[SOLVED]Invisbile WiFi on specific device and OS

LeonardK · 2015-03-03 16:37:26

Hello!

the situtation is the following:
I have on WiFi which every device I have could connect to. It is setup as WPA2-PSK secured and I used to connect to it with my Arch box just with netctl-profiles to it, as I still do from my other Arch install. But the former one refuses to even "see" the network. wifi-menu excludes it from the list of available networks. Other devices connect flawlessly. The router has nothing in it's log mentioning any connection issues, so it's not there.
I still can connect from the same device that can't, when I'm booting my Windows install from it, so no hardware issue or blocked by MacAddrs etc.

What is even more strange, is that I see an additionaly WiFi (only on the Arch boxes, not from Windows, with a Hex SSID O.o:
\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00

Both, wifi-menu and netgui are showing it. Maybe it's related (crashing a service, as it's an "unexpected format" for an SSID). On the other hand I *can* connect to other WiFi's (eg. a Android AP).

I never had such an issue before and I'm completely puzzled.

Wifi card:
BCM43228 with b43 driver installed

Last edited by LeonardK (2015-03-03 19:25:07)

Soukyuu · 2015-03-03 18:53:29

Which channel does your wifi operate on? Some WLAN chips are set to US regulatory domain per default on linux, which makes them not use channel 12-13. In any case, you could try forcing your router to use ch1-10 to test if the wifi network will become visible.
If that's the case, you'll have to change the regulatory domain of your chip to EU/DE.

LeonardK · 2015-03-03 19:23:55

Wow, thanks! Apperently my router changed back to "automatic channel" (or I forgot to change it). At least my WiFi is working now again :-).

I'm a bit confused though, that my (formerly working) install is set to "00"/unset, too - but still could access the WiFi. However, after I changed the router's wifi channel to 10, the connection to the formerly working box is unstable, that is, I can connect to the WiFi but now the box has problems getting an IP. I have to run dhcpcd some times until I get it working, but I'll see into that later on.

Much thanks again ;-)

(I'll mark the thread as [SOLVED])

Soukyuu · 2015-03-03 21:05:19

I think that maybe "00"/unset can mean various things for different chipsets. For example meaning "unrestricted" for one, and "pick the most limited" for another.
I also had a case where the driver would reset the regdom to "US" even though I had it set to "world" in the config, had to actually flash the new regdom setting to the chip to stop it from doing that.
As for the instability, probably the channel you chose gets more interference from other WLAN networks in your location than the one your router picked.

LeonardK · 2015-03-03 22:06:20

Soukyuu wrote:

I think that maybe "00"/unset can mean various things for different chipsets. For example meaning "unrestricted" for one, and "pick the most limited" for another.
I also had a case where the driver would reset the regdom to "US" even though I had it set to "world" in the config, had to actually flash the new regdom setting to the chip to stop it from doing that.

That's what I read in the wiki, too, some devices ignore those settings. Apperently my device is one of those which is why I decided to switch the channel instead of changing the reg.
Actually, when setting regdom to DE I could see in dmesg that it get's updated to DE and then back reverted in an inifinite loop ^^
But what's *really* strange is that the Windows install seems to "force" regdom to be DE. Maybe the linux firmware is more restricted

As for the instability, probably the channel you chose gets more interference from other WLAN networks in your location than the one your router picked.

That's what I thought, too but there are (almost) no other devices around here, so I personally ruled that out. After all, it doesn't seem to happen often and can be solved after waiting 1min. If it happens too often I really need to look into it, but maybe hou are right that there are still too many networks interfering.

Soukyuu · 2015-03-03 22:44:40

LeonardK wrote:

Actually, when setting regdom to DE I could see in dmesg that it get's updated to DE and then back reverted in an inifinite loop ^^

Exactly, that's what was happening to me as well. You might want to read my old thread here and see what I did to avoid that.

But what's *really* strange is that the Windows install seems to "force" regdom to be DE. Maybe the linux firmware is more restricted

There seem to be two ways to set the regdom, one via the driver/firmware and one via the regdom ... thing on linux. On windows, it's up to the driver.

LeonardK · 2015-03-04 11:55:27

Soukyuu wrote:

LeonardK wrote:
Actually, when setting regdom to DE I could see in dmesg that it get's updated to DE and then back reverted in an inifinite loop ^^
Exactly, that's what was happening to me as well. You might want to read my old thread here and see what I did to avoid that.

Sadly I have a Broadcom device, so I need to find an equivalent to the tools you used, but maybe this solves it for me (Workaround install Broadcom STA)

There seem to be two ways to set the regdom, one via the driver/firmware and one via the regdom ... thing on linux. On windows, it's up to the driver.

I think it's just one (the kernel or the fw), but you can set it in different ways (ie. editing modprobe, crda package, etc.). The problem probably is that they keep overriding themselves ^^

LeonardK · 2015-03-26 17:02:07

Hm, (I know it's been some time ;-) ) the issue seems to be different to me now:
While for you the list of channels at first gave you 12,13 to be just 'disabled' they do not appear for me in any way (not even as disabled), which is kinda strange.

Additionally I did some more research and found this:
https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kerne … ree/db.txt
It correctly lists everything up to 2483.5MHz, which is even what I get in dmesg (2400000 KHz - 2483500 KHz @ 40000KHz), when crda sets the regulatory domain to DE.
However it doesn't seem to use it as a channel.
So the problem does not seem to be with crda etc. but with the driver not "creating" the appropriate channel for it?

Arch Linux

#1 2015-03-03 16:37:26

[SOLVED]Invisbile WiFi on specific device and OS

#2 2015-03-03 18:53:29

Re: [SOLVED]Invisbile WiFi on specific device and OS

#3 2015-03-03 19:23:55

Re: [SOLVED]Invisbile WiFi on specific device and OS

#4 2015-03-03 21:05:19

Re: [SOLVED]Invisbile WiFi on specific device and OS

#5 2015-03-03 22:06:20

Re: [SOLVED]Invisbile WiFi on specific device and OS

#6 2015-03-03 22:44:40

Re: [SOLVED]Invisbile WiFi on specific device and OS

#7 2015-03-04 11:55:27

Re: [SOLVED]Invisbile WiFi on specific device and OS

#8 2015-03-26 17:02:07

Re: [SOLVED]Invisbile WiFi on specific device and OS

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