the wifi. In that case it makes no sense to try to get an IP anyway. You wrote before:
Velshtein wrote:
Had to create a new wpa_supplicant to get your second set of directions to work, but work it eventually did. The output of dhcpcd looked a little something like this:
So that may have been the reason there as well. Double-check if your wpa-supplicant works before the dhcp.
If it does, it may still be a specific problem which can only be solved by downgrading. I would'nt know if it is for the card as kwbauson suggests.
edit: Have a look at this also, if it still wont work. (Of course you have fix your wpa_supplicant first).

Fixed. The addition of the

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=network

command to the original wpa_supplicant did the trick.

A couple of questions though. First, what exactly does that command do? (I like to know things)

Second, part of the problem was that I was using the passphrase instead of the hexkey, but I have no idea how I acquired the hexkey in the first place. Can anyone fill me in on that? I'm afraid that I've forgotten.

Strike0 · 2012-01-29 07:12:34

Velshtein wrote:

A couple of questions though. First, what exactly does that command do? (I like to know things)
Second, part of the problem was that I was using the passphrase instead of the hexkey, but I have no idea how I acquired the hexkey in the first place. Can anyone fill me in on that? I'm afraid that I've forgotten.

I suggest you have a look again in wpa_supplicant wiki. Both questions are answered right in the config section ;-) If unclear with that, please ask again.
Good that you got it to work.

Last edited by Strike0 (2012-01-29 07:14:51)

Arch Linux

#1 2012-01-25 11:41:42

[Solved] Wireless Networking Randomly Not Working

#2 2012-01-25 21:29:41

Re: [Solved] Wireless Networking Randomly Not Working

#3 2012-01-26 04:36:53

Re: [Solved] Wireless Networking Randomly Not Working

#4 2012-01-26 05:21:41

Re: [Solved] Wireless Networking Randomly Not Working

#5 2012-01-27 03:21:15

Re: [Solved] Wireless Networking Randomly Not Working

#6 2012-01-27 19:31:25

Re: [Solved] Wireless Networking Randomly Not Working

#7 2012-01-28 05:14:06

Re: [Solved] Wireless Networking Randomly Not Working

#8 2012-01-28 07:54:45

Re: [Solved] Wireless Networking Randomly Not Working

#9 2012-01-28 08:14:22

Re: [Solved] Wireless Networking Randomly Not Working

#10 2012-01-29 05:22:16

Re: [Solved] Wireless Networking Randomly Not Working

#11 2012-01-29 07:12:34

Re: [Solved] Wireless Networking Randomly Not Working

Board footer