Wireless card slipping in and out of consciousness

cesura · 2011-07-21 04:55:20

I have a Cisco Aironet 350 PCI wireless card installed in my desktop, which runs kernel version 2.6.33, although I have tried this with many other kernels, including 3.0-rc7, and the problem persists. I can't use the kernel currently in the repos, because that doesn't seem to recognize the card at all.

Now, the actual problem:
My internet connection on my desktop has seemingly been alternating between on and off positions (not found errors in Chromium, can't ping anything), but in a short period of time; however, it seems to be happening at the kernel-level (maybe?), because dhcpcd is none the wiser. For example, I may notice my connection drop for around 10-15 seconds, only to have it return to normal, without any changes to dmesg (besides what I've included below of course). Repeat.

Speaking of dmesg, this is what I'm getting (not in its entirety, it's repetitive):

airo(eth0): link lost (missed beacons)                                                                                               
airo(eth0): link lost (local choice)                                                                                                 
airo(eth0): link lost (local choice)                                                                                                 
airo(eth0): link lost (missed beacons)                                                                                               
airo(eth0): link lost (local choice)                                                                                                 
airo(eth0): link lost (missed beacons)                                                                                               
airo(eth0): link lost (missed beacons)                                                                                               
airo(eth0): link lost (missed beacons)                                                                                               
airo(eth0): link lost (missed beacons)                                                                                               
airo(eth0): link lost (missed beacons)                                                                                               
airo(eth0): link lost (local choice)                                                                                                 
airo(eth0): link lost (missed beacons)                                                                                               
airo(eth0): link lost (missed beacons)                                                                                               
airo(eth0): link lost (missed beacons)                                                                                               
airo(eth0): link lost (missed beacons)

Looking at that, you can tell that I'm using the airo kernel driver, which I have tried compiling as a module and built into the kernel. Just for kicks, I popped in an Ubuntu 11.04 CD, and my wireless connectivity worked flawlessly. Oh, and it's not an issue on my router/ISP's side, because I have never had this problem using my laptop, which also runs Arch of course.

Can anyone point me in the right direction with this? It's extremely annoying and makes work near impossible, and I'd really rather not have to install Ubuntu until this gets sorted out.

Relevant lspci shtuff:

02:07.0 Network controller: AIRONET Wireless Communications PC4800 (rev 01)

cesura · 2011-07-23 01:02:18

I hate to be a bumper, but...

[insert lolcat here]

castlevaniahellraiser · 2011-07-23 20:17:04

Could you post the output of

iwconfig

cesura · 2011-07-24 17:05:11

Sure, here you are (I'm using eth0, but wifi0 looks to just be a copy):

lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      IEEE 802.11-DS  ESSID:"2WIRE167"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.422 GHz  Access Point: 00:1B:5B:11:75:D1   
          Bit Rate:11 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   Sensitivity=0/65535  
          Retry limit:16   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=63/100  Signal level=-64 dBm  Noise level=-78 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:1990  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:12745   Missed beacon:0

wifi0     IEEE 802.11-DS  ESSID:"2WIRE167"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.422 GHz  Access Point: 00:1B:5B:11:75:D1   
          Bit Rate:11 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   Sensitivity=0/65535  
          Retry limit:16   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=63/100  Signal level=-64 dBm  Noise level=-78 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:1990  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:12745   Missed beacon:0

eth1      no wireless extensions.

ewaller · 2011-07-24 17:15:38

Brad,

I like the anthropomorphism in the title

I've nothing definite, but does dhclient behave any differently ?
Have you looked at your router logs for any pearls of info?
Lastly, (I hate to admit this) I have found with Dlink and Netgear routers can cause this problem after enough uptime. Rebooting the router often "fixes" this problem.

Eric

cesura · 2011-07-24 17:48:37

Hey Eric, thanks for the response!

ewaller wrote:

I like the anthropomorphism in the title

Hehe, I'd like to think that I have at least some sort of clever wordplay stuck inside of me somewhere!

ewaller wrote:

I've nothing definite, but does dhclient behave any differently?

That's a great suggestion! Unfortunately, dhclient has never worked for me on any of my machines, and this is not an exception:

SIOCSIFADDR: Permission denied                                                                                                       
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Permission denied                                                                                                      
SIOCSIFFLAGS: Permission denied

ewaller wrote:

Have you looked at your router logs for any pearls of info?
Lastly, (I hate to admit this) I have found with Dlink and Netgear routers can cause this problem after enough uptime. Rebooting the router often "fixes" this problem.

