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bygmhra

Member

Registered: 2011-12-22

Posts: 25

[solved] no wifi, downgrading wpa_supplicant didn't help

Recently (I'm not sure when.. maybe within the last week?) I wasn't able to connect to wifi. This was at a public library so I assumed it was an issue with the library's wifi.

Later that day I realized it was not because I also could not connect to the wifi in my house.

Since then I have not been able to connect to wifi at all, except for a strange incident this morning, when I was able to connect to public wifi (same library). I thought the problem was fixed, but I still can't connect to the wireless in my house.

I have tried downgrading wpa_supplicant (as suggested here and here) but that did not work.

netctl told me to check journalctl and systemctl status. I'll post them here but they seem unhelpful.

$ journalctl -xn
-- Logs begin at Fri 2013-03-15 08:20:47 PDT, end at Thu 2014-03-06 09:31:26 PST. --
Mar 06 09:31:26 adonis systemd[364]: Reached target Paths.
-- Subject: Unit UNIT has finished start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- Unit UNIT has finished starting up.
-- 
-- The start-up result is done.
Mar 06 09:31:26 adonis systemd[364]: Starting Timers.
-- Subject: Unit UNIT has begun with start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- Unit UNIT has begun starting up.
Mar 06 09:31:26 adonis systemd[364]: Reached target Timers.
-- Subject: Unit UNIT has finished start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- Unit UNIT has finished starting up.
-- 
-- The start-up result is done.
Mar 06 09:31:26 adonis systemd[364]: Starting Sockets.
-- Subject: Unit UNIT has begun with start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- Unit UNIT has begun starting up.
Mar 06 09:31:26 adonis systemd[364]: Reached target Sockets.
-- Subject: Unit UNIT has finished start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- Unit UNIT has finished starting up.
-- 
-- The start-up result is done.
Mar 06 09:31:26 adonis systemd[364]: Starting Basic System.
-- Subject: Unit UNIT has begun with start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- Unit UNIT has begun starting up.
Mar 06 09:31:26 adonis systemd[364]: Reached target Basic System.
-- Subject: Unit UNIT has finished start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- Unit UNIT has finished starting up.
-- 
-- The start-up result is done.
Mar 06 09:31:26 adonis systemd[364]: Starting Default.
-- Subject: Unit UNIT has begun with start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- Unit UNIT has begun starting up.
Mar 06 09:31:26 adonis systemd[364]: Reached target Default.
-- Subject: Unit UNIT has finished start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- Unit UNIT has finished starting up.
-- 
-- The start-up result is done.
Mar 06 09:31:26 adonis systemd[364]: Startup finished in 130ms.
-- Subject: System start-up is now complete
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- All system services necessary queued for starting at boot have been
-- successfully started. Note that this does not mean that the machine is
-- now idle as services might still be busy with completing start-up.
-- 
-- Kernel start-up required KERNEL_USEC microseconds.
-- 
-- Initial RAM disk start-up required INITRD_USEC microseconds.
-- 
-- Userspace start-up required 130325 microseconds.

$ systemctl status netctl@homewifi.service
netctl@homewifi.service - A simple WPA encrypted wireless connection
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/netctl@homewifi.service; enabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Thu 2014-03-06 10:14:17 PST; 13s ago
     Docs: man:netctl.profile(5)
  Process: 2438 ExecStart=/usr/lib/network/network start %I (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
 Main PID: 2438 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Sorry if I'm not providing the right information about my system! Having difficulty troubleshooting this issue because I don't know where to begin.. I think this is my wireless card, if that's helpful/relevant?

03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 1000 [Condor Peak] [8086:0084]

Last edited by bygmhra (2014-03-10 17:05:40)

jocheem67

Member

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 245

Re: [solved] no wifi, downgrading wpa_supplicant didn't help

Hi there

Did you do these checks ?

 dmesg | grep iwl 

There should prob. be some firmware loaded.

I'd recommend further to delete or disable your netctl profile .

 netctl disable netctl@wireless_bla_die_bla 

Try to conncet manually through dhcpcd
( is this service running ? )
That' ll call upon wpa_supplicant
( check on /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf )
And you should be set. At least for your home network.

