[SOLVED] Wifi connection drops consistently- bcm43225 card, brcmsmac.

clappboard · 2012-02-03 16:31:11

Every so often when I boot my notebook, and initiate the network connection like so:

sudo ip link set wlan0 up
sudo wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -Dwext -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

wait for ten seconds

sudo dhcpcd wlan0

dhcpcd polls, then connects fine. But, after about 10-20 seconds, the connection drops. 10-20 seconds later, it's back up. This becomes apparent when I ping a site, because it goes 'sent' for about ten pings, 'failed' for about ten pings, etc. I can't figure out what it is. Some of the troubleshooting I've done:

sudo ip link set wlan0 down
sudo pkill dhcpcd
sudo rmmod brcmsmac
sudo modprobe brcmsmac

then re-initiate the connection. Still the problem persists, and only rectifies itself when I reboot my notebook. I have no other special settings like a static IP or anything.
Any help or insight whatsoever would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Last edited by clappboard (2012-02-09 23:34:14)

Strike0 · 2012-02-03 17:07:27

Any hints in the logfiles perhaps?
20 seconds is too short for power-saving being a reason, but you can try to turn it off with iw.
Perhaps you have a conflicting driver which needs to be blacklisted (have a look out in lsmod).
One thing more you could test is bring the link up (like you do), but dont connect with wpa_supplicant. Wait a few minutes and then check with iw, if the link is still associated to your router. That would circle it in to the encryption.

Gusar · 2012-02-03 17:16:15

No concrete idea, except that the b43 driver supports your card too, so you could try that.

clappboard · 2012-02-03 17:41:43

Thanks for the responses guys!
1) Here is my lsmod:

Module                  Size  Used by
aes_generic            26138  1 
fuse                   66922  2 
ipv6                  288511  46 
ext2                   63387  1 
arc4                    1410  2 
brcmsmac              533480  0 
cordic                  1073  1 brcmsmac
crc8                    1186  1 brcmsmac
uvcvideo               64311  0 
brcmutil                3617  1 brcmsmac
videodev               82101  1 uvcvideo
snd_hda_codec_conexant    47186  1 
i915                  418631  8 
joydev                  9895  0 
drm_kms_helper         26137  1 i915
snd_hda_intel          23343  4 
snd_hda_codec          89160  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_conexant
v4l2_compat_ioctl32     8316  1 videodev
snd_hwdep               6389  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                74780  3 snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
snd_page_alloc          7153  2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
snd_timer              19544  1 snd_pcm
mac80211              228367  1 brcmsmac
drm                   188362  4 drm_kms_helper,i915
usbhid                 35352  0 
media                  10597  2 videodev,uvcvideo
hid                    83555  1 usbhid
cfg80211              172260  2 mac80211,brcmsmac
broadcom                7270  0 
snd                    59214  13 snd_timer,snd_pcm,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_conexant
tg3                   134884  0 
psmouse                61311  0 
i2c_algo_bit            5263  1 i915
pcspkr                  1819  0 
serio_raw               4429  0 
evdev                   9530  12 
video                  11164  1 i915
thermal                 7799  0 
battery                 6453  0 
button                  4470  1 i915
ac                      2344  0 
processor              25582  0 
fan                     2426  0 
intel_agp              10904  1 i915
soundcore               6210  1 snd
i2c_i801                8187  0 
libphy                 16985  2 tg3,broadcom
iTCO_wdt               11885  0 
iTCO_vendor_support     1961  1 iTCO_wdt
rfkill                 15498  2 cfg80211
intel_gtt              14519  3 intel_agp,i915
mei                    32414  0
i2c_core               20492  6 i2c_i801,i2c_algo_bit,drm,drm_kms_helper,i915,videodev
intel_ips              11213  0 
ext4                  417116  2 
crc16                   1359  1 ext4
jbd2                   71243  1 ext4
mbcache                 5881  2 ext4,ext2
sr_mod                 14951  0 
cdrom                  36681  1 sr_mod
sd_mod                 28307  5 
ahci                   20037  4 
libahci                19559  1 ahci
libata                166654  2 libahci,ahci
ehci_hcd               40698  0 
scsi_mod              133443  3 libata,sd_mod,sr_mod
usbcore               146241  4 ehci_hcd,usbhid,uvcvideo
usb_common               954  1 usbcore

As far as I can tell, there's nothing there.

