Wifi stopped working. Not even manually.

lambu0815 · 2013-06-10 20:11:40

Hi,
I've no idea, where to go from here. Wifi on my Thinkpad Edge 13 Laptop stopped working (meanwhile a few weeks ago). Until then I had it running with NetworkManager and everything was fine. At home it is a WPA-connection. Still works without problems on mobile and kids' laptop (ubuntu). "iw wlan0 scan" shows hardly any networks although there're loads around. That used to be different before. At work, an EAP-connection works well under NetworkManager. Now I removed NetworkManager in order to try manual connection.
When I start wpa_supplicant, I get "device or resource busy" and the connection fails. My conf-file consits only of the output of wpa_passphrase. The corresponding dmesg shows several

[ 1838.093841] wlan0: authenticate with 00:24:d1:79:a7:7d
[ 1838.103460] wlan0: direct probe to 00:24:d1:79:a7:7d (try 1/3)
[ 1838.206524] wlan0: direct probe to 00:24:d1:79:a7:7d (try 2/3)
[ 1843.108643] wlan0: deauthenticating from 00:24:d1:79:a7:7d by local choice (reason=3)

After this, the interface comes down by itself. The output of dmesg is the same with NetworkManager. I've also tried wicd and netctl without success. I have ABSOLUTELY no idea how to continue debugging and appreciate any comment that might give me a new direction.

Question on the side: when I reinstall NetworkManager and enable it under systemd, do I have to enable dhcpcd under systemd as well or is that taken care of by NetworkManager?

WonderWoofy · 2013-06-10 20:59:04

This is Arch Linux, very little is done for you. The first thing that comes to mind is that you probably have multiple things trying to control the network at the same time. Figure out what you have enabled/running in terms of network management, then stop/disable them all. Then choose one thing to hand this area.

The second thing that comes to mind is that you might have a Thinkpad b/g/n card, which is a Realtek that uses the rtl8192ce module. That card/module sucks. Actually it is the module since it works fine in windows.

But without knowing what your hardware actually is, or what you have setup and/or running, there is no telling what your problem might actually be.

lambu0815 · 2013-06-11 08:09:36

Your second thought is right, my wireless network controller is RTL8191SEvB, the driver is rtl8192se. But it's been working for months before.
Your first thought is also not wrong, maybe. I am aware that Arch Linux isn't doing much for me but I am willing to find out how to handle it. My guess too is that I've multiple things trying to control the network, I concluded that from my jounald output:

Jun 11 08:44:44 aspi NetworkManager[290]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
Jun 11 08:44:44 aspi NetworkManager[290]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: disconnected -> scanning
Jun 11 08:44:51 aspi kernel: wlan0: authenticate with 58:bf:ea:ee:78:60
Jun 11 08:44:51 aspi NetworkManager[290]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: scanning -> authenticating
Jun 11 08:44:51 aspi kernel: wlan0: direct probe to 58:bf:ea:ee:78:60 (try 1/3)
Jun 11 08:44:51 aspi kernel: wlan0: direct probe to 58:bf:ea:ee:78:60 (try 2/3)
Jun 11 08:44:56 aspi kernel: wlan0: deauthenticating from 58:bf:ea:ee:78:60 by local choice (reason=3)
Jun 11 08:44:56 aspi NetworkManager[290]: <info> (wlan0): supplicant interface state: authenticating -> disconnected

To me this looks like NetworkManager and kernel are working against each other. Or is it only double entries on two different levels?

