Dell N5040 Wifi works randomly.

cgroza · 2013-10-09 20:31:27

Hello everyone. I installed Arch recently and everything works fine except for the wifi. I can use wifi-menu to connect to my network, but the connection will only work randomly.
I have to connect multiple times to get it to work. The connection is not dropped and iwconfig reports a signal strength above 80%, but if I try to ping google.com, it simply hangs there without any output. Sometimes, the connection will work for the first few seconds and then stop, without disconnecting. Also, I am not able to load any webpage when it does that. The browser just keeps saying "Connecting to ...". I have already tried to put ipv6.disable=1 in my kernel line with no results. Here is my iwconfig output:

[cgroza@CArch ~]$ iwconfig 
enp19s0   no wireless extensions.

wlp18s0   IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"BELL056"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.452 GHz  Access Point: 2C:E4:12:A4:C3:7F   
          Bit Rate=28.9 Mb/s   Tx-Power=19 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=67/70  Signal level=-43 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:136  Invalid misc:2   Missed beacon:0

lo        no wireless extensions.

I am posting from Arch, because this is one of the random times when wifi actually works.
This is my wifi card:

 12:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)

I am using the default driver included in the kernel.
Thank you for your assistance.

Last edited by cgroza (2013-10-09 20:49:25)

WonderWoofy · 2013-10-09 21:52:43

Maybe you should try the proprietary broadcom-wl module. All you have to do is install it from the AUR, and it will blacklist all the necessary stuffs and whatnot. Then reboot.

cgroza · 2013-10-09 23:51:42

I tried doing this. I followed the instruction on the wiki. The module was loaded and my networks were detected but wifi-menu could not connect. No error whatsoever. iwconfig confirms this. So I had to undo the changes to get the random functionality back.
Thank you for your time anyway.

WonderWoofy · 2013-10-09 23:58:56

If networks were detected then the card was functioning. I think you have problems separate from your wireless card that might need addressing.

herOldMan · 2013-10-15 00:12:48

Humm, Dell laptop:

lsmod | grep wmi
lsmod | grep dell

I blacklisted: blacklist wmi & dell_wmi. My b43 connection is much better since.

cgroza · 2013-10-18 23:27:15

I will try that and update this post later. Thank you.

cgroza · 2013-10-24 20:18:40

Also, I get this problem in Ubuntu now after the latest upgrade. It appears this kernel version is problematic for me. As in Arch, the connection works for only a second or so after selecting a network.

cgroza · 2013-11-08 01:20:29

Just letting you know that the 3.12 kernel fixed all the issues. Thank you for your suggestions.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-10-09 20:31:27

Dell N5040 Wifi works randomly.

#2 2013-10-09 21:52:43

Re: Dell N5040 Wifi works randomly.

#3 2013-10-09 23:51:42

Re: Dell N5040 Wifi works randomly.

#4 2013-10-09 23:58:56

Re: Dell N5040 Wifi works randomly.

#5 2013-10-15 00:12:48

Re: Dell N5040 Wifi works randomly.

#6 2013-10-18 23:27:15

Re: Dell N5040 Wifi works randomly.

#7 2013-10-24 20:18:40

Re: Dell N5040 Wifi works randomly.

#8 2013-11-08 01:20:29

Re: Dell N5040 Wifi works randomly.

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