2) I've blacklisted acer_wmi, which has given me problems before, both on Arch and various other distros.

3) I've disabled power-saving via iw.

@Gusar: My card is not in fact supported by the b43 or b43-legacy drivers. It's supported by the brcmsmac and broadcom-wl drivers only. I've tried the broadcom-wl, and have experienced a great deal of bugginess, as well as hearing a lot of negative feedback on it from various users.

Strike0 · 2012-02-03 18:04:50

Three more things to try:
1) Change the channel of the router, if there are other wifis around. Sudden disturbances can cause such as well.
2) If the link stays up (see above), then you can also start wpa with debugging
3) Try TKIP instead of AES
I don't see anything conflicting either in lsmod.

Trilby · 2012-02-03 18:19:15

What's the "broadcom" module in your lsmod? It could be perfectly appropriate, I just ask out of complete ignorance. I use brcmsmac on one computer and b43 on another and I'm pretty sure neither has a "broadcom" module (I just checked the brcmsmac one). Would this be a wired connection?

If it is a different wireless module, the two may 'compete'. I don't know much about how that all works, but I know competing modules can lead to symptoms like those you describe.

clappboard · 2012-02-03 18:20:41

[UPDATE] I set the connection down, then back up again, to try the debug mode. It started acting up again, so I pinged to show you exactly what it's doing:

[_____@acer-travelmate ~]$ ping google.ca
PING google.ca (74.125.226.24) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from yyz06s05-in-f24.1e100.net (74.125.226.24): icmp_req=1 ttl=56 time=85.7 ms
64 bytes from yyz06s05-in-f24.1e100.net (74.125.226.24): icmp_req=2 ttl=56 time=95.8 ms
64 bytes from yyz06s05-in-f24.1e100.net (74.125.226.24): icmp_req=3 ttl=56 time=47.8 ms
64 bytes from yyz06s05-in-f24.1e100.net (74.125.226.24): icmp_req=4 ttl=56 time=39.0 ms
ping: sendmsg: Network is unreachable
ping: sendmsg: Network is unreachable
ping: sendmsg: Network is unreachable
ping: sendmsg: Network is unreachable
ping: sendmsg: Network is unreachable
ping: sendmsg: Network is unreachable
64 bytes from yyz06s05-in-f24.1e100.net (74.125.226.24): icmp_req=11 ttl=56 time=60.2 ms
64 bytes from yyz06s05-in-f24.1e100.net (74.125.226.24): icmp_req=12 ttl=56 time=77.6 ms
64 bytes from yyz06s05-in-f24.1e100.net (74.125.226.24): icmp_req=13 ttl=56 time=155 ms
64 bytes from yyz06s05-in-f24.1e100.net (74.125.226.24): icmp_req=14 ttl=56 time=88.2 ms
64 bytes from yyz06s05-in-f24.1e100.net (74.125.226.24): icmp_req=15 ttl=56 time=69.1 ms
ping: sendmsg: Network is unreachable
ping: sendmsg: Network is unreachable
ping: sendmsg: Network is unreachable
ping: sendmsg: Network is unreachable
ping: sendmsg: Network is unreachable
ping: sendmsg: Network is unreachable
64 bytes from yyz06s05-in-f24.1e100.net (74.125.226.24): icmp_req=22 ttl=56 time=57.3 ms
64 bytes from yyz06s05-in-f24.1e100.net (74.125.226.24): icmp_req=23 ttl=56 time=57.2 ms
64 bytes from yyz06s05-in-f24.1e100.net (74.125.226.24): icmp_req=24 ttl=56 time=96.2 ms
64 bytes from yyz06s05-in-f24.1e100.net (74.125.226.24): icmp_req=25 ttl=56 time=98.2 ms
^C64 bytes from 74.125.226.24: icmp_req=26 ttl=56 time=83.2 ms

--- google.ca ping statistics ---
26 packets transmitted, 14 received, 46% packet loss, time 25023ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 39.029/79.417/155.530/27.918 ms

46% package loss, at fairly regular intervals. None of the other computers in the building, running everything from Windows XP to Ubuntu 11.10, have this problem. I am situated in a secluded rural area. There are no other wireless networks within a kilometer to cause interference.

clappboard · 2012-02-03 18:23:50

@Trilby: I'm assuming that the broadcom module is my ethernet module. I've never had any issues with ethernet connections before, so never had the need to look into it... I'll try removing the module, and seeing if that makes a difference. I understand what you mean about the conflicting modules though.