As I said I tried to disable/remove everything and do the setup manually (using only wireless_tools or iw, wpa_supplicant and dhcpcd). How can I find out if there is anything left of my tries with networkmanager/wicd/netctl/netcfg?
Maybe two more outputs, the first one also making me wonder if there are two things getting in the way of each other:

$ sudo systemctl --full | grep -i wlan
sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:07.0-0000:03:00.0-net-wlan0.device     loaded active plugged   RTL8191SEvB Wireless LAN Controller
sys-subsystem-net-devices-wlan0.device                                loaded active plugged   RTL8191SEvB Wireless LAN Controller
$ sudo systemctl | grep -i network
NetworkM...t-online.service  loaded failed failed    Network Manager Wait Online
NetworkManager.service       loaded active running   Network Manager
network-online.target        loaded active active    Network is Online
network.target               loaded active active    Network

WonderWoofy · 2013-06-11 14:50:14

To see what you have running currently, you can use systemctl without any arguments to see a list of all the stuffs. But if you want to narrow it down to a single type of systemd unit, you can specify with --type=(service|target|path|mount|automount|etc.). In this case you want to see just the systemd.service files. So you would do "systemctl --type=service". I am not sure about how this compares to bash, but with zsh the tab completion for systemctl is pretty amazing.

So list your services and then see what you have running. Grep'ing for "network" is not the right solution here because if you take a look at the dhcpcd@.service file you will notice that both the name of the service and the description don't have netowrk mentioned anywhere in them. Look through the list and see if you have multiple things runnnig that might be all trying to control the internets. Disable and stop them all and then choose just one to use. Be aware that networkmanager pulls in two deps, so a total of three services are activated when you start it. But if you just enable/disable NetworkManager.service you can see which those are... or of course you can look in the service file, which is probably even better becuase you can then get an idea of how systemd services are formatted.

lambu0815 · 2013-06-11 21:17:18

Thank you for helping me out. When I tried again today I couldn't even get my interface up due to RF-kill. Installed rfkill (was there before when I tried wicd) and removed the soft block on phy0. Now these are the services running:

$ sudo systemctl -t service
UNIT                         LOAD   ACTIVE SUB     DESCRIPTION
avahi-daemon.service         loaded active running Avahi mDNS/DNS-SD Stack
cronie.service               loaded active running Periodic Command Scheduler
dbus.service                 loaded active running D-Bus System Message Bus
getty@tty1.service           loaded active running Getty on tty1
polkit.service               loaded active running Authorization Manager
slim.service                 loaded active running SLiM Simple Login Manager
systemd-journald.service     loaded active running Journal Service
systemd-logind.service       loaded active running Login Service
systemd-modules-load.service loaded active exited  Load Kernel Modules
systemd-remount-fs.service   loaded active exited  Remount Root and Kernel File 
systemd-sysctl.service       loaded active exited  Apply Kernel Variables
systemd-t...es-setup.service loaded active exited  Recreate Volatile Files and D
systemd-udev-trigger.service loaded active exited  udev Coldplug all Devices
systemd-udevd.service        loaded active running udev Kernel Device Manager
systemd-update-utmp.service  loaded active exited  Update UTMP about System Rebo
systemd-u...sessions.service loaded active exited  Permit User Sessions
systemd-v...le-setup.service loaded active exited  Setup Virtual Console
udisks2.service              loaded active running Disk Manager
upower.service               loaded active running Daemon for power management

Nothing network as far as I can tell. Then I get wlan0 up with "sudo ip link set". Starting wpa_supplicant I get this output (as before):

Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant
wlan0: Trying to associate with 00:24:d1:79:a7:7d (SSID='UPC009875' freq=2412 MHz)
ioctl[SIOCSIWFREQ]: Device or resource busy
wlan0: Association request to the driver failed
wlan0: Authentication with 00:24:d1:79:a7:7d timed out.
wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=00:24:d1:79:a7:7d reason=3 locally_generated=1

After I quit with Ctrl-C the interface is down again...
Looks like the ioctl... is coming in my way, I'll try to figure out what that is.

lambu0815 · 2013-06-11 21:54:30

looks like https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=158599 has something similar - but no solution

lambu0815 · 2013-06-12 11:56:01

I tried "systemctl -t service --all" and found

 wicd.service            error   inactive   dead    wicd.service

Since wicd is not installed any more (and was only for a short time), maybe this is part of the problem. wicd.service is "WantedBy=multi-user.target".