Read on the wiki's >> the wireless one, dhcpcd, and wpa_supplicant.
Try to connect without any helpers.

Here's my dhcpcd service, as a sound one:

dhcpcd.service - dhcpcd on all interfaces
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/dhcpcd.service; enabled)
   Active: active (running) since vr 2014-03-07 06:11:11 CET; 16min ago
  Process: 367 ExecStart=/usr/bin/dhcpcd -q -b (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 638 (dhcpcd)
   CGroup: /system.slice/dhcpcd.service
           ├─638 /usr/bin/dhcpcd -q -b
           └─685 wpa_supplicant -B -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -iwlp3s0

bygmhra

Member

Registered: 2011-12-22

Posts: 25

Re: [solved] no wifi, downgrading wpa_supplicant didn't help

Hi, thanks for your response

I just checked dmesg and there was a line about firmware being loaded. I deleted my netctl profile.

The contents of /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf are right.

I started wpa_supplicant like so

# wpa_supplicant -B -i interface -c configuration_file
Successfully initialized wpa_supplicant 

This did not give me a connection.

I also did:

#dhcpcd wlan0
dhcpcd[891]: version 6.2.1 starting
dhcpcd[894]: wlan0: starting wpa_supplicant
dhcpcd[891]: wlan0: waiting for carrier
dhcpcd[891]: wlan0: carrier acquired
dhcpcd[891]: DUID 00:01:00:01:19:8d:bf:a1:8c:a9:82:9e:85:b0
dhcpcd[891]: wlan0: IAID 82:9e:85:b0
dhcpcd[891]: wlan0: soliciting an IPv6 router
dhcpcd[891]: wlan0: soliciting a DHCP lease
dhcpcd[891]: wlan0: carrier lost
dhcpcd[891]: wlan0: carrier acquired
dhcpcd[891]: wlan0: IAID 82:9e:85:b0
dhcpcd[891]: wlan0: soliciting an IPv6 router
dhcpcd[891]: wlan0: soliciting a DHCP lease
dhcpcd[891]: timed out
dhcpcd[891]: exited

I haven't finished reading the wiki pages yes. Again, thank you for responding.

jocheem67

Member

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 245

Re: [solved] no wifi, downgrading wpa_supplicant didn't help

Hi there

There's a problem it seems with dhcpcd. It's timing out. Does wired work ?
As a test either downgrade your dhcpcd version or try the alternative, dhclient.

From the wireless wiki (quite ugly):

Getting an IP address
Note: See Network configuration#Configure the IP address for more examples. This part is identical.
Finally, provide an IP address to the network interface. Simple examples are:
# dhcpcd wlan0
or
# dhclient wlan0
for DHCP, or
# ip addr add 192.168.0.2/24 dev wlan0
# ip route add default via 192.168.0.1
for static IP addressing.
Tip: dhcpcd contains a hook (enabled by default) to automatically launch WPA supplicant on wireless interfaces. It is started only if a configuration file at /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf exists and no wpa_supplicant process is listening on that interface. In most cases, you do not need to create any custom service, just enable dhcpcd@interface.

There's more interesting stuff there

Last edited by jocheem67 (2014-03-07 18:08:03)

WonderWoofy

Member

From: Los Gatos, CA

Registered: 2012-05-19

Posts: 8,414

Re: [solved] no wifi, downgrading wpa_supplicant didn't help

Instead of downgrading right away, try initiating dhcpcd without the timeout and see if it eventually goes.  You might also try disabling IPv6 if that is not something you use.

bygmhra

Member

Registered: 2011-12-22

Posts: 25

Re: [solved] no wifi, downgrading wpa_supplicant didn't help

So I was able to connect to my home wireless after restarting the router.

I don't think this solves the issue of connecting to public wifi, but unfortunately I can't test that until Monday...

edit It's monday and I can connect
I'm getting 100% packet loss from pinging google, but since I can do normal internet things I'm calling this solved

Last edited by bygmhra (2014-03-10 17:05:25)