Gusar · 2012-02-03 19:35:27

clappboard wrote:

@Gusar: My card is not in fact supported by the b43 or b43-legacy drivers.

It is. Since 3.1. You'll need to compile your own kernel though, to activate bcma support. Another thing to try is the very latest kernel, currently that would be 3.3-rc2.

Last edited by Gusar (2012-02-03 19:35:50)

clappboard · 2012-02-03 19:38:11

Gusar wrote:

clappboard wrote:
@Gusar: My card is not in fact supported by the b43 or b43-legacy drivers.
It is. Since 3.1. You'll need to compile your own kernel though, to activate bcma support. Another thing to try is the very latest kernel, currently that would be 3.3-rc2.

Ah, my mistake! Thank you for the info, I will look into switching!

clappboard · 2012-02-09 23:32:43

I've figured it out guys. Thanks for all your help! The issue lay with wpa_supplicant itself. The problem was, sometimes when I would first boot my laptop, the brcmsmac module would not load properly for some reason, so I would try killing dhcpcd, setting the device down through ip link, and reloading the module. However, I completely forgot to kill the wpa_supplicant process, so it being running while I reloaded the module somehow screwed it up when I re-associated the device.
Such a simple mistake! Marking as solved.

Strike0 · 2012-02-10 18:16:37

Right, good that that workaround solves your issue. In any case you should see "killing" a process as a workaround. Also looking at the steps you do, a bit more clean way would be:

killall wpa_supplicant -SIGHUP   # bye bye encrypton
dhcpcd -k          #release the IP - you should not have to kill dhcpcd
ip link set wlan0 down     # bye bye interface
rmmod brcmsmac      # Where the real issue is still hidden somehow 
modprobe brcmsmac
sleep 5           # if that is enough time
ip link set wlan0 up 
dhcpcd wlan0
sleep 10
wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -Dwext -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf 
ping broadcom.com

I.e. you bring the non-functioning connection down backward in the steps you take to bring it up.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-02-03 16:31:11

[SOLVED] Wifi connection drops consistently- bcm43225 card, brcmsmac.

#2 2012-02-03 17:07:27

Re: [SOLVED] Wifi connection drops consistently- bcm43225 card, brcmsmac.

#3 2012-02-03 17:16:15

Re: [SOLVED] Wifi connection drops consistently- bcm43225 card, brcmsmac.

#4 2012-02-03 17:41:43

Re: [SOLVED] Wifi connection drops consistently- bcm43225 card, brcmsmac.

#5 2012-02-03 18:04:50

Re: [SOLVED] Wifi connection drops consistently- bcm43225 card, brcmsmac.

#6 2012-02-03 18:19:15

Re: [SOLVED] Wifi connection drops consistently- bcm43225 card, brcmsmac.

#7 2012-02-03 18:20:41

Re: [SOLVED] Wifi connection drops consistently- bcm43225 card, brcmsmac.

#8 2012-02-03 18:23:50

Re: [SOLVED] Wifi connection drops consistently- bcm43225 card, brcmsmac.

#9 2012-02-03 19:35:27

Re: [SOLVED] Wifi connection drops consistently- bcm43225 card, brcmsmac.

#10 2012-02-03 19:38:11

Re: [SOLVED] Wifi connection drops consistently- bcm43225 card, brcmsmac.

#11 2012-02-09 23:32:43

Re: [SOLVED] Wifi connection drops consistently- bcm43225 card, brcmsmac.

#12 2012-02-10 18:16:37

Re: [SOLVED] Wifi connection drops consistently- bcm43225 card, brcmsmac.

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