wifi instability with ipw2200

manouchk · 2011-08-25 02:41:19

Hi,

Lately, the wifi became relatively instable. From time to time the connection stops working and I have to reconnect manually. I use netcfg and the card is ipw2200, WPA or WPA2 connections. Someone observed this kind of problem?

I found that wicd-daemon.py was running fter upgrade for some reason, can that be the problem? (Don't know were to remove wicd at boot!)

Last edited by manouchk (2011-08-25 12:27:15)

bernarcher · 2011-08-25 05:25:15

Not exactly a laptop problem.
Moved to Networking.

Gusar · 2011-08-25 10:37:15

I read somewhere that downgrading ipw2200-fw to 3.0 helps.

manouchk · 2011-08-31 01:34:11

You are right. I found this problem here in a gentoo forum. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-81 … art-0.html

It looks like it could be a problem during re-keying...

I'm trying this downgrade now, let's remember how to downgrade!

Edit: how old is ipw2200-3.0? I couldn't find verson prior to 3.1! I reached november 2009.

Infact, I'm now correlating this problem with some messages..

I'm seeing strange messages when running netcfg in order to connect:

[BUSY] nl80211: Driver does not support authentication/association or connect commands

Here is what I observe when wifi got down (IP is lost).

Aug 30 19:12:32 localhost dhcpcd[23911]: wlan0: carrier lost
Aug 30 19:12:32 localhost dhcpcd[23911]: wlan0: carrier acquired
Aug 30 19:12:32 localhost dhcpcd[23911]: wlan0: rebinding lease of 192.168.0.13
Aug 30 19:12:33 localhost dhcpcd[23911]: wlan0: carrier lost
Aug 30 19:12:35 localhost dhcpcd[29717]: sending signal 1 to pid 23911
Aug 30 19:12:35 localhost dhcpcd[23911]: received SIGHUP, releasing
Aug 30 19:12:35 localhost dhcpcd[23911]: wlan0: removing interface
Aug 30 19:12:35 localhost dhcpcd[29717]: waiting for pid 23911 to exit
Aug 30 19:12:36 localhost kernel: [14423.212199] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
Aug 30 19:12:40 localhost kernel: [14428.047858] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
Aug 30 19:19:19 localhost kernel: [14826.799488] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
Aug 30 19:19:23 localhost kernel: [14830.861821] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
Aug 30 19:19:26 localhost kernel: [14833.524866] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
Aug 30 19:19:28 localhost dhcpcd[30599]: version 5.2.12 starting
Aug 30 19:19:28 localhost dhcpcd[30599]: wlan0: rebinding lease of 192.168.0.13
Aug 30 19:19:29 localhost dhcpcd[30599]: wlan0: acknowledged 192.168.0.13 from 192.168.0.1
Aug 30 19:19:30 localhost dhcpcd[30599]: wlan0: checking for 192.168.0.13
Aug 30 19:19:34 localhost dhcpcd[30599]: wlan0: leased 192.168.0.13 for 604800 seconds
Aug 30 19:19:34 localhost dhcpcd[30599]: forked to background, child pid 30631

Last edited by manouchk (2011-08-31 01:56:55)

caminoix · 2011-08-31 21:13:52

I'm not sure that the two problems are connected but you might want to take a look at this thread.

NOTE: the solution there (iwconfig wlan0 power off) turned out to only work for a moment. My network still keeps disconnecting now, only I just gave up reopening that thread.

Gusar · 2011-08-31 22:16:36

manouchk wrote:

how old is ipw2200-3.0? I couldn't find verson prior to 3.1! I reached november 2009.

