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Bad wireless troubles, desktop machine running Ubuntu 9.04
Hello, everybody. I'm having some real problems with my USB wireless adapter in Ubuntu 9.04 (kernel 2.6.28-14-generic), although I'm not surprised, after hearing about people with other problems regarding Linux wireless support.
What's happening is this: I'll go to connect to my wireless network (which is WPA2 encrypted, btw), and it'll seem like it's connecting, but it takes a while for it do do so. However, when I pull up a terminal to do some pinging to see if I've got a connection, 95% of the time it returns "Destination Host Unreachable" wherever I try to ping (even the router itself) It'll keep this up for a good while (anywhere from 10-15 minutes to an hour or more) before it'll finally connect successfully. I really don't understand what's going on with this. I've got it set to connect using manual configs, so I know it's not DHCP, since I'm not even using it. I've got the correct DNS server IPs put in, because when it does finally get a successful connection, I can get online. I have a Terminal running in the background (on a separate virtual desktop, minimized) doing constant pings to the router to ensure that it doesn't drop the connection, and that seems to do fine. My system info: Dell Dimension 4600 Intel® Pentium 4 2.66GHz 1.5GB RAM 3 HDDs: 1 Maxtor internal drive (40GB), 1 Maxtor OneTouch USB external drive (160GB), and 1 Western Digital SATA internal drive (320GB) OSes: MS Windows XP (on Maxtor internal drive) and Ubuntu 9.04 (on Western Digital SATA internal drive) Video adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 7300GT AGP 512MB VRAM Network adapter: NetGear WN111v1 USB adapter. I'm using the Windows drivers with ndiswrapper for the NetGear adapter. So far, this is the only problem I have with Linux. The video drivers work great (I've got Compiz enabled and everything), and all the programs I've used so far haven't really had a hitch, except for NetworkManager so far. I apologize if I'm being a bit too verbose; I'm just trying as best I can to clarify exactly what my problem is. Yes, I've tried the Ubuntu forums, but no one there seems to be able to help me (apparently what's going on here is some deep Linux voodoo ;)). So, if anyone can offer some decent advice, it would be much appreciated. |
bump...Does this mean that no one is able to help out? Or is it because I posted in the wrong forum?
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The fact that it eventually connects and then stays connected would seem to indicate that you have done well configuring the thing.
After all, if the configuration were the problem, it would NEVER work. I'm assuming that you have no such difficulties in Windows, or you'd've mentioned that, given your self-professed verbosity. I apologize in that I am by no means an expert when it comes to wireless networking under Linux. However, my wife's laptop is also a Pentium 4, also using wireless, also running Linux (Slackware not Ubuntu, but the kernel (which is all that matters) is almost identical.) with the only difference being that her wireless card is PCMCIA, and not USB. I wonder if IRQ sharing isn't playing a role in this issue? Are there any other USB devices in use on your machine? The WN111 RangeMax is not listed in the HCL, but apparently it is at least partially supported. Do you know what module is being used as the driver? If not post the output of lsmod and we should be able to tell. The other consideration is the classic wireless LAN crap that you have doubtlessly already considered . . . does moving the computer around help . . . move the AP, etc. |
Few things to try:
Check signal strength on both sides (AP and NetGear). If it is too weak getting connected may be problematic. Check dmesg whether it is really getting your card recognized and not trying to use any kernel module instead before activating ndiswrapper |
@foodown:
I have 3 devices (one is composite) plugged into USB ports on the back. 1) the external HDD, 2) the network adapter, and 3) the keyboard/mouse (which are wireless, and the USB slot is taken by the reciever, thereby making it a composite device...?). They all seem to work fine under Linux except for the network adapter. I Wiki'd IRQ, and it seems to me that if it's a problem with interrupts, then I guess ndiswrapper is to blame? Also, another thing is that there are 3 of us in this house, and 1 needs to use a VPN for his work activities. I can never seem to connect while he's on the VPN. Maybe it's something to do with connection sharing? and @shpenat: I'm pretty sure that the router is within signal range. It's only 2 floors below me (maybe about 10-15 ft.) |
One other thing: I did a
Code:
lsmod | grep "ndiswrapper"Code:
ndiswrapper 193436 0 |
The 0 just means that no other modules are using it.