Like I said, I've never encountered this issue on any of my other machines, wireless or wired, so I can't imagine it's an issue on my router's side. It did just recently get some downtime due to storm power outages here, but I couldn't find anything substantial while poking around.

I appreciate the suggestions though, thanks!

Last edited by cesura (2011-07-24 17:48:57)

ewaller · 2011-07-24 17:52:48

Sorry I've nothing more. Stay cool up there; the temperatures about which I've been reading are insane -- 105F / 95% Yikes.

To rub it in, here in sunny Southern California it is 72F / 55%

cesura · 2011-07-24 18:07:28

ewaller wrote:

Sorry I've nothing more. Stay cool up there; the temperatures about which I've been reading are insane -- 105F / 95% Yikes.

No worries, I'm about as stumped as you. I'll sure try to, hopefully this heat wave'll pass soon, makes work outside near-impossible. It's actually fairly nice today, overcast, 78F/78%. It's really quite sad that my definition of "nice" weather has come to this.

ewaller wrote:

To rub it in, here in sunny Southern California it is 72F / 55%

*buys plane ticket*

MoonSwan · 2011-07-24 18:14:32

Try the reboot trick. I agree with Ewaller that Dlink routers (in particular) seem to need a reboot every 1 to 3 months (depending on model IME). That reboot has saved me many times from tearing my pink hair out.

Check if Ubuntu does anything special to get the card to work, IE do they blacklist something by default or have something modprobed at the bootup stage or special scripts perhaps in /etc/init.d or /etc/network ?

That is where I'd start looking because I've had to do that on a few occaisions with recalcitrant hardware.

P.S. From a pro writer, your title definitely caught my attention, well done!

castlevaniahellraiser · 2011-07-24 20:46:02

Try running dhclient as root, or you may need to add your user to a certain group.

cesura · 2011-07-26 04:56:08

MoonSwan wrote:

Try the reboot trick. I agree with Ewaller that Dlink routers (in particular) seem to need a reboot every 1 to 3 months (depending on model IME). That reboot has saved me many times from tearing my pink hair out.
Check if Ubuntu does anything special to get the card to work, IE do they blacklist something by default or have something modprobed at the bootup stage or special scripts perhaps in /etc/init.d or /etc/network ?
That is where I'd start looking because I've had to do that on a few occaisions with recalcitrant hardware.
P.S. From a pro writer, your title definitely caught my attention, well done!

I did just recently try rebooting my router, and I can't tell whether or not the decline in networking issues is due to that, but hey, maybe it worked, thanks! I'm still getting the dmesg errors, but I'm not completely dropping my connection now, at least not very often. *crosses fingers*

It may be the airo driver, because it turns out my laptop has a Cisco card in it as well, and I've been getting those dmesg errors all along (they were just inconsequential). I am upgrading my internet subscription soon, and'll probably get a new router, so I suppose I'll post back with an update when I get to that point.

Also: thanks! I've never really thought of myself as one to excel in creative marketing, but hey, a few more years of this and I'm ready to be a politician.

castlevaniahellraiser wrote:

Try running dhclient as root, or you may need to add your user to a certain group.

I'm not aware of dhclient requiring a group, but I always run that kind of stuff as root anyway, so groups shouldn't be of concern.

Last edited by cesura (2011-07-26 04:57:39)

Arch Linux

#1 2011-07-21 04:55:20

Wireless card slipping in and out of consciousness

#2 2011-07-23 01:02:18

Re: Wireless card slipping in and out of consciousness

#3 2011-07-23 20:17:04

Re: Wireless card slipping in and out of consciousness

#4 2011-07-24 17:05:11

Re: Wireless card slipping in and out of consciousness

#5 2011-07-24 17:15:38

Re: Wireless card slipping in and out of consciousness

#6 2011-07-24 17:48:37

Re: Wireless card slipping in and out of consciousness

#7 2011-07-24 17:52:48

Re: Wireless card slipping in and out of consciousness

#8 2011-07-24 18:07:28

Re: Wireless card slipping in and out of consciousness

#9 2011-07-24 18:14:32

Re: Wireless card slipping in and out of consciousness

#10 2011-07-24 20:46:02

Re: Wireless card slipping in and out of consciousness

#11 2011-07-26 04:56:08

Re: Wireless card slipping in and out of consciousness

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