SlackwareThis Forum is for the discussion of Slackware Linux.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
I'm running Slack 12 on a Thinkpad T60 and my wireless has stopped connecting to my wireless network at home. I'm using wicd for network management and it was working up until yesterday. I don't know what to do to track down the problem, so I'm looking for advice to do so.
Other wireless devices in the house can still connect, so I don't believe my router is the problem.
well, finding out what the problem is:
which encryption does your wireless network have?
are you using wpa_supplicant?
which wlan-card does the laptop have?
is the module loaded?
which output do you get with "iwconfig" and which output with "ifconfig"?
If you try these commands please post any errormessages.
ifconfig eth1 up (It depends which is the name of your wireless device) Try "ifconfig" to
see the name of your wireless device. If the name is wlan0, than try
iwlist wlan0 scan
for scanning your wireless network. And write how output do you get.
well, finding out what the problem is:
which encryption does your wireless network have?
are you using wpa_supplicant?
which wlan-card does the laptop have?
is the module loaded?
which output do you get with "iwconfig" and which output with "ifconfig"?
If you try these commands please post any errormessages.
Markus
OK. Just to be clear, everything was working fine earlier this week. The wireless card has an Atheros chipset.
Code:
$ dmesg | grep -i ath
md: multipath personality registered for level -4
ath9k: 0.1
ath9k 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
ath9k 0000:03:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'ath9k_rate_control'
phy0: Atheros 5416: mem=0xf9200000, irq=17
I am using WEP encryption. Tonight when I booted, it connected, but after a couple seconds, it stopped routing me. Here is output from the other commends.
Code:
# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
irda0 no wireless extensions.
wmaster0 no wireless extensions.
wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"MyESSID"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.442 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Tx-Power=23 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
BTW, this was run when connected on my eth0 (wired port).
For how long do you stay connected if you do the following?
Code:
# /etc/rc.d/rc.wicd stop
# ifconfig wlan0 up
# iwconfig essid <your_router_ssid> enc s:<your_router_wep_key> ap <your_router_mac-address>
# dhcpcd wlan0
The iwconfig line is the one that will configure your wlan0 card to get access from your router; those parameters can be obtained in a "# iwlist wlan0 scan". The "dhcpcd wlan0" line is supposing you have a dynamic-IP assinged by the router.
I'm asking this because at work I have 3 routers for wireless connection and none of them is very fond of wicd (don't know why), so the above procedure does the job to get me connected to the internet. I've also noticed that wpa_supplicant is not very stable (in terms of connection) when we're talking about WEP keys, but can't say if this is for sure - it's just my experience.
Last edited by rfernandez; 11-26-2010 at 11:05 PM.
what looks odd to me is that according to the output of iwconfig you're not associated to the accesspoint, but ifconfig shows a proper IP-configuration.
Are you using DHCP?
Quote:
...BTW, this was run when connected on my eth0 (wired port)...
you mean iwconfig? otherwise it would be much more odd.
I've found some threads here at the forums where people had problems with wicd or (more exactly) had problems with their wireless connection when using wicd (which doesn't say that wicd is the problem). I'd suggest to uninstall wicd and try to establish a connection with only wpa_supplicant (which for me at least with Slackware always worked).
One can run wpa_supplicant with the following command:
(for an explanation you may look at the manpage of wpa_supplicant) this will (if it works) establish the authentication at the accesspoint. Afterwards (if using DHCP) you may use
Code:
dhcpcd wlan0
in order to get an IP-configuration.
If it doesn't work you may try to get it working without wpa_supplicant but with wicd. As far as I know one wicd is able to connect via WEP without wpa_supplicant.
markush, I originally ran iwconfig when not connected on the wireless. I tried the commands suggested by rfernandez which also gets a "correct" iwconfig. I was able to authenticate on my router and get an IP, but I could not route to anywhere, including the router itself.
Here is the output from iwconfig (appropriately sanitized) and ifconfig after manually connecting.
Code:
# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
wmaster0 no wireless extensions.
wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"MyESSID"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.442 GHz Access Point: <MAC addr present>
Bit Rate=1 Mb/s Tx-Power=23 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Encryption key:5861-7269-614C-6569-6768-3731-37 Security mode:open
Power Management:off
Link Quality=81/100 Signal level:-43 dBm Noise level=-95 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
irda0 no wireless extensions.
# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1a:6b:35:04:00
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:975 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:749 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:905418 (884.1 KiB) TX bytes:63836 (62.3 KiB)
Memory:ee000000-ee020000
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:19:7e:40:e8:7e
inet addr:192.168.1.193 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::219:7eff:fe40:e87e/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST NOTRAILERS RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:77 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:40 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:13132 (12.8 KiB) TX bytes:9976 (9.7 KiB)
wmaster0 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-19-7E-40-E8-7E-77-6C-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
I will try an try the wpa_supplicant approach later. It will take some time to figure it out, but right now, I need to get the kids (and myself) some breakfast.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.