Could you please post the full output of lsmod, lsusb, and dmesg? |
Here's the output:
lsmod: Code:
Module Size Used byCode:
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0d49:7212 Maxtor As a note, I've updated my kernel since my first post, I'm now with 2.6.28-15. Same wireless behavior, though. |
Sorry about the bump, but otherwise I don't think this post would be noticed...
I had the .inf and .sys files that ndiswrapper uses for the wireless adapter on my external drive, and I just tried moving them to my Linux drive (/etc to be precise) and I re-installed them, and the connection went up almost immediately after I attempted re-connecting! Now, I don't know if this is a permanent fix, but it'll do for now, at least. Maybe this is the "IRQ sharing bug" you were talking about (seeing as how the drive I was keeping the driver files on is USB)...I don't know. But if it is, then this might be a permanent fix. I'll see how it goes tomorrow when I try to get online, and if things are still going wrong, I'll post about it. Thanks for the advice, guys! |
Well, I think I've blown the VPN theory out the window, because I've got a connection even while the VPN is active. I still have a significant delay in gaining Internet access, though; I guess IRQ sharing had nothing to do with it. :( If anyone has any other theories, please post them. I personally think it has to do with ndiswrapper, but I'm not entirely sure, and I don't know how to research into the problem. (ndiswrapper is FOSS, right? Maybe looking into the source would help? Although I don't really know anything about programming for network interfaces, I do have a little C/C++ experience. If I find that the important part is in ASM, then I'll be disappointed, let's just say that.)
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Thanks for the tip. I'll see if using an older (or newer?) driver makes a difference. One thing I also noticed, though: I looked at /etc/network/interfaces, and it looks like there are only lines for lo and I think eth0, but nothing for wlan0. Maybe that's where the problem is? If so, would adding "iface wlan0 inet manual" help? Or is it something else? I don't know the syntax of this config file...
I suppose I've got some learning to do...if I don't know the syntax of the config files (except maybe xorg.conf, which looks somewhat like C or structured BASIC), then I guess I can't really look into problems like this efficiently. To be honest, I'm surprised no one has posted anything regarding "homework questions" yet, LOL. But anyways, I'll try changing driver versions first and see how that goes. EDIT: Here are some screenshots to clarify what's going on: When I go to connect (after waiting for 10-15 seconds) The (false) connection always drops after a little while Just FYI, the load indicators are, from left to right, CPU, Network, Disk. that's why the middle one is circled. |
Well, I tried both. I can't seem to find any newer (or older) versions of the drivers for the network card. The worst part is that even if I did, it would require me to install them on the Windows drive first; All NetGear device drivers come in a "handy" self-extracting .exe. AARGH!! You can't even use Archive Manager to extract them (it's not a WinZip self-extracting .exe or PKUNZIP or anything like that, it's a full-on Windows InstallShield thing or whatever).
I do have a D-Link DWA-130, but that's proven to be more of a hassle than the NetGear. I found Linux drivers, but I can't get them to install properly. They're distributed in source form, and so you have to compile them with make. It always crashes at the "make install" step for me. ndiswrapper drivers don't work at all. Also, I tried editing /etc/network/interfaces, but to no avail. Now, even though I put things back to the way they were, it seems to only be able to detect my wireless network, and I can never seem to connect to it (haven't gotten anything the whole day, just more bogus connections and "Destination Host Unreachable"). Any ideas? I can post the output of the (failing) D-Link driver install if you want... I suppose if all else fails I can reformat the Linux drive and install a different distro on it (e.g. Debian, Fedora, Slackware (that one seems to be popular among the LQ crowd)) and see if it's any "friendlier" towards maybe the D-Link adapter. I mainly chose Ubuntu for its "user-friendliness". I suppose I could learn to man-up a little and get a little bit more mature distro... Which one do you guys recommend? |
Please? Any distro recommendations or advice w/ the D-Linux adapter?
Here's the output of make (which now seems to be failing before I ever get to "make install"): Code:
make -C tools |
Quote:
Code:
rt_main_dev.c:788: error: ‘struct net_device’ has no member named ‘nd_net’I don't, however, recommend trying to rewrite it. :) Which revision in your D-Link? (A, B, or C) I will d/l the source and see if I can build it. If so, I can post the steps that worked for me. (Assuming that the source is not completely broken.) That, or, you can post a link to the actual source archive and I can just go from there. Just curious, but why do you invoke "make -C tools" and not "./configure; make; make install"? Is that what it says to do in a README file or something? |
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