Arch Linux

JulesJacobs

Member

Registered: 2006-08-16

Posts: 29

Wireless only works on third connect

When I start my laptop wireless doesn't work. When I reconnect with /etc/rc.d/network restart it doesn't work either. BUT when I try again it works! (every time) I'm using a BCM4306.

What's the problem and how can I solve it? I don't know much about this, please ask if you need more information.

Thanks!

ybotspawn

Member

From: Oz

Registered: 2008-04-06

Posts: 140

Re: Wireless only works on third connect

are you loading the bcm module at boot.  Call me crazy but that seemed to fix my problem

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"As long as people are going to call you a lunatic anyway,
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JulesJacobs

Member

Registered: 2006-08-16

Posts: 29

Re: Wireless only works on third connect

Thank you.

Yes I am loading the bcm module, my MODULES contains bcm43xx. Did you have the same problem?

Any help is very much appreciated.

ybotspawn

Member

From: Oz

Registered: 2008-04-06

Posts: 140

Re: Wireless only works on third connect

im using the bcm4310 driver, using ndiswrapper.  in order to get it to work i had to load it at boot time, but it doesn't sound like thats your problem.  What are you trying three times to get it working?  ifconfig wlan0 up/down?  Can you show us?  also whats in your rc.conf file?  what modules are being loaded and how do you have the wlan configured.  another problem i have/had is eth0 is set to come up as well and it interferes with my connection as all the web applications try to use eth0 to connect (which isnt connected) instead of wlan0.  A little more information would be useful.

Matt

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"As long as people are going to call you a lunatic anyway,
why not get the benefit of it? It liberates you from convention. "

JulesJacobs

Member

Registered: 2006-08-16

Posts: 29

Re: Wireless only works on third connect

I'm trying /etc/rc.d/network restart. Twice myself (so it works the second time), but I think this happens on startup too when it says "starting network"? On startup when "starting network" it waits ~20 secs then it says "timed out":

err, eth1: timed out
warn, eth1: using IPV4LL address 169.254.51.206

I get the same output when running "sudo /etc/rc.d/network restart" for the first time. The second time I get [done], and it works.

Modules list:

MODULES=(powernow-k8 cpufreq_conservative 8139cp 8139too mii bcm43xx ac97_bus snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm-oss snd-page-alloc snd-pcm snd-timer snd snd-ac97-codec snd-intel8x0 snd-intel8x0m soundcore)

As you can see I have bcm43xx in this list. Is that good?

In rc.conf:

eth1="dhcp"
wlan_eth1="eth1 essid SMC"
WLAN_INTERFACES=(eth1)
INTERFACES=(lo eth1)

I don't understand how this works. The name eth1 seems to be significant, because if I use eth0 or wlan0 instead of eth1 here it doesn't work. Could you explain why the name is important? Does it have to match with the output of iwconfig (I pasted the output of iwconfig below)?

iwconfig output:

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

eth1      IEEE 802.11b/g  ESSID:"SMC"  Nickname:"Broadcom 4306"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency=2.437 GHz  Access Point: 00:04:E2:F8:6F:47   
          Bit Rate=24 Mb/s   Tx-Power=13 dBm   
          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Link Quality=86/100  Signal level=-45 dBm  Noise level=-70 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

ifconfig output (don't know if this is useful, just in case...):

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:13:D4:66:E7:3E  
          inet addr:192.168.2.101  Bcast:192.168.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:18314 errors:0 dropped:10 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:10775 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:26031839 (24.8 Mb)  TX bytes:712995 (696.2 Kb)
          Interrupt:11 Base address:0x8000

Thank you for your help. Is this all the information you need?

Last edited by JulesJacobs (2008-04-08 09:56:12)

ybotspawn

Member

From: Oz

Registered: 2008-04-06

Posts: 140

Re: Wireless only works on third connect

Hey Jules-

Do youo have rc.conf calling eth0 at all, it doesn't look like ti but to be sure you may want to check that.  I'll check when I get back to my computer but I don't think i needed any of this:

eth1="dhcp"
wlan_eth1="eth1 essid SMC"
WLAN_INTERFACES=(eth1)

And I can't possibly see, please someone correct me if I am wrong, how wlan_eth1 is even being recognized properly.  What about removing that, leaving eth1="dhcp" and "INTERFACES=(lo eth1) try running this after boot...

iwconfig eth1 essid SMC
dhcpcd eth1

Does that connect on the first time?  Display output?

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"As long as people are going to call you a lunatic anyway,
why not get the benefit of it? It liberates you from convention. "

ibendiben

Member

Registered: 2007-10-10

Posts: 519

Re: Wireless only works on third connect

And I can't possibly see, please someone correct me if I am wrong, how wlan_eth1 is even being recognized properly.

This is known as Phrakture's trick, it is removed from the wiki recently, in some translations you still find it though:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dra … nfiguratie

Using the Archlinux Wireless Network settings
    * phrakture's trick
          o My personal trick isn't much of a trick at all, it just simplifies alot of the process. While /etc/conf.d/wireless is sourced (included) in the network script, it is not a requirement for having a wireless interface. Therefore, the actual settings for the wireless interface can exist in anything sourced by the network script. For that reason, I put all my settings in /etc/rc.conf:

# /etc/rc.conf
eth0="dhcp"
wlan0="dhcp"
wlan_wlan0="wlan0 essid MyEssid"
#wlan_wlan0="wlan0 essid MyEssid key 12345678"
#wlan_wlan0="wlan0 essid MyEssid key s:wirelesspassword"
INTERFACES=(lo eth0 wlan0)

If your wireless card is eth0 so you change wlan_wlan0 in wlan_eth0="eth0 essid ...."

It should still apply, I think.

/edit: typo

Last edited by ibendiben (2008-04-08 14:39:34)

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ybotspawn

Member

From: Oz

Registered: 2008-04-06

Posts: 140

Re: Wireless only works on third connect

I stand corrected... thanks for the info!

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"As long as people are going to call you a lunatic anyway,
why not get the benefit of it? It liberates you from convention. "

JulesJacobs

Member

Registered: 2006-08-16

Posts: 29

Re: Wireless only works on third connect

Thanks guys, you solved my problem! I tried the bcm43 driver, but this didn't work. So I thought that I'd better try to get it working with bcm43xx first (because this worked at least partially, the third time). You made me read the wiki again, and I realised that I mistyped bcm43, it should be b43! The network works with this new driver. Thanks for your help.

tizoc

Member

Registered: 2006-07-28

Posts: 57

Re: Wireless only works on third connect

I'm having the same problem (it only works on third connect), I use the ath_pci driver (it is a core 2 macbook and the net device is an Athereos AR5418). The first two times I try to connect I get a timeout for ath0.

JulesJacobs

Member

Registered: 2006-08-16

Posts: 29

Re: Wireless only works on third connect

Updating the driver fixed it for me, maybe there's a new (or other) driver available for your card?