Wireless device crash when wireless network is lost (ubuntu/gutsy on ThinkPad)
 

Dear linux people,
I am quite new here, so please be patient :)
I was using the wireless connection successfully for a while,
then had to move to a different location, while laptop is still on (but cover closed).
Of course the previous wireless network was lost, but also I could not reestablish a new connection (wireless device was not working at all).

I tried to set up a new manual connection and failed.
Then I could not restore the default settings (could not find a way).
even after restart it doesn't work

I am using a ThinkPad T61 with ubuntu/Gutsy:
Linux my-laptop 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Sun Oct 14 23:05:12 GMT 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

thanks in advance for any clue.
Dagan


attached a few relevant outputs:
let me know what other info is needed.

> lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 PCI Express Root Port (rev 0c)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82566MM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 03)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Contoller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HBM (ICH8M-E) LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Quadro NVS 140M (rev a1)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)
15:00.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ba)
15:00.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 04)

> sudo iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wifi0 no wireless extensions.

ath0 IEEE 802.11a ESSID:"myhovercraftisfullofeels" Nickname:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:5.54 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:0 kb/s Tx-Power:8 dBm Sensitivity=1/1
Retry:off RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=0/70 Signal level=-98 dBm Noise level=-98 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:41958 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

Basically, my experience on this is that you will have to reboot the machine completely. Putting it into standby is not a great idea when trying to operate in a wireless environment.

irishbitte - thanks for the reply.
I have done that (complete reboot), a few times, but it won't resolve the problem.

What I meant is that at my first attempt I didn't want to restart the computer, just because I needed to restart the wireless device.
I am sure you could do that without rebooting.

Anyway now I cannot have wireless running at all...

hmmm. try looking in

System -> Administration -> Network -> Unlock

Now click on Wireless Connection -> Properties

Check that the box for "Enable roaming mode" is ticked. If not, tick it.

Now close out of all that, and reboot your machine.

Let us know how you get on!

irishbitte,
I could not follow your instructions, since my system menus are different, and I could not find the "enable roaming" option in the wireless configuration menus.

Trying to view/set any configuration manually results in (for example):
Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1B) :
GET failed on device eth0 ; Operation not supported

BTW - I am using Ubuntu 7.10 with KDE 3.5.8

thanks...

Hmm. I don't use kubuntu or KDE. But you can find your network settings under 'knetwork manager' somewhere in the menus. Anyway, I had a quick hunt around, take a look at this:

http://www.computing.net/answers/lin...fig/29824.html particularly response number 4.

Also, this may help: http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/ubu...tu-7-10-a.html

This one had good pointers: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=749215

thanks again,
I have seen around the ndiswrapper solution, BUT since my wireless connections used to work, I would first try to re-enable the existing driver and interfaces, rather than replacing them.
If all that fails, I will try to follow that solution.

thanks for the pointers, actually I thought I've posted at the ubuntu forums, but apparently m post was not there :P