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#1 2007-10-23 21:22:07

Martyr
Member
From: Out there
Registered: 2006-10-04
Posts: 103
Website

RTL8187 & kernel 2.6.23 - connection problems

Kernel 2.6.23 has support for the RTL8187 wireless ethernet controller, and bringing wlan0 up works. However, issuing a simple

iwlist wlan0 scan

shows several AP's (my neighbours) - but only once in a while my own AP. Establishing a basic connection is nearly impossible. I wonder if this is a driver issue since the same setup on That Other OS (yes, Windows) yields an excellent transfer rate with no connection loss whatsoever.

Questions:
1) I know there are other Archers using this controller. What are your experiences?
2) Is ndiswrapper an option? And yes, how can I prevent the kernel from loading the RTL8187 module?

TIA!

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#2 2007-10-23 22:13:47

brebs
Member
Registered: 2007-04-03
Posts: 3,742

Re: RTL8187 & kernel 2.6.23 - connection problems

The kernel driver seems to have a problem with the transmission power. Move your Access Point nearer to your PC. That fixed it for me.

Yes, ndiswrapper is an option. Use "blacklist blah" in /etc/modprobe.conf

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#3 2007-10-25 16:11:44

daeron
Member
Registered: 2007-03-29
Posts: 13

Re: RTL8187 & kernel 2.6.23 - connection problems

I Have strange problems with the new driver too (worked perfectly with a compiled module on kernel 2.6.22) :

I added rtl8187 to the modules section in rc.conf. At boot, wlan0 times out.
I then did a :

ifconfig wlan0 up
&
/etc/rc.d/network restart

which seems to work perfectly ( dmesg | grep rtl8187 outputs something like that : usbcore: registered new interface driver rtl8187 , and "iwconfig" & "iwlist wlan0 scan" show me the networks, and the signal level is said to be excellent) but the connection seems to drop down 30 seconds later with no reason.
iwconfig still shows me the network and access-point, though... but impossible to use pacman or firefox. That really puzzles me.

Unfortunatly, I cannot move arround my access point (what's the point of having wireless if the modem is next to the computer then)

Has anybody got a great idea that could at least explain this situation ? Is rtl8187 the only module to add ? I've heard about mac80211 but I don't know what it has to do with it.

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#4 2007-11-13 19:45:01

daeron
Member
Registered: 2007-03-29
Posts: 13

Re: RTL8187 & kernel 2.6.23 - connection problems

Thanks for the information, Claudio !
I did a

iwconfig wlan0 rate 5.5M auto

to try out your advice and it seems for now that it is working (no problem using pacman or typing this message on the forum.
I'll see in the next few days if it solves it or not.

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#5 2007-11-14 21:59:03

XazZ
Member
From: Munich, Germany
Registered: 2006-12-30
Posts: 72

Re: RTL8187 & kernel 2.6.23 - connection problems

hi

It would be great if daeron or claudio could confirm this information
If you want you can leave a hint for other users on the wiki http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Rtl8187_wireless
I could do this for you too if you want wink

Thanks - and have a nice day
XazZ

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#6 2007-11-15 18:38:12

daeron
Member
Registered: 2007-03-29
Posts: 13

Re: RTL8187 & kernel 2.6.23 - connection problems

Hi to all,
After two days of testing, yes, I can say that my wi-fi connection is working & stable. But in a strange sort of way.

here is my part of my rc.conf :

MODULES=( cfg80211 mac80211 rtl8187 )
[...]
lo="lo 127.0.0.1"
wlan0="dhcp"
wlan_wlan0="wlan0 essid daeron key 00000xxxxx"

INTERFACES=(lo wlan0 )

So, here's what happens :
1) At boot, wlan0 times out.
2) Once logged in my session, I have to repeat these commands as root :

[root@nexus_2 daeron]# iwlist wlan0 scan
(Shows me the available networks and it looks like this command "wakes up" wlan0, because if I don't, it times out again at network restart)

[root@nexus_2 daeron]# /etc/rc.d/network restart
:: Stopping Network                                            [DONE]
:: Starting Network                                             [DONE]
[root@nexus_2 daeron]# iwconfig wlan0 rate 5.5M auto
(what Claudio suggested, to stabilise the bitrate)

and it works perfectly for me.
So, at least I keep going. now, if anybody has any idea what to do so that I don't have to reapeat this every time, I'll be glad to read and test it.

Cheers,
Daeron

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#7 2007-11-15 22:20:43

Martyr
Member
From: Out there
Registered: 2006-10-04
Posts: 103
Website

Re: RTL8187 & kernel 2.6.23 - connection problems

Could someone shed some light on this mac80211 rate controller thing? How does it relate to RTL8187?

@daeron: your modules line puzzles me. Do I need these for an ASUS M2N32-SLI deluxe board with an USB-interfaced RTL8187 onboard chip?

By the by, ndiswrapper did not solve the problem for me, if anyone was curious.

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#8 2007-11-15 22:28:17

XazZ
Member
From: Munich, Germany
Registered: 2006-12-30
Posts: 72

Re: RTL8187 & kernel 2.6.23 - connection problems

Martyr wrote:

Could someone shed some light on this mac80211 rate controller thing? How does it relate to RTL8187?

@daeron: your modules line puzzles me. Do I need these for an ASUS M2N32-SLI deluxe board with an USB-interfaced RTL8187 onboard chip?

As the rtl8187 driver uses the mac80211 stack - the 80211 stack will provide all functions to control the rate smile
I only load the module rtl8187 (with module autoloading enabled in my kernel config) -> works fine (I got an ASUS P5K Deluxe board)

@daeron: have you already tried to set up a network-profile for your network?
You could add the following line to your network-profile:
IWOPTS="mode managed essid $ESSID key restricted $KEY rate 5.5M auto"

XazZ

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