I just checked where the Gentoo ebuild fetches it from, it works: http://www.bughost.org/firmware/ipw2200-fw-3.0.tgz

manouchk wrote:

Infact, I'm now correlating this problem with some messages..
I'm seeing strange messages when running netcfg in order to connect:
[BUSY] nl80211: Driver does not support authentication/association or connect commands 

The ipw200 driver uses wext and not netlink, so the message is not relevant. Hmm, unless it's been upgraded recently, but only partially. Try with using this in your netcfg profile:

WPA_DRIVER="wext"

kayalar · 2011-09-05 09:07:39

Hi,
did anyone find a solution to this problem? I've started to experience exactly the same on my Amilo Pro laptop after a very delayed update of Arch.
The problem I am experiencing is that the wireless network connection randomly disconnects. The only way to get it back is to poweroff, wait a few seconds then power back on - a soft reboot doesn't always work.
The error messages I'm getting are:-
"nl80211 driver does not support authentication/association or connect commands" and
"ipw2200 failed to send SYSTEM_CONFIG: Already sending a command" followed by
"ipw2200 failed to send ASSOCIATE: Already sending a command"

I'm using ipw2200-fw 3.1-3 for the Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG wireless network.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
nigel

kayalar · 2011-09-06 06:46:52

Update to my previous post:-

I've put WPA_DRIVER="wext" in the wireless profile file and this has stopped the first two error messages above, BUT the intermittent failure of the link is continuing !
When it fails, I am getting the message "pw2200 failed to send ASSOCIATE: Already sending a command"

Anyone have any ideas ?
Nigel

davidgurvich · 2011-09-06 14:23:25

Are you having the problem at only one location or everywhere? These sorts of problems could easily be due to a flaky router.

kayalar · 2011-09-06 16:53:25

Hi David,
The problem is only happening at one location - but I'll try moving the laptop closer to the router just to check that out.
Thanks for the comment,
Nigel

manouchk · 2011-09-07 15:09:06

As caminoix said I think it may be a power management related problem. It looks like the ultimate tendency in powermanagement default settings is to save energy but it leads to some kind of problem like this one and annoying mouse freezing... I tried

iwconfig wlan0 power off

right know and I'm testing in order to see if it improve things!

I'm betting it is linked with new kernel. Is this happeinig only on kernel 3.x ? (My case)

ps: I think my wifi router is a bit flaky but I have 5 computers on this network and the archlinux box is the only one showing this problem. No problem for example with my android phone. I could also try a ubuntu live cd an the same box.

Last edited by manouchk (2011-09-07 15:12:22)

davidgurvich · 2011-09-07 17:28:36

If the problem only occurs at your location and works elsewhere then your router is likely to be the problem. Are all the other devices using the router at the same time? See if you can duplicate the issue by disconnecting the other devices.

kayalar · 2011-09-08 09:54:10

Hi manouchk and davidgurvich,
I've tried moving the laptop closer to the router but the problem still persists.

I'm now running a test, after doing "iwconfig wlan0 power off" and will let you know how it goes - fingers crossed that's going to be the answer!
And, yes, the problem only appeared after I upgraded to kernel version 3 recently.

Thanks
Nigel

kayalar · 2011-09-08 19:06:30

Well - it's looking good after 10 hours - not a single loss of connection!
Will leave it running overnight to see how it fares.
Thanks folks,
Nigel

Arch Linux

#1 2011-08-25 02:41:19

wifi instability with ipw2200

#2 2011-08-25 05:25:15

Re: wifi instability with ipw2200

#3 2011-08-25 10:37:15

Re: wifi instability with ipw2200

#4 2011-08-31 01:34:11

Re: wifi instability with ipw2200

#5 2011-08-31 21:13:52

Re: wifi instability with ipw2200

#6 2011-08-31 22:16:36

Re: wifi instability with ipw2200

#7 2011-09-05 09:07:39

Re: wifi instability with ipw2200

#8 2011-09-06 06:46:52

Re: wifi instability with ipw2200

#9 2011-09-06 14:23:25

Re: wifi instability with ipw2200

#10 2011-09-06 16:53:25

Re: wifi instability with ipw2200

#11 2011-09-07 15:09:06

Re: wifi instability with ipw2200

#12 2011-09-07 17:28:36

Re: wifi instability with ipw2200

#13 2011-09-08 09:54:10

Re: wifi instability with ipw2200

#14 2011-09-08 19:06:30

Re: wifi instability with ipw2200

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