Last edited by lambu0815 (2013-06-12 12:06:04)

Trilby · 2013-06-12 12:01:35

Yes, disable wicd.service.

lambu0815 · 2013-06-12 12:05:44

Well, wicd.service is NOT enabled, it's just wanted by multi-user.target.

But when I do "systemctl list-unit-files" I see:

 dbus-org.wicd.daemon.service           enabled

But I can't figure out how to disable this, it does'nt show up with "systemctl -t service"

Last edited by lambu0815 (2013-06-12 12:08:06)

Trilby · 2013-06-12 12:07:52

Where are you getting that it is wanted by multi-user.target?

This would generally be due to the service file being copied/linked into the multi-user.target.wants directory .... this is exactly what enabling a service is.

Last edited by Trilby (2013-06-12 12:08:54)

lambu0815 · 2013-06-12 12:09:45

# systemctl show -p WantedBy -p RequiredBy wicd.service
RequiredBy=
WantedBy=multi-user.target

And wicd.service is NOT in /usr/lib/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/

Last edited by lambu0815 (2013-06-12 12:12:22)

Trilby · 2013-06-12 12:10:35

So it is enabled. What does the following show:

ls /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants

Last edited by Trilby (2013-06-12 12:11:23)

lambu0815 · 2013-06-12 12:14:04

Ah, it's in /etc/... .
Yep, wicd.service is there, can I just delete it?

Trilby · 2013-06-12 12:15:14

Yes - or you can disable it as I suggested a while back. All enabling or disabling does is create/remove links in /etc/systemd/

If you remove it manually you will need to restart the systemd daemon, disabling it does this for you.

Last edited by Trilby (2013-06-12 12:18:03)

lambu0815 · 2013-06-12 12:17:56

Ok, I'll try deleting it, since it is not enabled, only wanted. Did you see my changed entry about "list-unit-files" and "dbus-org.wicd.daemon.service" being enabled?

Trilby · 2013-06-12 12:23:49

If there was a file for it in /etc/systemd/system, then it was enabled. `Systemctl is-enabled` may not have been able to list it as the service file no longer existed in the default location to be checked. But disabling does not check that location: enable and disable work with /etc/systemd/*.

Disabling wicd.service should get rid of the wicd dbus service.

lambu0815 · 2013-06-12 12:29:58

Well, thank you so far, I certainly do feel cleaned up now. But the problem is still there, I can see my wifi when scanning but neither wpa_supplicant (manually) nor NetworkManager can connect.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-06-10 20:11:40

Wifi stopped working. Not even manually.

#2 2013-06-10 20:59:04

Re: Wifi stopped working. Not even manually.

#3 2013-06-11 08:09:36

Re: Wifi stopped working. Not even manually.

#4 2013-06-11 14:50:14

Re: Wifi stopped working. Not even manually.

#5 2013-06-11 21:17:18

Re: Wifi stopped working. Not even manually.

#6 2013-06-11 21:54:30

Re: Wifi stopped working. Not even manually.

#7 2013-06-12 11:56:01

Re: Wifi stopped working. Not even manually.

#8 2013-06-12 12:01:35

Re: Wifi stopped working. Not even manually.

#9 2013-06-12 12:05:44

Re: Wifi stopped working. Not even manually.

#10 2013-06-12 12:07:52

Re: Wifi stopped working. Not even manually.

#11 2013-06-12 12:09:45

Re: Wifi stopped working. Not even manually.

#12 2013-06-12 12:10:35

Re: Wifi stopped working. Not even manually.

#13 2013-06-12 12:14:04

Re: Wifi stopped working. Not even manually.

#14 2013-06-12 12:15:14

Re: Wifi stopped working. Not even manually.

#15 2013-06-12 12:17:56

Re: Wifi stopped working. Not even manually.

#16 2013-06-12 12:23:49

Re: Wifi stopped working. Not even manually.

#17 2013-06-12 12:29:58

Re: Wifi stopped working. Not even manually.

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